Wrathall Mark wrote:
Paul Wrote>
REAL GOOD IDEA on spraying the aux coolant at the hottest part of the
inner water jacket around the spark plugs. Even if it turns to steam and
escapes. Converting water to steam sucks up a tremendous amount of heat.
I would use a high pressure pump however to maintain the pressure through
out the several gallon quantity in the aux tank.
Mark wrote>
Due weight considerations if you were to install an emergency coolant
system, I would recommend a CO2 bottle with squib for propellent. Like a
fire extinguisher, which is roughly what this system is.
However, I would question the true need for this system. A couple of gallons
of liquid is a hell of a weight penalty to carry to prolong what has so far
proven to be a soft failure mode. Obviously the rotor housings are toast
after a coolant leak event, but Ed shrank his housings, now Perry shrank his
housings, and both engines continued, not only to run, but to start as well.
Perry and Ed, how many minutes have you operated engines in an overheated
condition?
The Emergency coolant injection system might give you a few more minutes
before the housings shrink, but in this situation, who cares about hardware.
These events show that a hose clamp system is false economy, although as
Bill stated it can be made to work. If you overheat, the engine overhaul
will cost a lot more than the AN or wiggins plumbing is worth. Could some
one please summarise a good fault isolation procedure to troubleshoot
coolant overtemp please (I'll put it on the best practices site). Both Ed
and Perry took a few flights to isolate the fault, so it would seem we need
a better procedure. These kinds of failures must be pretty common in the car
scene.
The Schrader valve permanently installed in the system for pressure testing
is a great idea.
What you need for oceanic flights is a second engine!
Mark Wrathall
www.rotary.microcosman.com
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