- Joined
- Mar 18, 2017
- Messages
- 1,533
- Reaction score
- 869
Climbing out this morning for breakfast with the wife, kid, and neighbor kid aboard. Cool but not cold morning (it’s Arizona), cruise climb settings and air speeds. Not the day one expects to see high temp indications.
The engine feels a bit “vibey” this morning. Hmmm.
Look over at the engine monitor (and older Insight 603 - no numerical temps or data logging)...wow, the CHT and EGT is spiking on #3.
Enrich the mixture a bit (I’d just pulled it back some at altitude) and increase the RPM to address the vibration. Wow, that CHT is at the 500 bar.
And then? CHT and EGT fell off rapidly. Zeroed out. Slight smell of hot oil in the cockpit. About 10 seconds of scanning and the wheels turning.
AP disengaged, 180 turn. “I don’t like this. We’re going back.”
Uneventful return to the home drome. Advised both controllers of odd engine indication and a possible dead cylinder. No emergency declared (still making decent power and airspeed). Nice landing, taxi in, shut down, and pop the cowl.
We still have to get into it, but I noticed a small spray of oil on the structures under #3, and the first few inches of the exhaust riser was damp with fresh oil.
Engine is a TSIO-360 FB2. 5 of 6 cylinders have been off in the factory reman’s 1400 hour life. This particular cylinder was last off in 2009 for low compression / exhaust valve work.
The engine monitor was a very valuable piece of data in this situation. It would honestly have been easy to dismiss the vibration and press on, had I not seem the EGT/CHT go dead at the same time. I’m sure the performance was falling off - but it was subtle.
The engine feels a bit “vibey” this morning. Hmmm.
Look over at the engine monitor (and older Insight 603 - no numerical temps or data logging)...wow, the CHT and EGT is spiking on #3.
Enrich the mixture a bit (I’d just pulled it back some at altitude) and increase the RPM to address the vibration. Wow, that CHT is at the 500 bar.
And then? CHT and EGT fell off rapidly. Zeroed out. Slight smell of hot oil in the cockpit. About 10 seconds of scanning and the wheels turning.
AP disengaged, 180 turn. “I don’t like this. We’re going back.”
Uneventful return to the home drome. Advised both controllers of odd engine indication and a possible dead cylinder. No emergency declared (still making decent power and airspeed). Nice landing, taxi in, shut down, and pop the cowl.
We still have to get into it, but I noticed a small spray of oil on the structures under #3, and the first few inches of the exhaust riser was damp with fresh oil.
Engine is a TSIO-360 FB2. 5 of 6 cylinders have been off in the factory reman’s 1400 hour life. This particular cylinder was last off in 2009 for low compression / exhaust valve work.
The engine monitor was a very valuable piece of data in this situation. It would honestly have been easy to dismiss the vibration and press on, had I not seem the EGT/CHT go dead at the same time. I’m sure the performance was falling off - but it was subtle.
