Oil leak

[ScottM]

Some of you may have read of my adventure at getting a top overhaul thanks to the ECI clyinder AD.

Having completed the top, the break in period has started. I have flown the plane for a whole three hours and after a weak in France was looking forward to putting some more hours on this weekend before I go into annual next week.

Well that is not going to happen.

I went to the airport today and when I got to the plane the first thing I checked was to see if there were any oil leaks. After all we had the whole engine apart and put new mags on and a bunch of other stuff in addition to the cylinders. I am used to seeing a couple of drips from the breather and I was not disapointed to see that on the ground. But under my nose wheel was what I would characterize as an unusually large puddle of something.

It was right behind the nose wheel and looked clear, so I bent down and touched it. It was oil, fresh new oil, like what I had put into the plane a few days ago. I opend up the cowl but could not find a source but did see the tell tale streaks of clean oil that would have led to where I found the puddle.

No maintenance guys around this weekend and no way I will fly it with an unknown leak that could get worse in flight. I hope it is not anything too big and just a few bolts that need to be re-torque after a bit of flying.

 

[Michael]

have you checked the dipstick to make sure its the oil thats leaking? I had some hydrollic fluids leak before and came out the same spot underneath the plane as the oil did.

 

[ScottM]

have you checked the dipstick to make sure its the oil thats leaking? I had some hydrollic fluids leak before and came out the same spot underneath the plane as the oil did.

The hydraulic fluid would be red as that is the color that I put in the resivour. Nope this is oil, nice new oil. Only 3 hours since the last oil change.

 

[Steve]

You sure that oil on the ground ever made it into the engine to begin with?

 

[Henning]

The hydraulic fluid would be red as that is the color that I put in the resivour. Nope this is oil, nice new oil. Only 3 hours since the last oil change.

Hydraulic fluid losses its red color with age and often bleeds out of systems oil brown. Best way is to smell/feel it to find out what it is.

 

[ScottM]

Hydraulic fluid losses its red color with age and often bleeds out of systems oil brown. Best way is to smell/feel it to find out what it is.

Did not know about the 'browning' but the oil is clear to a lvery light yellow and looks exactly like what is on the dipstick. You mentioned in another post about the push rod, I forgot to look at those and will on Monday. Either way the mechanic gets it back then.

 

[jfellers]

Too bad about the oil leak. That has got to be frustrating. Hopefully it will turn out to be something simple, quick (and cheap) to repair. Good luck on Monday when the mechanic takes a close look at things.
How did 8116B feel after the top-end overhaul and the new magnetos? Were you able to discern a noticeable improvement in performance? It is probably difficult to tell much in the pattern while listening for any and every new noise. I suspect there were a few clicks and clacks that caught your attention.
Good luck again on Monday, and welcome back form Paris. Did you get to fly under the Eiffel Tower while you were there?

 

[ScottM]

Too bad about the oil leak. That has got to be frustrating. Hopefully it will turn out to be something simple, quick (and cheap) to repair. Good luck on Monday when the mechanic takes a close look at things.
How did 8116B feel after the top-end overhaul and the new magnetos? Were you able to discern a noticeable improvement in performance? It is probably difficult to tell much in the pattern while listening for any and every new noise. I suspect there were a few clicks and clacks that caught your attention.
Good luck again on Monday, and welcome back form Paris. Did you get to fly under the Eiffel Tower while you were there?

Matt wants to put in a new gasket between the oil sump and the crank case anyways. This will be his recomendation and I might just let him this time. I wish he would have noticed the wet look of the gasket when we had the engine all apart instead of after we did the run up.

As for performance it is hard to tell. The engine certainly started very easily with all the new stuff on it and I am making 100 rpms more than before.

BTW I can't believe you got a break in CFI academy to even make a post Hope that is going well Jim. When I get the plane back I despartly need to fly some approaches with you before I loose currency.

 

[Henning]

You sure that oil on the ground ever made it into the engine to begin with?

