My engine swallowed my air filter

It could've been a backfire, you don't know. Doesn't really matter though, once that air filter was damaged, in all probability pieces of the filter ended up being ingested by the engine.
 
I took my Jeep through a mud hole pretty regularly, it was usually knee deep. Then one day, it was neck deep, someone with something much bigger than my Jeep had dug it out.

Water, mud and the entire paper air filter went into the engine. A guy in a Toyota that was about to pull me out was making fun of me for getting stuck. With water over the windows and the interior full I turned the key with the clutch out and the starter and battery almost got it all the way out of the hole. Had to prove I wasn't stuck, I had an inop engine.

I needed a rebuild after that. It was my most expensive mistake off-road.
 
Fiveslide said:
I took my Jeep through a mud hole pretty regularly, it was usually knee deep. Then one day, it was neck deep, someone with something much bigger than my Jeep had dug it out.

Water, mud and the entire paper air filter went into the engine. A guy in a Toyota that was about to pull me out was making fun of me for getting stuck. With water over the windows and the interior full I turned the key with the clutch out and the starter and battery almost got it all the way out of the hole. Had to prove I wasn't stuck, I had an inop engine.

I needed a rebuild after that. It was my most expensive mistake off-road.
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Ya, but you saved face, lol.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I don't
Until your post, I didn't know that was an option.

I am not aware of my plane ever backfiring though.
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They do, on startup sometimes, and they burn that filter as Tom says. Rare, but it happens. A too-rich mixture can do it, as in overpriming. Sometimes fuel dribbles out of the carb airbox as it runs back down the carb throat, and the backfire starts a fire in the cowling. I watched it happen one morning.
 
Engines have ingested and spit out lots worse things than a few bits of foam. As long as it is not a stainless screw or some such, I would not give it a second thought. But, we are supposed to be changing that filter before it becomes gummy or rotten.
 
PaulS said:
It could've been a backfire, you don't know. Doesn't really matter though, once that air filter was damaged, in all probability pieces of the filter ended up being ingested by the engine.
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probably wasn't any pieces, the foam just melts.
 
need pictures of old filter.
 
Salty said:
Indeed.
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With that said, I change mine at minimum at every annual...twice per year if I'm operating a lot off of grass. I never fly over 100 hr per year these days so I don't have to worry about that requirement. I used to.
 
MIFlyer said:
i'd run a borescope camera (like $40) all the way from filter to carb, and then from carb into the intakes as far as I could.

PS, don't you wish the pilots could change air filters as preventive MX so you could have just changed it when you saw that it was getting dirty?
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Geez, I hope pilots can change the air filter. I always did.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Geez, I hope pilots can change the air filter. I always did.
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While not specifically listed in Part 43 Appendix A as a Preventative Maintenance task, the below letter of interpretation from the FAA does give the opinion that Appendix A is not intended to be a full list, but more representative of the tasks one might consider as major repairs, major alterations and preventative maintenance. As long as it doesn't involve complex disassembly/assembly to change the filter, I'd certainly consider it a preventative maintenance task.

"Similarly, for the same reason, we also believe that the following sentence in Advisory Circular 43-12A, Preventive Maintenance (which was referenced in Mr. Hernandez's letter), is overly restrictive. That sentence, found in Paragraph 3(b)(1), states: "If a task or maintenance function does not appear in the list, it is not preventive maintenance." As with the other paragraphs of Appendix A (i.e., on major repairs and major alterations), the lists are better viewed as examples of the tasks in each category-they cannot be considered all- inclusive. "

https://www.faa.gov/about/office_or...2009/Coleal - (2009) Legal Interpretation.pdf
 
Tom-D said:
That too, primary = fire protection.
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Funny how the manufacturers marketing statement says nothing about that primary purpose.

Polyurethane as the filtering media combined with Brackett's patented "wetting agent" will give your engine protection from dust and dirt to prolong engine life and cut maintenance. The Brackett polyurethane aircraft element can be changed without replacing the complete air filter assembly. Now induction systems, cylinders, and combustion chambers can be kept almost totally free of harmful contaminants with correct fitting of Brackett aviation air filters.
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Salty said:
Funny how the manufacturers marketing statement says nothing about that primary purpose.
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I will save the next instruction sheet I get with the new foamies
 
I did find another press release that mentions fire retardant treatment, but it’s not the wetting agent.

Your new polyurethane air filter element has been designed to provide maximum dust collecting efficiency, non-restrictive air flow, and economical element replacement, while maintaining a lightweight filter. The element has been treated with a distinctive treatment called a wetted agent and is approximately 98% efficient. The wetted agent is an accompaniment in the efficient capturing of dust. In addition, the element has received a fire retardant treatment. For the above reasons, replace the element each 100 hours of use, 12 months or when 50% covered with foreign material. DO NOT WASH AND REUSE.
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Good enough, it's in there. I thought it was one and the same.
 
Salty said:
I did find another press release that mentions fire retardant treatment, but it’s not the wetting agent.
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I see from this and earlier posts you're pretending to have the knowledge of an IA-A&P again. I just can't tell if it's hubris or ignorance which makes you believe you can make judgements about subjects you know nothing about.
 
3393RP said:
I see from this and earlier posts you're pretending to have the knowledge of an IA-A&P again. I just can't tell if it's hubris or ignorance which makes you believe you can make judgements about subjects you know nothing about.
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Lol ok.

Not sure how asking questions and pointing out facts is pretending to be an IA, or showing hubris, but whatever floats your boat.
 
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3393RP said:
I see from this and earlier posts you're pretending to have the knowledge of an IA-A&P again. I just can't tell if it's hubris or ignorance which makes you believe you can make judgements about subjects you know nothing about.
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I don't see your problem- he was right, wasn't he? Evidence was cited, wasn't it? To believe otherwise is argumentum ad verecundiam.
 
Are we getting soft? Am I the only one one who first read this and thought "heh, heh, heh, heh...Bryan's airplane swallows."
 
Cap'n Jack said:
I don't see your problem- he was right, wasn't he? Evidence was cited, wasn't it? To believe otherwise is argumentum ad verecundiam.
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I think not accepting everything Tom says without question counts as hubris to some.
 
Salty said:
I think not accepting everything Tom says without question counts as hubris to some.
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I don't know about that, but I know that if Tom is still actively wrenching when I get a plane of my own, I'll be talking to him about helping me keep it maintained.
 
MIFlyer said:
I don't know about that, but I know that if Tom is still actively wrenching when I get a plane of my own, I'll be talking to him about helping me keep it maintained.
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The facts here show it pretty clearly, even if you choose to ignore them.
 
Salty said:
I did find another press release that mentions fire retardant treatment, but it’s not the wetting agent.
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Still kinda nit pickin don't ya think?

OBTW
hu·bris
/ˈ(h)yo͞obrəs/
Learn to pronounce
noun
  1. excessive pride or self-confidence.
    "the self-assured hubris among economists was shaken in the late 1980s"
    synonyms: arrogance, conceit, conceitedness, haughtiness, pride, vanity, self-importance, self-conceit, pomposity, superciliousness, feeling of superiority; More
    • (in Greek tragedy) excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.
 
Tom-D said:
Still kinda nit pickin don't ya think?

OBTW
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That's the other point. I wasn't even disagreeing with you in the first place. I went out of my way to keep looking until I found something that showed you were right to some degree and posted it here for all to see.

Then I get called out for my "hubris".

Very rich.

The only possible thing left to consider hubris would be that I didn't just accept what Tom said without question.
 
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