Charlie Kuss wrote:
Finn,
I managed to meet and speak with you very briefly at the Treasure Coast
RV fly in
(Weekend at Bernie's) several weeks ago. A bit later I looked at your
ship. I noticed
the oil covering the outside of the engine. I also noted that I couldn't
determine what
provisions you had made for a crankcase breather system. I noted that
several areas and
possible vent areas were capped off. Did I miss you vent system? If not,
this is the
most likely cause of your oil leakage.
Charlie Kuss
RV-8A
Boca Raton, Fl.
Ed Anderson wrote:
Finn,
If you do not have a center housing or at least an oil sump vent,
blow-by gas (particularly at high power settings) will pressurize the center
housing where the rotors dump their cooling oil. This oily mist will get
out of the housing through some path. When I initially ran my engine,
foaming oil would blow out of the small 3/8" dia alum tube right below the
oil refill tube at any rpm over 5000 (and lots of it). I have a hose
connected to both this 3/8" tube and the oil dip stick tube and run it to an
air/oil separator which dumps any oil back into the oil sump.
In fact, if you recall when I was cussing the real oil seal of my Ross
PSRU blowing oil all over my canopy and bottom, it turned out that when I
had installed my new intake manifold I had unnoticed and inadvertently
crimped my vent hose. This caused the blow-by gas to pressurized my oil
sump and through the PSRU oil drain hose it pressurized the PSRU and blew
oil past the seals. I strongly suspect that you will find that you are
blowing oil past the rear seal as that is the easiest path for the sump
pressure to take. Check it.
Good observation, Charlie, that will certainly do it.
Ed Anderson
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