That was my first suspicion, but apparently it had.

 

[Henning]

Matt wants to put in a new gasket between the oil sump and the crank case anyways. This will be his recomendation and I might just let him this time. I wish he would have noticed the wet look of the gasket when we had the engine all apart instead of after we did the run up.

As for performance it is hard to tell. The engine certainly started very easily with all the new stuff on it and I am making 100 rpms more than before.

100 rpm with the same fixed pitch prop is a good increase.

 

[ScottM]

That was my first suspicion, but apparently it had.

I did the fill without the cowl on and made very little mess. Anything I did make was cleaned up. We wiped down the whole engine after getting it al together. It was dry befor ethe flight.

 

[Graueradler]

If you only did a top overhaul, it seems like the only seals you would have affected are the O-rings at the cylinder bases, the push rod tube seals (both ends), oil drainback lines and rocker arm cover gaskets (Lyc. - I don't know anything about a Continental). None of these would continue to leak with the engine not running ( although already leaked oil would continue to find its way to the puddle). Also, isn't the oil pan to crank case gasket above the normal oil level in the oil pan? I never really thought about it but I always assumed it was. Another possibility is that the oil pan quick drain failed to reseat.

 

[wsuffa]

You'll want to trace it back to the point where it exited the engine. Before you have the gasket changed.

It could be anything from spilling part of a quart when the oil was poured in the filler (oops, but it happens) to something more serious like a hose that was left off or a crack somewhere.

Troubleshoot, then fix.

 

[ggroves]

I had a similar experience after a Mattituck O/H. One of the oil return lines was cracked.

Greg
182RG

 

[Stache]

When you change the cylinders as in your case you back off all the thru bolts, which releases the torque on the case halves. I have seen in some case the case halves seal gets broken even after reinstalling new cylinders and torquing them. Remember you have to retorque the cylinders bolts again after installation check the maintenance manual for the time perion it about 10 hour or so depending on the engine.

Another place to look is the pushrod tubes they have an o-ring that may have been rolled or cut during installation it happens. Or the dipstick, which is made of plastic, will crack at the bottom where it goes into the case and leaks.

The best way I to wash off the engine run it up to normal temperature, shut down and look for leaks. This should happen at the annual inspection anyway.

Best of luck.

Stache

 

[ScottM]

It is leaking around a bolt on the oil pan next to where we installed some new fuel primer line supports.

 

[Tom-D]

It is leaking around a bolt on the oil pan next to where we installed some new fuel primer line supports.

Remove the bolts, clean the hole and bolts with alcohol and apply some Hylamar blue to the bolts let it set overnight and then replace the bolts and torque to spec.

Hylamar sealant never gets really hard, but it will stop leakage thru threaded conections.

 

[ScottM]

I never did follow up with what happened on this problem. There more we looked at the more convinced I was that it was related to the oil pan gasket. That was replaced and I have not been having the leak anylonger.

This past weekend I had the whole cowling off to replace and upgrade the started and got a good look. I thought I say a leak as there was this dark borwn stuff oozing out around the oil pan gasket. The stuff looked like old oil, but for the past 13 hours my oil has been nice and new. I asked the mechanic and he said it was the gasket dressing he used and then went on to mention how whoever ends up rebuilding this engine in the future will curse him for using that stuff.

So no more leak.

 

[JRitt]

smigaldi, Good to hear that you are up and running with no more ghost chasing.

 

[ScottM]

smigaldi, Good to hear that you are up and running with no more ghost chasing.

You know there wasn't that much wrong with the plane. It was just that once I got started with the cylinders I did not want to stop until everything was perfect. I pretty much changed out everything but the crank, cam, case of the engine plus the oil lines. Last night I was thinking since I still have some money in the maintence fund maybe I will do the oil lines next month. That is when I figured out I was out of control. There is nothing wrong with the lines and I kinda planned to replace them at next year's annual. There is no rush.