Mailing List flyrotary@lancaironline.net Message #15037
From: Ken Welter <rotary.coot@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] engine disassembled
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 08:47:44 -0800
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Re: [FlyRotary] engine disassembled
   Yes this is near identical to all three of my engines which I lost oil pressure on, every time the front housing and rotor is fine and the bearings were in perfect shape.
 Your best bet is to hit the wrecking yard and fine another core engine to get the two housings from and a pair of matched rotors, if you didn't know there is a letter weight code on the rotors that must match.
  Ken







Greetings,
 
I took the engine apart today, and here are some pics of the damage I found. 
 
The front rotor, and associated side housings look fine, and both rotor housings are fine.
 
The rear side of the rear rotor is fine, but the front side of the rear rotor is ugly (see pic).  As bad as it looks, you can't really feel any worn spots, so I'm thinking it will be OK assuming I can get the seals out.  You can't tell from the pics, but the side seals are mashed into the rotor in the center of the seals, where the discolored part of the rotor is.  The ends of the side seals are free. 
 
The rear side of the intermediate housing is fairly well scored, but perhaps this can be machined (lapped?) and renitrided.  I'll ask Bruce about this tomorrow. 
 
The rear housing is also damaged, but not quite as badly as the intermediate housing.  It will still have to be repaired or replaced though.     
 
I don't recall the criteria for bearing damage, but just looking at them, they all look fine to me.  I'll have to watch the tape again to see what I'm supposed to be looking for. 
 
The oil pump chain has 1/2" of slop, which Bruce's tape says is bad.  Hard to imagine wearing this out in as few hours as this engine has. 
 
While I'm in here, I'd like to make the porting a bit more aggressive for some extra power (need an edge on Tracy).  Suggestions accepted, particularly from Lynn, and Leon.  This is Bruce's porting job, which I believe he said was basically the Racing Beat street port.    I'll also drill the foot of the rear rotor housing for an oil return for the redrive.  Who knows what else I'll do while inside :-)   
 
Cheers,
Rusty  (I guess I'm committed to a rebuild now)
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