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Yet another milestone today 2-22-2020

JBPILOT

Well Known Member
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Fantastic... If you wouldn't mind, can you tell us a little bit about maintenance required to get that many hours. Engine using any oil, type oil used, gearbox overhaul, prop overhaul, ignition, carbs, basic engine stuff. I'm at 500TT and still smiling every flight.
 
What I can remember - -

Uses about a quart of oil in 100 hours. Aeroshell Sport plus 4 oil. Change oil at 100 hours. Never had 100 LL in it. Prop original. Updated front hub half. Had to replace both GREEN stripe ign boxes. Yellow Stripe have been good. Never changed floats. Replaced battery at 10 years and 1 month. Chose to replace flywheel very recently. ( lot of work ). Gear box seems good. I took it apart a few months ago. Always inside good hangar. Have engine heater and oil thermostat. "Heater Damper Door" is best of my inventions for comfort. Few paint marks here and there. Still very dependable to me.
 
Uses about a quart of oil in 100 hours. Aeroshell Sport plus 4 oil. Change oil at 100 hours. Never had 100 LL in it. Prop original. Updated front hub half. Had to replace both GREEN stripe ign boxes. Yellow Stripe have been good. Never changed floats. Replaced battery at 10 years and 1 month. Chose to replace flywheel very recently. ( lot of work ). Gear box seems good. I took it apart a few months ago. Always inside good hangar. Have engine heater and oil thermostat. "Heater Damper Door" is best of my inventions for comfort. Few paint marks here and there. Still very dependable to me.

Original Voltage regulator is still good?
 
V R - - -

Yes it 'was', but a friend had purchased a S H reg, and never used it. I bought it from him 2 years ago, and I like it. My opinion. The reason for the failures is over-loading them. I never installed lights or a second screen. My amp display cycles from -1 to +4 amps. Also think it explains my long battery life also. 10 years, 1 month. Never stress it. Thanks for question. I'm sure I forgot things others might be interested in.
 
Yes it 'was', but a friend had purchased a S H reg, and never used it. I bought it from him 2 years ago, and I like it. My opinion. The reason for the failures is over-loading them. I never installed lights or a second screen. My amp display cycles from -1 to +4 amps. Also think it explains my long battery life also. 10 years, 1 month. Never stress it. Thanks for question. I'm sure I forgot things others might be interested in.

Good theory, but... My Ducati VR went south at a little over 100 hrs. One EFIS, no AP, no lights - just a bad VR. John Deere to the rescue.

JBPILOT, thanks for all the follow-up.
 
Seems like the older 12s got the good floats and batteries. We finally replaced our original battery a few months ago after nearly 10 years (SN 120222 completed 1/2011), don't know when it was actually installed but probably months before that. Single D180 with AP, no lights.

We're still on the original carb floats. The Ducati regulator failed a few years back, the first Deere clone went up in smoke after about 30 hours, so we've got the Silent Hektik in now. Only about half the hours you have on yours, though, John. We're also running Sport Plus 4 and changing every 100 hours or annually, whichever comes first. It's not burning more than half a pint to a pint or in between changes.
 
N836BL gets Sport Plus 4 every 50 hours... it does use 1/4 to 1/3 liter from May - Sept here in So CA between oil changes. Oil temps will get up to 230F in the hot months, then we back off on the climb rate to keep the oil temps in the green. We are in/near Class C airport "cake" airspace, so limited to 1000 ASL at airport and max of 3000 on initial climb while in KWHP airspace. A late start 85 or 90F morning with knob to the wall for 1800 to 2000 ft of elev gain will just about put it in the yellow, before needing to be backed off, at full gross 1320.

It doesn't seem to consume or need any added make up oil from Fall through Spring, oil temps always in the green during the cooler months and days.

225 hrs on the Hobbs.

Ducati went wonky somewhere between 180 and 210 hours, I nursed it for a while there, finally changed it out. Still on original floats since Jan of 2016.

Skyview Touch 10" screen does pull some current, me thinks, compared to the smaller screens and the GTR 200 is a 12.5W radio vs earlier 10 watters. Add it all up, and you're pulling some current if your battery is low in charge, to start out. Dual 10" EFIS has to be hard on the Voltage Regulator, especially if you run it at full brightness, all the time.
 
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I do compression check at annual - -

and it is 78 - 79 / 80. Nothing much ever changes. A few minor improvements could have made this little motor near perfect. Initially, better soft-start ign boxes. Continued making the floats the same, and latest flywheel. I consider it very good now that I have fixed the above things. I would not be surprised to see this motor go to 3,000 hours.

Also, I usually do not stress the engine much. I usually allow plenty of time to get to destination. 4900 - 5000 rpm is an easy cruise speed. Sometimes even slower. Rarely run near 5500.
 
Congrats, John. Good solid build job!

In the ROTAX service and maintenance courses the instructor said that the 912s he overhauled frequently looked like new when he tore them down if they ran unleaded fuel.

As I recall ROTAX does not authorize the reuse of their pressed fit crankshafts at overhaul. I?m guessing that or the gearbox might be the barrier to 3000 hr TBO.
 
Good points - -

I feel the new flywheel lessens some of the violent gear lash during start up. Might not be a big issue overall, but it sure starts with way less stress in my opinion. I feel if you take the reduction drive apart once in a while, and look it over well, it will satisfy my concerns. Also, after I do any work on the engine, I am the only one to fly it until I get a few hours on it.

An engineering friend of mine always says TBO is based upon expected life, cut in half, so this engine could be capable of maybe 4000 hours before failure(s). I don't plan to find that out, but the engine would have little value whether 2000 or 3000 hours is my guess. Likely best to just buy a new one rather than overhaul it if it goes well to say 3000 hours.
 
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