REFLECTOR: Questions with new Franklin

[Hiroo Umeno]

Mine was not "new" but since it went through a through re-building, the procedure was the same.

I had a bit of challenge since not only my engine needed to be burned in, but the plane itself had not flown before and therefore had to go through the normal pre-first flight stuff like taxing on the ground and what not that were not compatible with keeping the engine at sustained high RPM.

After consulting with A&P, we decided that it was probably acceptable to do some taxing and ground ops as long as we kept it to a minimum.  I also hired a test pilot to take the plane to the air the first few hours so that I can minimize the ground ops.

I do get the "puddle" of oil on the intake manifold as you mention.  I am up to 30 hours or so and have done 3+ hours of sustained flight and it does not seem to get more than a couple table spoons full.  Mine also spews oil everywhere as the engine seems to "seep" oil from just about every seams and joints.

Overall, I think I add about 1qt of oil every 8 hours or so of flight, some of that gets dumped overboard through the breather tube (which I cut too short so it goes all over the belly...)

As for the oil temps, it seems like you are seeing about the same numbers I was seeing before I added the exit baffle to the front cooler (I have the dual cooler setup).  You mentioned that you have single cooler and I assume you have the front one only.  Try adding a little baffle where the hot air exits the duct.  That helped mine a lot.

Hiroo

From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of Jerry Teitsma
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2007 12:28 PM
To: Reflector
Subject: REFLECTOR: Questions with new Franklin

I have some questions about a new Franklin engine.  First of all, I accumulate darker engine oil in my intake manifold.  After only a 30 minute flight, I will have about 2 tablespoons accumulated in the prop end of the intake manifold on each side and it will be dripping out of the crossover pipe connection.  Where does this come from and is there a danger in taking a longer flight?  Secondly, I am told that I should break in the engine at full power to increase manifold pressure to better seat the rings.  My field is at 8200 ft and I have difficulty getting high manifold pressure.  Also, the handbook encourages not getting above 13 kts.  Is there a way to do everything?  Thirdly, I am having trouble with high oil temperatures.  I have one oil cooler in the nose and 5/8 inch hoses to the front.  I have put in the stiffer spring.  I get up to about 216 under steady low power cruise and it increases when I land.  I suspect the answer is to put in a second oil cooler but I am out of room under the cowling.  Suggestions?

Jerry Teitsma

970-887-3910 (Phone/Fax)
jerryteits at comcast.net<mailto:jerryteits at comcast.net>
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