REFLECTOR: radiator cooling

Dave Bertram v350tx at comcast.net
Thu Feb 3 17:44:00 CST 2005


Recently I blew a radiator hose on my chevy powered Velocity.  It was four
or five minutes before I could shut it down.  I repaired the hose connection
and flew two more times .  On the first I lost three cylinders due to piston
ring fragments being hammered into the spark plugs and closing their gap.  I
thought the plugs were too long and upon research I did find I had the wrong
plugs.  I replaced all the plugs and ran the engine.  I pulled the plugs and
they looked fine.  Thinking I had found the problem I flew again.  This time
I lost a cylinder shortly after take off.  I returned to the hangar and
removed the cowling.  The second plug I removed had the gap closed.  We
pulled the heads and found the two burned pistons.  One of those also had a
broken ring which made its way around the engine damaging most of the
pistons and both heads.  

This teaches a couple of things.  First, that the V-8 is one very tough engine.  I have flown it with two burned pistons and three bad cylinders.  Secondly, you should have water pressure and temperature indicators.  You may get zero water pressure earlier than high water temp.  Shut it down and pull the heads if the temp is excessive or the pressure zero for very long.   I will be running again in a few weeks.  Dave Bertram
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