> My engine ran today for the first time since last Thanksgiving day. If you > remember, I disassembled my engine in order to install a nitrided > crankshaft. It sure is a good feeling to have it running again. Here is a > link to show that "the proof is in the pudding". > http://www.flykr2s.com/photo.html > >
Net Heads, I would like to make some clarification to the post I made Sunday which is shown above. The first line of that statement is very deceiving. It would lead you to think that I had torn down my engine for a nitrided crankshaft upgrade on Thanksgiving and just got the engine re-assembled and running two days ago. That is far from the truth. On Thanksgiving morning, I took my KR up for it's first flight with my newly acquired Sensenich prop, which by the way impressed me tremendously during the short thirty minute flight. Why such a short flight you ask....well, the humidity that day was high, the temp was low and the dew point was hanging in right there with the temp. A perfect recipe for carb ice and I began developing carb ice not far from the airport. When I applied carb heat nothing happened, except my heart rate started going up. The engine continued to loose rpm so I cycled the throttle hoping to clear some ice. That worked temporarily but the ice started building again so I turned, tucked tail and headed for the runway. Once back at the hanger, I knew I needed to improve my carb heat arrangement plus I knew my plane needed a paint job and with Wisconsin winter arriving faster than we can out run it, I decided to remove my wings and take my plane home for the winter for paint and upgrades. I was elbow deep in painting one evening when William Wynne called and starting trying to persuade me to remove my crankshaft to have it tested by him. I had absolutely no intentions of tearing my engine apart because all I could think of was what a hassle that would be. It was the week after Christmas when William and I must have talked well over an hour that December night about my crankshaft, which by the way was not the first conversation with him about it, and he finally convinced me to remove and ship him my crankshaft for testing. The results of that test can be studied on his web site at this link ( http://flycorvair.com/crankissues.html ) along with the test results of four other crankshafts. Simply put, my crankshaft had a crack in it at the front bearing fillet. It was small but it was there. Once I decided to remove my engine from the plane and take the crankshaft out, the whole process took me approximately 5 hours to have it out of the engine and packed for shipping. Since my plane was also down for painting and upgrades, I told William that I was in no immediate hurry to get a crankshaft back because I wanted him to provide me with the absolute best nitrided crankshaft he could provide. Plus the fact I knew it would be March or April before I would be ready to re-install the engine and go flying. William did exactly as I asked him to do and I now have an engine with a nitrided crankshaft that I totally trust. When I received the crankshaft and began the rebuild of my engine, I had it completed, installed on the plane and running in approximately another six or seven hours work. I found that the tear down and rebuild of my engine was a very simple process. There were no surprises and everything went as planned. I had trusted my engine prior to the installation of the nitrided crankshaft but there was always this little devil sitting on my shoulder making me wonder if this was going to be the flight that I got to test my emergency skills with a broken crankshaft. Thank goodness I never had to find out. Another fact about this engine tear down was that I found I had a harmonic balancer that has a separated outer ring from the rubber seal. So, I found two major problems with my engine, a cracked crankshaft and an defective harmonic balancer. Had William Wynne not convinced me of the need for a nitrided crankshaft, I would have eventually had a catastrophic engine failure from one or the other. Thanks William for not letting this happen to me!!! So, to all of you out there with a Corvair engine, please remove your stock crankshaft and replace it with a nitrided one. With the fast turnaround from the nitrider and the ease of the engine tear down and rebuild, you should be out of commission for only a couple of weeks. Trust me, it is worth it for your safety and the safety of others and believe me when I say, "if I can do it, you too can do it". Thanks for listening guys and I hope you all follow our lead on this issue. Mark Jones (N886MJ) Wales, WI USA E-mail me at flyk...@wi.rr.com Visit my NEW KR-2S CorvAIRCRAFT web site at www.flykr2s.com
