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Just flew for an hour. Much less oil on the belly. Seems like it is not coming out the breather but all the other various leaks. I noticed some oil on the bottom hinge line. I tried to check the oil level when I got back, but when the oil is clean and hot it is very difficult to see the level. I think it runs down the dipstick.

I'm declaring the air-oil separator I installed a bust. The prop seal was leaking oil. Much more resistance to blow through the separator and plumbing as compared to a hose. I went to the stock Aerovee setup and will try tomorrow.

Well, the stock setup was a bust. Flew for an hour this morning and oil all over the belly. Previously I had fabricated and riveted a baffle onto the breather cover, and that has been removed.

Regarding the can, I think David A. had it figured out:

DCASonex wrote:Far more important, the bronze filter looks like it will effectively become a cork when covered with a small bit of oil.

I am going to rework the can and remove that filter. Then I'll do the breathalyzer test on it to verify that it isn't a big restriction.

Edit: Here is a picture of the nifty baffle I made. It made essentially no difference.

Try 2. First I filled a 1/2" 6061-T6 tube with sand, annealed it, and bent it thusly:


I bored out the hole to 1/2". It was pretty close to that. The tube goes below the disc and puts some swirl on the air-oil mixture.


The scrubbers are right out of the Tony Bingelis playbook.


I had enough time to complete this and get the cowl off. Next chance I get I'll install it and fly it.

And another note - when I blow through the inlet there is pretty much no resistance. At least right now. We will see what happens in use once oil gets involved.

I weighed this with my mounting hardware attached. It was about 1.125 lbs.

0.9 today including a run up to Vne. There was a little oil on the belly and some evidence of oil coming out the hinge line. The prop shaft felt dry-ish when I put my hand in there and visibly the oil level looks about the same. Seems hopeful.

Bryan,

how many hours are on the engine? I wonder if the rings haven't seated yet and perhaps you are getting too much blow by. A leak down test might provide you with some useful information.

I've got 15 or 16 hours so far. I've not been having temperature issues and per the manual I've not been babying the engine at all.

I haven't found it yet.


The filter seal pushed out on startup.


I took the filter apart and it looked ok. Not sure what happened here.

Technically the Aerovee stayed dry but the airplane and ramp did not.

My guess is cold oil and/or a stuck relief piston spiked the start up oil pressure. Think about the Gene Berg full flow cover with a built in relief valve if your plumbing will allow it.

Oh man, what a mess. I've read about this happening several times on this forum and probably the yahoo groups before. Hopefully after your example people will either stop doing it or find a better way. Maybe someone with hundreds of hours of reliability that's different from this historically and predictably bad method will share their installation.