Salt Air and Airplane Engines?

Radar Contact

Radar Contact

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Kevin
Most of us have always heard planes down in FL or other salt prone areas are more susceptible to corrosion. Both to the airframe and engines. Not sure if these past two oil reports confirm it or not but thought I would put them up here because I found it interesting.

I've had some periods of inactivity close to the same amount that caused this (not in salt prone areas) doing other avionics, autopilot, etc upgrades but the numbers were never cause for concern. I took my plane down to Florida for a paint job and it was down for several months due to scheduling, holidays and COVID. I did change the oil before taking it down so it would have fresh oil knowing it would be several months. It took longer than I anticipated and I had the paint shop do the annual where they changed the oil (no analysis sent it for that). When I picked her up I flew the first 32 hours in about a month and changed it.

The comments on top and numbers on the left are the first oil change out of FL.

The comments on bottom and numbers on the right are the subsequent oil change where I flew 36 hours in about 9 weeks.

Not sure if this answers anything or not...either way, keep them flying. :)

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Thanks for sharing, this is interesting food for thought. What interval do you normally change your oil at?
 
Zephyrhills (I think I remember seeing that’s where you took it) is 30 miles from the ocean. High humidity maybe, but salt air seems unlikely to me.

I live twice as close to the gulf as zephyr (literally my airplane is 15 miles from zephyr on the way to the gulf) and my oil analysis on my 200 SMOH engine shows no sign of corrosion, but I run my engine regularly. I think not running the engine while in a high humidity environment is far more likely a cause than salt air.
 
The NAVY pays for 65% of their maintenance for corrosion treatment/perseveration. stats circa 1981.
 
Ryanb said:
Thanks for sharing, this is interesting food for thought. What interval do you normally change your oil at?
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I try to change them after about 35 hours. I know they can go to 50 but oil is cheap...engines not so much. :)
 
Salty said:
Zephyrhills (I think I remember seeing that’s where you took it) is 30 miles from the ocean. High humidity maybe, but salt air seems unlikely to me.

I live twice as close to the gulf as zephyr (literally my airplane is 15 miles from zephyr on the way to the gulf) and my oil analysis on my 200 SMOH engine shows no sign of corrosion, but I run my engine regularly. I think not running the engine while in a high humidity environment is far more likely a cause than salt air.
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Interesting point about the humidity. I did go to ZPH and am very happy with the work they did. I wasn’t sure how much inland in FL effects the saltily in the air. As you mention, may be more of humidity vs salt. Either way, keep them flying regularly and they should stay healthy.
 
I'm on the gulf with 200 SMOH. There is always a dehumidifier on my engine when in the hangar keeping the humidity between 5-10%. Not a lot of flying in the past two years but the iron and aluminum has been trending higher starting 30 months ago. Not sure why.
 
This is my old cam shaft, been sitting on the concrete floor for 2 years, about 5 miles from the ocean:
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MooneyDriver78 said:
This is my old cam shaft, been sitting on the concrete floor for 2 years, about 5 miles from the ocean:
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Nice. That lobe looks as worn as mine was when I replaced the cam. My old camshaft has been in my hangar (same conditions as my plane) for 2 years as well, I’ll go take a look at it.
 
My Velocity sat at Sebastian for about a year before I bought it. During the overhaul a couple years later, the inside of the engine was rusted. Most of the hardware, including wing bolts had Corrosion and were replaced as well.

The Navy spends the most on corrosion out of the services and for good reason. Humidity and salt are not good on an airframe or engine. We also had specific procedures as it pertained to flying near / over salt water.
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My airplane is about to sit for six-ish weeks on the coast of FL for an avionics upgrade. It's almost due for an oil change, I guess we'll have to make that a priority once we get it back home.
 
Groundpounder said:
My airplane is about to sit for six-ish weeks on the coast of FL for an avionics upgrade. It's almost due for an oil change, I guess we'll have to make that a priority once we get it back home.
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Awesome, hope your upgrade goes well. I remember you mentioning flying down there for it, hard to beat the prices and it's always fun to take a nice long flight anyway. If you do oil analysis at least you won't be alarmed if the first one back has some higher numbers than normal.

We were in N.H. for the first time a few weeks back. Flew into Mount Washington Regional and went up the cog train/stayed at the Omni. We had a blast.
 
Radar Contact said:
Awesome, hope your upgrade goes well. I remember you mentioning flying down there for it, hard to beat the prices and it's always fun to take a nice long flight anyway. If you do oil analysis at least you won't be alarmed if the first one back has some higher numbers than normal.

We were in N.H. for the first time a few weeks back. Flew into Mount Washington Regional and went up the cog train/stayed at the Omni. We had a blast.
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The Wife and I were going on vacation to SAV and CHS anyway, so we just dropped the airplane in DAB and took the airlines home, so it was a good way to combine trips. It was the first time she had been on a long trip in the Bonanza, and she absolutely loved it. Neither of us were happy about having to ride SWA.

Glad to hear you guys enjoyed NH! I've done the cog before, it is a lot of fun, as is driving up the auto road. 2 out of the 3 times I've been to the top of Mt Washington, it has been IMC, the time it was clear the view was amazing. Hopefully you guys got to see something. I have a lot of spare time the next few weeks, I am probably going to do the auto road again. We have been talking about going up to the Omni for a night or two, but haven't gotten around to it yet. What did you do for transportation from HIE to the hotel?
 
Groundpounder said:
What did you do for transportation from HIE to the hotel?
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It was a local taxi service the nice lady at the “FBO” building showed us. It’s on the wall. We realized after landing Uber wasn’t a thing. :)

He had a van, was relatively responsive, and took us to the Omni/cog/Omni/airport again. Nice enough guy. Not the cheapest but considering the options, not too bad. I’ll look in the hangar next time to see if I still have the card.
 
Radar Contact said:
It was a local taxi service the nice lady at the “FBO” building showed us. It’s on the wall. We realized after landing Uber wasn’t a thing. :)

He had a van, was relatively responsive, and took us to the Omni/cog/Omni/airport again. Nice enough guy. Not the cheapest but considering the options, not too bad. I’ll look in the hangar next time to see if I still have the card.
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Yeah there are not a lot of options up there. Sadly I live close enough to there that it makes driving the best option, all things considered.

My wife and I eloped over a weekend at a bed and breakfast that was further east of the Omni, over towards Crawford's Notch. Absolutely stunning location, perfectly secluded. Getting into leaf peeper season now, and things become extremely overpriced and crowded with old people.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
This is my old cam shaft, been sitting on the concrete floor for 2 years, about 5 miles from the ocean:
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Brand new camshaft kit. One more engine part on hand waiting for the big day (field ovehaul)
 

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I’m curious as my plane has been hangared along the coast for years as us had some corrosion related replacement parts.

I now am inland in a hangar but routinely preCovid fly forge Bahamas.

Would there be harm in spraying corrosion x directly onto the engine?


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It’s well known that vortex generators cause engine corrosion :eek:;)
 
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