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