mobilepolice
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2013
- Messages
- 1,048
- Reaction score
- 101
Let's have a scary topic time.
Engines in my Seneca were replaced 2011/2012 with factory remans.
I'm about 1400/900 on the pair now.
I don't fly terribly often, not as much as the previous owner. My previous three years average has been ~100 hours give or take 20 a year. I think the most in any one year was 130. Previous owner used to put 350-600 hours a year on this bird, so it's well taken care of (and well loved). So far since I've owned it (since August 2015) I've racked up 58.6 hours, so we're averaging about 14hrs/month now.
What I have noticed is that if I pull the oil caps within 2 minutes after shutdown, I get a decent flow of steam out of both oil fillers.
If I don't do this, then over time (a period of a month, say) I'll get a nice little buildup of corrosion on the oil cap that will need a cleaning. I can see evidence where this was happening in the oil filler tube too, which makes sense.
I presume the same could be happening in the top of the crankcase, but seeing as that's all splash lubed with oil and there's not really much up there aside from perhaps the top of a conrod bearing depending on engine orientation.. I don't quite expect there to be any corrosion. The filler tube is quite more isolated though.
So far oil analysis hasn't indicated any sort of rust or rust-like indicators as well.
I'm providing pictures to discover what is "normal". I take it from others who own Continental IO-360 engines, this is a fairly regular occurrence and there are kits you can buy which will pull fresh air through and draw this moisture off. I've also heard of owners simply taking the oil caps off, closing the oil door and leaving it till the next flight.
This is what I've started doing out of an abundance of caution.
I'm not concerned, but open to the notion that I should be.
These engines also have an oil/air separator that seems to work well. Too well perhaps? They're mounted to the firewall and I presume the condensation from the cooler unit far separated from the engine may encourage the water built up from the last shutdown to simply return to the sump.
Here's an album of some photos I took: http://imgur.com/a/OYthn
Engines in my Seneca were replaced 2011/2012 with factory remans.
I'm about 1400/900 on the pair now.
I don't fly terribly often, not as much as the previous owner. My previous three years average has been ~100 hours give or take 20 a year. I think the most in any one year was 130. Previous owner used to put 350-600 hours a year on this bird, so it's well taken care of (and well loved). So far since I've owned it (since August 2015) I've racked up 58.6 hours, so we're averaging about 14hrs/month now.
What I have noticed is that if I pull the oil caps within 2 minutes after shutdown, I get a decent flow of steam out of both oil fillers.
If I don't do this, then over time (a period of a month, say) I'll get a nice little buildup of corrosion on the oil cap that will need a cleaning. I can see evidence where this was happening in the oil filler tube too, which makes sense.
I presume the same could be happening in the top of the crankcase, but seeing as that's all splash lubed with oil and there's not really much up there aside from perhaps the top of a conrod bearing depending on engine orientation.. I don't quite expect there to be any corrosion. The filler tube is quite more isolated though.
So far oil analysis hasn't indicated any sort of rust or rust-like indicators as well.
I'm providing pictures to discover what is "normal". I take it from others who own Continental IO-360 engines, this is a fairly regular occurrence and there are kits you can buy which will pull fresh air through and draw this moisture off. I've also heard of owners simply taking the oil caps off, closing the oil door and leaving it till the next flight.
This is what I've started doing out of an abundance of caution.
I'm not concerned, but open to the notion that I should be.
These engines also have an oil/air separator that seems to work well. Too well perhaps? They're mounted to the firewall and I presume the condensation from the cooler unit far separated from the engine may encourage the water built up from the last shutdown to simply return to the sump.
Here's an album of some photos I took: http://imgur.com/a/OYthn
