I was about to break into tears. Shit happens. Thank you for your account :-) C.
2005/12/21, Serge VIDAL <serge.vi...@sagem.com>: > I know it's not Friday, but all this oil leak talk made me feel like I > should share that painful memory with you, guys! > > A few years ago, in South Africa, I was busy upgrading the instrument > panel of my taildragger KR2. Obviously, the aircraft was grounded for a > while, so it was a good time to do some engine maintenance too. Then, one > day, I finished the new instrument panel, and felt like fitting it > quickly, so that I could resume the fun part: FLYING! . So, after work, I > drove directly to the hangar, installed the new instrument panel, > reconnected all the wires and lines, and prepared the freshly serviced > engine for a run-up. > > At about 8 PM, I asked Andrew, the Black guy who kept the hangar to open > the doors. I pushed the aircraft outside, and got ready for the engine > run-up. Obviously, I did not bother to put the engine cowling back. > Wheels chocked, tail tied town; I swinged the prop, and sat happily in the > cockpit... until Andrew signalled that something was wrong. I shut the > engine, and asked "What's wrong?". Andrew answered: "Eeesssh! Baas, the > oil, she is too much!". And indeed, there was a very large oil pool under > the engine, exactly as he said! > > So, I learnt my first lesson of the night: do not, ever, forget the seals > when you put the tappet covers back, otherwise you are going for a serious > oil mess! > > A few minutes later, tappet covers seals duly in place, all evidence of > the blunder wiped clean, I made a second start, sat in the cockpit, and > happily revved the engine, when suddenly, I got the disturbing feelng that > my pants were wet. A glance down confirmed the impression: my pants were > soaked with engine oil! > > That's how Iearnt my second lesson of the night: when installing the > instrument panel, never, ever, forget to reconnect the oil line of the oil > pressure gauge, otherwise you are going for a VERY serious oil mess! > > Oh, well! Now, my heart was filled with anger, so I smartly channelled > that anger towards the one-and-only culprit: the MECHANICAL oil gauge! > What a stupid idea, anyway, to run a high pressure, high temperature oil > line inside a cockpit! What would happen if the line burst in flight, eh? > Who wants to get an engine failure and a pair of burnt legs to boot? > > Incidentally, a few days ago,I had bought an electrical oil pressure > gauge, which I intended to mount some day. Well, let's say that's the day. > I am not going to ever start that engine again with that sillly mechanical > oil gauge! > > So, I rushed home, took the electrical gauge, informed my wife that she > was in for a lonely evening, and rushed back to the airfield. By the time > I was back, Andrew had wiped any evidence of my second blunder clean. How > nice of him! > > Installing that electric gauge took nearly two hours of hard work. You > see, my engine has fancy baffles, made of mild steel, which had to be > reshaped to fit the sender, so a lot of drilling and grinding was > required. But a couple hours later, I was ready for my third engine > run-up, this time with an electrical oil sender in place. With such a safe > and reliable solution now fitted, nothing else could go wrong, right? > > Well, not quite. This time, it took a few minutes before Andrew gave me > the dreaded signal again. Oh, no! ANOTHER oil mess! Sprayed all over the > engine! > > A short investigation led to the third lesson of the night: when drilling > and grinding in the oil sender area, make sure you don't nick the oil > cooler, even slightly, because the darn thing is VERY fragile and any tiny > nick may result in a high pressure oil leak!, which in turn will give you > a VERY BAD oil mess! > > That last blunder was the most costly, because, you see, VW Type 4 oil > coolers are expensive, and also hard to find. But at least, I did not have > to tell them at the shop why exactly I needed one! > > > Serge Vidal > KR2 "Kilimanjaro Cloud" > Paris, France > _______________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp > to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html > -- Il fatto che un'opinione sia ampiamente condivisa, non è affatto una prova che non sia completamente assurda. (Bertrand Russell)
