----- Original Message -----
From: "John Slade" <sladerj@bellsouth.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 8:00 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Another precautionary landing


> > You maybe right Ed. Last time I looked at his fuel filter, this thing
was
> > tiny. I'm using a filter element that is 4-5 times bigger for less
> > restriction. Hope it works better?
> That's the K&N 1008 filter specified for the third gen. This time they
> didn't have the 1008 in stock so I installed a K&N 1004 which is the one
> specified for the 2nd gen. It's a little bigger. But, Ed, I changed the
oil
> and filter because I'd seen low oil pressure on the previous flight. As
this
> time, the pressure started reasonable (89) and gradually reduced with
time.
> After 15 minutes it was down to 35 or so. Another 10 minutes and it was
20.
> But by this time I was on descent and the rpm was lower.
>
> The front cover O ring? That's the one behind the water pump, right? Would
> there be any other symptoms? I don't seem to be loosing any oil or
coolant.
> John
>

Ok, so unless you have the bad luck to have two bad oil filters in  row,
that pretty much eliminates the oil filter.  If it is the "O" ring between
your aluminum front cover and the iron side housing, then you can loose oil
pressure without losing oil. The oil squirting around the "O" ring simply
drains back down into the sump.  Several of us who have lost the "O" ring
generally found the oil pressure would drop to around 27 psi and stabilize
there.  Tracy flew most of the way back from one of his Oshkosh trips with
27 psi of oil pressure and did not damage - probably did not try to run it
WOT though.  That is how I knew I had lost my "O" ring was after reading
Tracy's report I knew when I saw mine drop to 27 psi that my "O" ring had
blown.

Generally if it is the "O" ring then once the pressure falls, it will not
come back up.  So depending on how gutsy you are, you might try starting
your engine after it rests overnight (ready to kill it if oil pressure does
not come up immediately).  If the oil pressure is OK at start up but
gradually decreases - that does not seem like an "O" ring symptom to me -
but possibly something else.

The thing that concerns me about your situation is that not only is your oil
pressure low - but the oil temp is high.  That certainly conveys to me a
diminished oil flow not simply just a lower pressure.

Good luck, John - hang in there!

Ed