<insert favorite string of expletives here>
Ok, to start this rant/post out, as annoyed as I
am, I need to be grateful. I flew the other day,
Friday, and everything was great. I was just
flying over the airport after some modifications
to test systems (replaced the front cover o-ring
AGAIN...this time with a small cylinder pressed
into the hole with the O-ring around it to prevent
it from slipping out...along with the silicone
ring around the O-ring). I was up about ten
minutes and all my gages were well in the green
and the engine seemed to be running solidly. I
turned on down wind at about 1500 feet, looked
down at my gages again and noticed my water and
oil temps were both red with coolant temps at 260
degrees. Damn. Called for clearance to land as I
reduced power. Pegged my best landing and taxied
back to the hangar without incident resulting in
injury.
I only had time to remove the cowl and note that
the cowl was wet but had to leave for the day. I
returned the next day and started it up with only
a little difficulty and noted the radiator was not
getting warm...thus concluded no flow. I ordered
a new water pump from Mazdatrix with expedited
shipping and installed it. I figured the water
pump was likely twenty years old and a new one
would hurt. Just as I was buttoning it up and
reinstalling the pulley on the new water pump I
was moving the stainless water hose out of the way
for the wrench and FINALLY saw the REAL problem.
The stainless steel water hose had shifted and
rubbed up on the e-shaft pulley and gouged two
small holes allowing my coolant to blow into the
atmosphere of greater Houston.
Sigh. Ok, repaired the hose today. Filled the
system with new coolant (still has some in the
radiator with is under the engine). Ok, for those
of you in the know, you know it was hard to start
(yes, I have been here before). Finally, with
much difficulty and a jump box the engine
started...and ran well...but, after taking a few
minutes to warm up, it jumped to about 200
degrees. I shut down and as expected by now,
steam came out of the tail pipe and I could hear
the water boiling in the chambers. Sigh again. I
pushed the plane into the hangar and pulled a
plug, pulled the prop through and steam shot out
of the plug hole.
Ok, this sucks, but at least my engine did
not seize and it kept running for a normal landing
AND, I do know how to rebuild these things (even
if apparently do not know how to properly tie back
a water hose as not to rub on a fast moving
e-shaft pulley). So, the tear down is
inevitable.
Hopefully the damage is limited to the
O-rings.....gee I hope I didn't warp the plates, I
just cant afford that right now (so they most
certainly are warped....).
Just wanted to share.
Chris Barber
Houston
2.2 hours in Phase One testing