And the fun continues.

   The oil pan gaskets arrived from Atkins Rotary a few days ago, and we decided to do the big swap today. I had previously "sealed" the pan and CCI sandwich mount with a Permatex brand can of aviation grade liquid gasket. I was thinking I had simply made a a mistake in my method of applying it up until this point. We disconnected a few hoses, positioned the hoist and used my two covenient lifting points (one is on the front iron, between the alternator and the plug side, the other is a nut that backs up onto a RD1B mounting bolt. The nut is superfluos because the point it mates with the housing is threaded as well). As soon as we lifted the motor, and dropped the pan bolts, it was clear that this particular flavor of permatex was NOT UP TO THE TASK. The pan and plate separated under the force of gravity. No cling whatsoever.

    We scraped the remaining sealant with a putty knife, and then our fingernails. Cleaned out the pan, used WD40 first, then cleaned up all traces with a rag with a conveniently available solvent (93 octane). Placed the gaskets on, one at a time, used grey permatex for a new gasket material (I had previously bought it for this purpose, until i was practically GIVEN the other "bad" sealant by a local aviation parts house owner). Unfortunately had to drop the siphon tube as well, since we didnt have enough clearance to remove the plate without doing so. My oil pickup tube bolts have a sandwich spacer to extend the pickup, and the bolts were drilled and safety wired. Was a chore to reinstall in the close quarters we had, but it was accomplished.  Reinstalled the 6 mm pan bolts, and got to re-safety wire 10 of those today. We refilled the oil with mineral and then restarted the engine.

   We were unable to improve/get slower than 2500 rpm and 16"mp, and we were making significant thrust. Just yesterday, before we changed the oil and re-did the pan, chris said he was gettin 12-1500 rpm and good idle, prior to some tuning runs. Leaning made it run rough, so the tuning appeared spot on. When we advanced the throttle we had some surging, and this corresponded with Chris saying he could only tune a part of the way due to heating. The surging is presumed to be caused by straddling an untuned area next to a tuned part of the mixture map. We played with trying to locate any air leaks that could account for our closed throttle excessive rpms. We may do some tweaking of the throttle cable interface and ensure we truly are closed. We also discovered we had a bigger oil leak than we originally suspected.

   I noted that we had a dry oil pan seam, but had oil dripping from the starter. Then I noticed oil was all over the inside of the flywheel chase. When we restarted, I was able to see oil coming from the spline shaft hole in the baseplate of the RD1-B. We have not noticed this before, but we do not believe it started just today. The oil line in is a stainless 1/8" hard line with AN4 fittings. The forward oil drain gets warm. In the past the aft oil drain and tubing did not. I did not check it today. I do not know if we are having a prob with excessive oil flow/pressure versus drainage capacity. Cant find the RD1-B manual, so have a request in to Tracy for electronic manual and also feedback on the RD1 before we de-mate it. May possibly have other small leaks associated with the hard line being misaligned, and i have some stainless braid AN4 I can put hose ends on and use for this purpose. Also possibly some leakage at the psru oil return fitting on the block, since that was not dabbed with thread sealant prior to runs. But steady oil flow from the spline shaft is unmistakeable. The shaft slings it all over the flywheel chase and into the air, where its coating the prop (and has been since day 1)

   Chris called tonight to mention that timing was something he was thinking of as a possible culprit. I agree that it may be a factor, but typically i thought timing "problems" resulted in degraded performance. Our problem is we are making too much power (and heat) in what should be a closed throttle condition. Any feedback on timing would be nice. PARTICULARLY ON HOW TO GET IN THERE WITH A TIMING LIGHT, since the prop is installed, and the timing marks are up close to the radiator.

   We are continuing to have an intermittent NOP indication on the EM2. Chris is going to re-terminate his connections on both ends to see if that makes a difference, before we junk the whole wire run.

Thats all for now. Fire away with any and all feedback
Dave

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