No doubt about it. The P-port is leaking.
I machined a sleeve out of PVC pipe 1.875 inch diameter
and slipped it into the p-port. Sure enough the sound
stopped. Pull it out a couple of tenths and the sound
starts again.
I also found a tiny, tiny leak around the repair on the
cracked rear rotor housing. Pumping the engine water jacket
up to 50 psi with my compressor does wonders in the leak
detection department.
I borrowed a vacuum pump from my next door neighbor that
repairs HIVAC stuff. I then pulled a continuous vacuum on
the water jacket. Don't forget to take the schrader valve
out of the pressure fitting.
I cleaned around the tiny tiny leak
with a small round file and acetone and applied a little more JB Weld.
I left the vac pump sucking. Hopefully the vac pump will suck the
JB Weld into the crack. We will see tomorrow if this works.
I will pump up the water jacket to 50 psi tomorrow and
see if the tiny tiny leak is gone. This can be repeated if
necessary.
If it works I will do the same thing to the p-port leak.
By all means folks pressurize those p-ports before you assemble
the engine. Much easier to fix before the engine is all put together.
Also my neighbor loaned me some florescent soapy fluid
which is great for detecting leaks.
You might also be able to do this with a cheap hand vac
pump you can buy in auto parts stores.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
So the idea here is that the area that is leaking is the space between
the end of the pport tube & the inner wall of the rotor chamber? That
would explain how coolant could get into the pport tube (where I found
it) yet not flood the rotor housing. For those who don't know, when
installed in my aircraft, the engine is tilted about 1-degree toward the
starboard side -- thus the pport does not sit horizontally, but ever so
slightly "down hill" in that direction. Thus, a slow leak as I was
experiencing might very well allow the coolant to collect in the tube
vs. rotor chamber.
Am I correct in assuming that you could detect which side of the pport
is leaking by milling back on some percentage of the end of that PVC
tube? Mark the parts of it that are full-depth & then insert it into
the PPort and rotate through 360-degrees. The noise will cease when
the extended portion covers the leak & resume when the open portion is
rotated over it.
Probably not necessary to do it tho - logic dictates the problem must be
on the flex-plate side, since the front-cover side is a void space
between the 2 PPorts. Might be an interesting exercise none-the-less.
Didn't you take pix of the housings after you repotted with JBWeld?
That would answer whether is was the JBweld side that was leaking, or
the side with the original epoxy which appeared fully cured.
Mark Supinski
Correct Mark. You can notch the end of the PVC pipe and rotate
it to find the exact location of the leak. A few drops of JB Weld
will take care of it with the vacuum pump working.
that pump pulls 29 inches of Hg no problem.
Is the rear (car) rotor housing the one I repotted with JB Weld?
I can't tell by looking at it from the outside.
I repotted both sides of that one but did not have the other
one to repot as you are well aware of.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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