Geez, Bill – too much excitement for
my blood. But, glad it happened on the ground during a run-up – one
of the reasons, you can’t spend too much time on ground run ups. I
probably had 30 hours before the first flight (perhaps a bit excessive
{:>)).
Sure wouldn’t think 14 psi would
blow out a freeze plug – but guess it all depends on how secure it
is. Naturally, you would want to think whether any factors might have
caused localized pressure build up. The only freeze plugs I have
installed were in the aluminum turbo housings which had openings to exchange
coolant with the intake manifold.
If you were full tilt boogie when it let
go, I would imagine the exhaust was a mite hot and glycol, of course, will burn
if its flash point is exceeded. Having had a fiberglass wheel pant burn
when I had my brake fire, glad you got it put out before it really got going.
Don’t start trying to exceed my
achievements in the “what can go wrong” arena {:>)
Ed
From: Rotary motors in aircraft
[mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On
Behalf Of Bill Schertz
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009
6:30 PM
To: Rotary
motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] NEW failure
mode for 13B
Well, I haven't heard of this happening before -- I was
ground running my engine to tune it with the EM-2 and EC-2. Ran for
almost an hour, at various rpm's to change the manifold pressure and tweak the
settings. Cooling working well, I had the top cowling off to allow good exit
area since I was tied down. Coolant pressure about 14 psi as reported on the
EM-2.
Engine was running good, took it up to ~6000 rpm swinging a
76x76 Catto prop, when suddenly there was steam and fluid on my windshield.
Shut it down by killing power to the EC-2. Coolant everywhere.
Got out and looked to diagnose the problem -- NOT my
plumbing. A FREEZE PLUG in the iron housing had blown out. Rapid coolant
dump.
Secondary effect -- Since I shut down suddenly from full
tilt, either the proximity of the cowl to the exhaust, or possibly some of the
coolant on the exhaust started a small fire on my cowl. Put it out with
extinguisher, but corner is charred.
Bill Schertz
KIS Cruiser #4045
N343BS
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