Smoke Puffs

My Rocket gets oil-on-belly and I expect it. I don't have inverted oil/fuel system, no separator, just old-fashioned breather-tube with outlet aimed at the exhaust near cowl outlet. I have read Tom Martin's thread on same subject... and I will try to clean-up the whole system someday with all this good counsel in mind.

Observation: In the videos I have made with rear facing belly cam, I notice puff(s) of "smoke" when pulling "g". I can't imagine the combustion side of the engine doing anything different during these maneuvers so I surmise that the puff is 1) oil hitting exhaust ... or... 2) is a concentration of oil mist leaving the vent. The exercise associated with wiping the belly is more consistent with "2". I fly all short cycle flights, about 20 minutes, so I have a hard time keeping track of oil "consumption"... seems to be 1 qt in 4 hrs.

In the video (attached) you would see a double puff at 10 / 12 sec, then one at 35 sec. In real life, the second "g" pull happened about 2 minutes after the 1st.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSuyeifRHM8

My own theory is that separator-less vent line collects oil mist inside its walls rather quickly, then oil flows overboard with gusto when I pull a bit of "g". It doesn't take much... and I am surprised at the visibility of this phenom... unless it really is smoke..!

Any opinion ? JohnM N5800

I agree.......

........with you since you're making pretty good heat in the exhaust at cruise. Looks like a drop at a time hitting the exhaust but I'm surprised that there'd be that much heat that far down the pipes.

Bye,