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air/oil separator question

T

trib

Well Known Member
I'm looking for opinions on using an air/oil separator. I plan on general flying using the abilities of the plane for sport aero. Is a separator typically installed? If so, if you have installed one and think it gives good results, what kind is it? Looking for some recommendations here. I checked ACS and they have several. This one- http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/eppages/hboilbreather.php
is only $50 and looks to be of good quality. Has anyone used one of these or heard of any results?

I went for transition training this past week with Jan Bussell. I highly recommend it. He did an excellent job.

I also used the RV Hotel and called up Turbo Eddie for a place to stay. Not only was he a great host, he wouldn't let me drive the hour to Okeechobee to fly with Jan. He flew me over and back.:D Thanks again Eddie for a great couple of days. There sure are a lot of good people (RV'ers) in Florida.

Also, thanks DR for a great website. The RV experience wouldn't be the same without it.
 
I've tried several air/oil separators including the one you listed and removed them all. In my experience, I get about the same amount of oil on the belly with or without a separator.
 
Oil Sep

Agree with Mel.
I have tried a couple, one of the cheap ones and one of the expensive ones.
While I never really had oil on the belly I had a drip or 2 coming out the breather tube after shut down.
Now I have no drip for the first 20 hours after an oil change and after that
I get progressively more drips until I change the oil.
My 10 will not have an oil separator, makes for less stuff on the firewall.
 
I have owned and flown a number of RVs and rockets and it really depends on the particular engine and/or installation.I would reccomend flying without the separator and seeing if it is needed first. It is not hard to add one later. I have built one myself using two soup cans, one inside the other. It was a fun little project that actually worked! The price was right and it looked just funky enough to be interesing.
 
I've had more oil on the belly than I like, so I recently fabricated one from some Al tubing, stuffed with stainless steel scrub pad - similar to the Bingelis design. Just installed, so few data on effectiveness, but in 4 hours it looks to be cutting down on any oil getting away.

greg
 
Bavafa said:
I have installed the one from VANs (more expensive) and I get about zero oil in the belly. I exit route is on the exhaust and there is no stain on the exhaust for the oil burn, and I usually keep the full 8 qt of oil in the engine. So, I highly recommend it.

http://vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?ident=1260122734-258-378&browse=engines&product=air-oil

Mehrdad
RV7A - IO360M1B
Click to expand...

Is anyone else running this separator? If so, what are your thoughts on its effectiveness?
 
Advanced Aero Components, Air/Oil Sep

Advanced Aero Components ,www.advancedaero.com,

I just fitted an advanced aero components 310 Air/oil separator to my Rv7,
seems to be the first one that i had that works reasonably well.
Really nice workmanship and serviceable, apparently they specialise in extra Vans Rv gear

Ben
 
Out of the breather comes:

-oil mist mixed with, water, water vapor, acids and other products of the combustion process.

The separator returns not only oil to the engine but also much of the junk you would like to get rid of. Take your pick, (1) cleaner belly or (2) cleaner oil in your engine.

There are better solutions, breather exit slightly above the exhaust pipe or a long breather going all the way to the tail.
 
I made my own out of a re-sized hair spray can. It didn't work well until I brought in cool outside air to blow on the vapors from the breather inside the separator. This cool air condenses-out the vapors and returns the oil to the crankcase, with absolutely no oil at the breather output.
 
asav8tor said:
-oil mist mixed with, water, water vapor, acids and other products of the combustion process.
Click to expand...
Most of the water vapour will exit as vapour through the overflow tube on the air/oil separator. That's what it's for, to separate the air (or vapour) from the oil.

All of your oil has water and acids and combustion by-products in it, not just the oil that gets up near the breather. You lose only a small percentage of your oil through your breather (in fact, in the ideal case, you lose none), and the by-products are an even smaller percentage of that small percentage. So you're not getting rid of much in the way of by-products by leaving your breather as a simple tube.

The breather is an overflow only... It's not an "exhaust pipe" for your oil system.
 
Sorry for the slight hi-jack, but a factor to consider is how much oil you are putting into your engine. A lot of owners will over fill.

We once had a Lycoming rep over here ( South Africa ) and his advise was to to fill say to 8 qts on a 360 and then fly it to the point where it seems to stabilize. This should be between 5 and 6. Then keep the level right there in future.

On our 10 I also find that there are a few drops running down the exhaust after shut down, but not too much oil on the belly. Have to clean it every 10 hours or so.

On the 2 seaters playing a bit and being upside down sometimes, seem to produce a bit more oil on the belly.
 
Point taken, exhaust pipe was a bad analogy. But air/oil separators have overflow tubes too, to prevent pressure buildup and to allow vapours to escape.
 
Seems like if the breather hose exit is near and on top of an exhaust pipe, problem over.

I've use separators, they are a pain in the butt to maintain.
 
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