REFLECTOR: Oil, P-factor and othe things

[Scott Derrick]

David,

Oil consumption. The best engine for a newly built airplane is a high 
time one.  Having to baby a new engine to deal with airframe teething 
issues will cause high oil consumption as you found out.

I've heard of sprinkling Comet, Bonami or other abrasive based cleansers 
into the intake at high power setting to encourage the rings to seat but 
I have serious doubts that would work.  I think pulling the cylinders, 
removing the glaze with a honing tool, 
http://www.ehow.com/how_7629961_remove-cylinder-glaze.html , and using a 
new set of rings may work.

Remember to run your engine at 75% power or better for the new ring 
break-in.

I don't think your experiencing P-factor on take off.  The most likely 
culprit in descending order.

1.) Low tire pressure on one or both mains.  Pump them both up to 55-60 
psi.  Make sure the nose has 45 psi.
2.) Dragging main brake. Loose bearings can cause this, make sure they 
are tightened correctly.
3.) Incorrect alignment of mains.  I think this has to be really off to 
make a difference.
4.) Nose gear incorrectly aligned, also has to be really far off to make 
a difference.

To check the alignment visually, load up the front seat with bags of 
cement or sand. 200 lbs. and full gas tanks is good too. Then push the 
plane 20-30 ft, don't pull from nose gear. Get 20-30 ft in front and 
look carefully at the nose gear and mains for miss-alignment.

Scott



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: REFLECTOR: Oil, P-factor and othe things
From: David Ullman <ullman at robustdecisions.com>
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Date: 02/23/2013 07:40 AM

> I now have 80+ hours on my SEFG.  Still have a 50' paint job and the
> interior isn't finished.  When we first started flying we had handling
> problems and so the IO-360 C1C never got broken in correctly as we couldn't
> do full power at first.  Thus, the rings are not seated so I use oil, a lot
> of oil - a quart a tank (maybe I have a 2-cycle engine).  I am thinking of
> pulling the cylinders, honing and reringing.  Any thoughts?
>
> On take off my plane pulls to the left enough that I have to tap the right
> brake.  It is not very much so on taxi.  I don't seem to have brake drag and
> I have tinkered with the toe in.  I though Canards did not have a P-factor
> and if so should be to the right.  IS this really a toe-in issue?  If so,
> which wheel is off.  I have tried 13 different ways of measuring toe in and
> thought I was about right.  But??
>
> I just found that I broke an exhaust pipe.  The factory supplied system had
> one piece for each cylinder, with the two pieces on each side slip fit
> together and projecting forward.  In order to get the 1-3 cylinder assembly
> to fit in the cowl, I cut a Vee in them near the cylinder flange and had
> them rewelded.  I thought we normalized them, but this where the #3 pipe
> cracked.  My cowl does hit this pipe a little.  So I need to replace the
> pipe near the flange and fix the cowl clearance issue.  Anybody know what
> stainless steel this is and a source for it.  I will call the factory on
> Monday and see if they can aim me at the original vendor.
>
> In spite of the oil problem I did a lap around Mt. St Helens last week
> (found the broken exhaust on return).  See attached photos.  First one is
> looking west with the Olympics in the background and the second south with
> the dark, still warm part of the mountain in the lower part of the of the
> image.  I am at 9500 in these photos.
>
> David Ullman
> N444DX
> President EAA 292
> 541-754-3609
> david at davidullman.com
>
>
>
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