Rotax Piston Meltdown

[DanH]

Could we see the upper half of the affected cylinder head's combustion chamber, and the upper spark plug?

[D&M Dan]

Not to hijack the thread, but I will be doing my 1st condition inspection next month and was wondering if anyone else has removed the cooling schroud installed on earlier 12s.

Would it be OK to just remove it or is there other parts or procedures required? I have not seen the newer plans.

Sorry to hear of your issue. Definitely heartbreaking after spending so much time and money to build your dream.
Thanks,
Dan

[BillL]

Originally Posted by DanH

Could we see the upper half of the affected cylinder head's combustion chamber, and the upper spark plug?

What are you looking for , Dan? It was clearly detonation/preignition that damaged the piston. But . . it was still cool enough not to scuff the skirt. Still, it does look a little funny. curious.

I wonder why no other piston had any sign at all.

[rongawer]

Originally Posted by waterboy2110

I dug up a Rotax vs UL thread yesterday and it seemed the pushback was the ECM being powered by the ship in case of Alt failure ( I admit skimming the tread). Given that they're moving onto the 914 and it has the same brain to keep alive perhaps Vans will consider the UL.

I do want to see your install. Ray made a good pitch. Going EAB is no big deal. I hope you have success and publish the results for all to see.

I?m hoping to move it out at the airport (Byron) in January; you?re very welcome to come on by. I have quite a few thoughts/comments on ECU?s and reliability/backup, but we can discuss separate to this thread if you want.

[bkervaski]

This stinks, sorry to hear about your troubles.

Nowhere in your message does it say you actually contacted Rotax directly, only a dealer. What did Rotax say?

At very least they should be willing to sell you a replacement at cost.

I don't know anything about Rotax engines but amazed that it can't be repaired.

I'm also curious when the 'melting down' actually took place what happened? How did you handle the situation? Did the engine seize or did you run it home that way?

[waterboy2110]

Originally Posted by D&M Dan

Not to hijack the thread, but I will be doing my 1st condition inspection next month and was wondering if anyone else has removed the cooling schroud installed on earlier 12s.

Would it be OK to just remove it or is there other parts or procedures required? I have not seen the newer plans.

Sorry to hear of your issue. Definitely heartbreaking after spending so much time and money to build your dream.
Thanks,
Dan

I would absolutely remove that shroud. Vans states after a year of testing they've determined it didn't make a difference. If it didn't make a difference it wasn't needed in the first place. The folk at Rotax I've talked to don't like it either.

[waterboy2110]

Originally Posted by bkervaski

This stinks, sorry to hear about your troubles.

Nowhere in your message does it say you actually contacted Rotax directly, only a dealer. What did Rotax say?

At very least they should be willing to sell you a replacement at cost.

I don't know anything about Rotax engines but amazed that it can't be repaired.

I'm also curious when the 'melting down' actually took place what happened? How did you handle the situation? Did the engine seize or did you run it home that way?

The engine can be repaired. If Rotax steps up with warranty they get all parts they are willing to replace up to and including the entire engine. I was led to believe they would replace the engine. When that didn't happen I cut a check and got the plane flying.

The plane flew for approximately 0.1 hours - just ran rough and made it back to the airport at which point an FAA report was filed by the airport crew. Could have been much worse.

I've had several engine mishaps but this was the closest to having an engine try to kill me.

[waterboy2110]

Originally Posted by rongawer

I?m hoping to move it out at the airport (Byron) in January; you?re very welcome to come on by. I have quite a few thoughts/comments on ECU?s and reliability/backup, but we can discuss separate to this thread if you want.

Cool, I'm out at Byron every week for fuel. Let's hook up.

[Azjulian]

Jim - This situation sucks for you, lots of unknowns.

You took the engine to CPS and they broke it down, they are a lic. service centers in the US, if you acquired the engine in the US which you did through Vans then they are a good contact for Rotax for you.

In that breakdown they should have done a parts count and verified what was part of the engine and what was foreign - did that happen ?

What did Bryan say next steps were now ? We can all speculate as to cause on this forum but they are the certified experts and have access to the engine. At an absolute minimum you should get a formal response from CPS.

[rv6ejguy]

Looks like pre-ignition damage, not detonation. I'd also be interested in seeing the other spark plug electrode.