Engine monitoring raising new questions

[Ed Haywood]

Looking good!

You don't have to go overboard with it. The intent is to get old oil off the places that might seep or leak, so you can spot fresh oil and new leaks. You know the parts that contain oil, so focus on seams, connections, and bolt holes in those components. Almost all those spots are going to be aluminum, steel, or rubber.

There is no oil in your mags, wiring, or fuel system, so not really any purpose to cleaning them excessively, other than general pride. I'm not aware of any issues with cleaning them, and have never had a problem doing so, but will defer to an A&P.

One exception: I do clean the heck out of the spark plug wells, so there is less gunk to fall into the holes when servicing the plugs.

For painted areas, keep the nozzle farther away from the surface to reduce pressure. Play with that on your hand and you'll find the right distance.

Your scat tubes look fine, except the large one. Sometime when you are working with someone who has some experience, you might want to rewind the string on the aft end and secure it under the clamp to help the hose hold it's shape. A dollop of red RTV every turn will help hold it in place. No hurry, it's fine like it is, I'm just fussy about things looking right.

Your mechanic will appreciate the effort you are putting into this. Definitely makes your engine easier to troubleshoot and work on.

 

[mandm]

I was actually a bit nervous about spraying the spark plugs (also trying to avoid the grease at the landing gear moving parts) so I skipped over those, but I did try to get the harness wiring a bit. Wondering if I should wipe them, a bunch of nasty gunk on them. The spray helped but it’s still there. At the end I removed the mineral spirits supply and sprayed air, even though I cannot see liquid on the engine (it doesn’t seem to bubble like water does) when you spray you can see the mineral spirits moving off slowly. I’m happy to be cleaning it up, I just don’t want to mess anything up. Yes my mechanic has told me to clean it up, I tried before with little success. This way is MUCH better, thank you!

 

[Ed Haywood]

The plugs are sealed with a torqued metal gasket. You can't hurt 'em. Spray the heck out of those babies. Blast the grunge out of the wells so it doesn't fall in the cylinders when you service them.

Mineral Spirits evaporates quickly. You don't have to do anything special to dry it. If it gets anywhere it shouldn't be, blow it out and let it sit. About the only negative effect I can think of would be washing away lubricants you didn't want to, like dielectric grease.

Try wiping the wires right after you wash them. Or get the nozzle closer to loosen the gunk. Or ... replace the wires and start with a nice bright new set.

Have fun. While you are doing it, you will become much more knowledgeable about your engine.

I'm so fussy now that if I spill a little bit while changing the oil, I immediately pressure wash it clean.

 

[mandm]

The plugs are sealed with a torqued metal gasket. You can't hurt 'em. Spray the heck out of those babies. Blast the grunge out of the wells so it doesn't fall in the cylinders when you service them.

Mineral Spirits evaporates quickly. You don't have to do anything special to dry it. If it gets anywhere it shouldn't be, blow it out and let it sit. About the only negative effect I can think of would be washing away lubricants you didn't want to, like dielectric grease.

Try wiping the wires right after you wash them. Or get the nozzle closer to loosen the gunk. Or ... replace the wires and start with a nice bright new set.

Have fun. While you are doing it, you will become much more knowledgeable about your engine.

I'm so fussy now that if I spill a little bit while changing the oil, I immediately pressure wash it clean.

I noticed that it’s better if I spray the cowling and let it sit and then spray it again another day. I got it pretty cleaned up, my engine compartment is definitely aging but I guess that is what it is, such as the engine mounts, the firewall, etc. I guess when I do an overhaul that I can have those painted and cleaned up more. Or I can stop looking under the cowling so much haha.

Got everything put back together, and I used the sprayer in a soapy water mixture to clean the exterior of the airplane, under the airplane, I used to do that more often but I have skipped that recently and definitely landed on a few grass airfields, so it’s dirty! My towels turned black immediately. So that will be a multiple attempt effort to get it cleaned up, one day…

Did the test flight post cleanup, everything works great, the throttle is so smooth now, I think there must have been some gunk on the line or something that was set free from it, noticeably different. And I don’t think it was the friction lock, pretty sure I didn’t touch that since my last flight.

 

[mandm]

I got my engine data here on my computer, I pulled out the laptop and the plug!!, time to figure out how to analyze it.

 

[mandm]

Back to the hangar from the Miami trip, 50.8 hours on the tach since the last oil change, dropped the oil as I pulled into the hangar and grabbed an oil sample and that is in the mail to Blackstone. What I noticed is that I'm burning 1 quart on the first 20 hours, and 1 quart on the second 20 hours, and then a quart on the next 10 hours. It appears as though oil consumption accelerates above 30-40 hours and that she doesn't like oil older than 30-40 hours.

 

[WDD]

It's more like compressed air with a fog of mineral spirits.

Isn't that what a fuel air explosive device is? First pass it sounds like a fire ball waiting to happen. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[mandm]

Here's a lengthy flight with the engine data plotted. Traveling north to cooler temps, here's what is observed:

OAT decreases
Oil Temp decreases
CHT's decreases
EGT's decreases (slightly) (not pictured)
Oil Pressure increases
MP constant
Fuel consumption constant

Everything looks good to me. This website doesn't seem to plot the battery data.