Having
had coolant shoot out the spark plug hold like a small
"ole Faithful" is something that makes your heart sink -
having been there, myself, I can emphasize with you,
Chris.
<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