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Fouling Sniffle Valve

wawrzynskivp

Well Known Member
Hey All,

I am experiencing my third fouling of my sniffle valve. IO 390 with Superior Cold Sump and Airflow Performance FM-200. Sniffle is fouling and sticks open providing enough manifold leak to disrupt idle mixture.

Removing and cleaning with solvent provides 10-15 hrs of normal operation.

Build is Lycoming Thunderbolt. Engine does weep small amount of oil down intake tube that Lycoming considers 'normal.' Sniffle is the $100+ model from Spruce.

Any thoughts here? Right now I am jamming a plug in the drain tube preflight and removing post flight.
 
Buy the one from Don at Airflow Performance. They are a very nice company to work with and, the valve is cheap and works well. It is a simple AN fitting with a metal ball and pin.

I had the same issue as you twice. This fixed it.
 
Hey All,

I am experiencing my third fouling of my sniffle valve. IO 390 with Superior Cold Sump and Airflow Performance FM-200. Sniffle is fouling and sticks open providing enough manifold leak to disrupt idle mixture.

Removing and cleaning with solvent provides 10-15 hrs of normal operation.

Build is Lycoming Thunderbolt. Engine does weep small amount of oil down intake tube that Lycoming considers 'normal.' Sniffle is the $100+ model from Spruce.

Any thoughts here? Right now I am jamming a plug in the drain tube preflight and removing post flight.

I had exactly the same problem with the Lycoming sniffle valve. I tried cleaning it up as well with no luck. I bought the Airflow Performance sniffle valve which is easy to clean and no problems since. The problem with the Lycoming part, aside from an exorbitant price is that you can't get access to the innards for a good cleaning. Airflow Performance's version is a lot cheaper and simpler. See https://airflowperformance.com/index.php/product/manifold-drain/
 
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