Ken Welter wrote:

  The FAA called me and wanted input on what I knew about Jim's plane
so I told them what I knew also they said that they took the engine
to a Mazda dealer for a inspection and my reply was they may as well
taken it to oil can Henry's as they know nothing about the engines as
they replace them when they go bad. What they found is the bearings,
crank, rotors and housings galled and blued which the dealer told
them was do to the fact that Jim had removed oil injector pump, that
just tells you what idiots the dealers are so I had to straighten them
out and tell them that... that is common procedure to do on race cars
and aircraft and that we mix oil in the gas to lube the apex seals
and that it has nothing to do with lubricating the main bearings and
cooling the rotors and that the main pump does that. In my experience
the only thing that can cause these problems is a total loss in oil
pressure which may have been the piece of crap oil cooler that he was
running but I am sure that we will never know as the plane burned so
bad that the cooler was melted. Still with all of this there was no
reason to crash the plane as there were fields all around the airport
and one must remember the three most important things about flying
and that is airspeed, airspeed and airspeed.
  Ken Welter

Thanks Ken for updating us on this. Same thing happened to Chuck
Harbert twice only he was lucky enough to get it back on the ground
both times. Beware folks there are some oil coolers out there that won't
take the Mazda 90 psi oil pressure. If in doubt test it with
a hydraulic hand pump.

Paul Lamar
 
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