flyrotary@lancaironline.net Mailing List Archive

I have hade Bernie's engine sitting in the garage for the past 3 years. I have occasionally squirted air tool oil into the rotors and turned the engine over by hand. It has given me six good chugs each and every time, but I will add that the garage is on the same air system as the rest of the house. What I didn't know until Carlos mentioned it at Tracy's a couple of years ago was not to turn the engine backwards if you have any type of enlarged porting, the side seals could hang in the port and break. His demonstration showed how easy it could happen. Well up until then I would just turn the engine any old way just to get it around. This engine has been street ported and I hope that I have not done any damage to the side seals , but I figure that if I have then the engine would be extremely hard to turn over, and it isn't.

Bob Perkinson

From: Ed Anderson <eanderson@carolina.rr.com>
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Tue, October 5, 2010 8:41:15 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Got Pressure! and really scary moment

Chris, in hot humid weather when I had my intake manifold off for six week, I came back and cranked to find absolute NO compression out of either rotor. Dropping the exhaust and looking through the exhaust port I could see what appeared to be a light sheen of rust on the rotor. This happened right after my HALTECH (pre EC) fuel injection system had failed locking the fuel injectors wide open and raw gasoline poured out the exhaust - probably cleaning any of the oil that would usually linger on the insides of the engine.

It took me about 4 days by spraying penetrating oil and poking with a brass bar to work the apex seals loose again - ALL BUT ONE. It finally took a tear down of the engine and a punch to remove the remaining apex seal. The moral of the story if you are going to leave the engine open to a humid environment for any period of time. I would pour some marvel mystery oil, ATF or something similar into the chambers and rotate the engine every 2 weeks.

So you are probably OK - those seals will stick, most often running the engine will break them loose, but better they are loose before running the engine in my opinion.

Edward L. Anderson
Anderson Electronic Enterprises LLC
305 Reefton Road
Weddington, NC 28104
http://www.andersonee.com
http://www.eicommander.com

From: Chris Barber

Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 11:37 PM

To: Rotary motors in aircraft

Subject: [FlyRotary] Got Pressure! and really scary moment

Got pressure! That is not a question, that is a statement. I put the engine back on the plane today and I have oil moving freely and in a constant stream coming from the front of the engine when I crank the engine over.

I currently have sent all my hoses off to a friends shop in AZ to have them pressure tested. So it will be a bit before I can try starting it again.

I did have a pretty scary moment. While I was cranking the engine over and seeing a good stream of oil, I noted that I was only getting four chugs of air coming out of the rotors instead of six. YIKES. I took a breath and looked in the spark plug holes in the second chamber where I could only feel one puff of air coming out. I could visible see all three apex seals, but who knows. So, I got some penetrant and sprayed it onto the seals and poked them a bit with a small long probe. They all seems springy and intact. After this little procedure , I could hear and feel the six chugs I have come to know.

If I get out there tomorrow, I will check to see/hear if all the chugs are still present. I will keep my fingers crossed.

Chris

Houston