bill.hutchison
Well Known Member
RV6A - ECI Titan O-360 motor. 1370-ish hours.
I've been chasing a couple of minor leaks over a few months. I've determined that the worst of the leaking is coming from a couple of bolts at the rear of the sump where it attaches to the bottom of the case, on the co-pilot side.
Suspect it has been a longstanding problem since there are a few gobs of permatex that the previous owner used, presumably to deal with this.
It's just enough to be messy but not enough to be a safety issue. I get oil dripping onto the bits of angle (I'm looking at the plans and can't figure out exactly which part this is) aft of the carb on the centerline, below the prop governor, above the slot for the nose gear that you cut in the bottom cowl on 63_6.
Yes, I've checked the prop governor. This is not the source of the leak. It's coming from bolts and dribbling down the case and pooling on those bits of angle.
The leak pools on the angle, drips to the aft lip of the cowl, and blows out all over the belly. Makes a mess.
I know this is subjective, but I don't know what I don't know: Is it worth the time and aggravation to drop the sump from the engine case and install a new gasket/seal?
Doing this would require removing the airbox, the carburetor, all of the exhaust, a bunch of linkages and probably some other things I'm not thinking of. Then it's a good bit of scraping permatex off and getting a new gasket and re-installing.
Would this be a viable repair? Or am I kidding myself about this and it's just going to leak because this is what Lycoming clones do past a certain age? Do I just live with the oil leak?
What would you do?
I've been chasing a couple of minor leaks over a few months. I've determined that the worst of the leaking is coming from a couple of bolts at the rear of the sump where it attaches to the bottom of the case, on the co-pilot side.
Suspect it has been a longstanding problem since there are a few gobs of permatex that the previous owner used, presumably to deal with this.
It's just enough to be messy but not enough to be a safety issue. I get oil dripping onto the bits of angle (I'm looking at the plans and can't figure out exactly which part this is) aft of the carb on the centerline, below the prop governor, above the slot for the nose gear that you cut in the bottom cowl on 63_6.
Yes, I've checked the prop governor. This is not the source of the leak. It's coming from bolts and dribbling down the case and pooling on those bits of angle.
The leak pools on the angle, drips to the aft lip of the cowl, and blows out all over the belly. Makes a mess.
I know this is subjective, but I don't know what I don't know: Is it worth the time and aggravation to drop the sump from the engine case and install a new gasket/seal?
Doing this would require removing the airbox, the carburetor, all of the exhaust, a bunch of linkages and probably some other things I'm not thinking of. Then it's a good bit of scraping permatex off and getting a new gasket and re-installing.
Would this be a viable repair? Or am I kidding myself about this and it's just going to leak because this is what Lycoming clones do past a certain age? Do I just live with the oil leak?
What would you do?
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