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12-28-2012, 08:49 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Arlington, WA
Posts: 799
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And here's the last chapter to this entertaining troubleshooting event...
This morning, my engine guru managed to pull himself away from his wife's honey-do list for some man cave time. We snuck away to my hangar to get to the bottom of this mystery.
We began by pulling the injector from all four cylinders. Using brake cleaner and Q-tips, this is what we got
Based on the stuff found in the injectors, we backed up to the inlet filter in the fuel servo, where we found more cruddies. The crud found in the inlet filter had the look of fine-hair fiberglass mat.
Based on the CRUD found in the fuel servo, we backed up to the fuel filter located upstream of the electric fuel pump. We found larger chunks of debris. The debris was smearable black material. The amount found in the fuel filter was not very much. It may have blocked about 1% of the fuel filter. The dismaying part is that the fuel filter had been cleaned during my last annual about 20 engine hours ago!
Based on the black, smearable material found, we postulated that it may be ProSeal that may be breaking off in the tanks and migrating through the filters. If you remember from a previous post in this thread, I run MoGas most of the time. (non-alcohol Premium grade) So I drained both fuel tanks, and allowed them to dry out for awhile. Using a q-tip taped to a long stick, I swabbed several ProSeal locations inside the tanks to see if there was any softness or failure in the ProSeal. I didn't get any smearing of the ProSeal.
Next, I hooked up a fuel pump to the fuel tank sump, added five gallons of AvGas, and recirculated the fuel (through two in-line see-through filters) back to the tanks for about an hour. The filters did not seem to get any dirtier, but I did not cut them open to examine the media up close. Finally, I filled the tanks with AvGas and went up for about twenty minutes of pattern work. Everything ran fine at this point, and I'm almost done with this chapter.
My last action item will be to open up the fuel spider, remove the diaphram, and clean out the orifices in the spider to make sure that there's nothing left in the system.
Although I've been flying for 480 hours on MoGas, I think that I'm going to have to stick to AvGas. I don't know if I got a bad batch of fuel that caused all of this trouble, or if this was building up and just finally reached a peak. (I think it's the bad batch of fuel - based on cleaning all screens and filters just a few hobbs hours ago.)
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Scott "Grumpy" Stewart
RV-7 N957RV (First Flight on Dec 18, 2009 )
RV-14 N144P (Empennage complete, wings almost complete, fuselage almost complete)
#866 on the Van's RV-7 hobbs
#6563 on Van's generic hobbs
Arlington, WA
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12-28-2012, 09:24 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: 8I3
Posts: 3,564
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Scott, you're fuel filter is the problem, not the mogas. Its not fine enough to catch the crud that is making its way upstream.
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Please don't PM me! Email only!
Bob Japundza CFI A&PIA
N9187P PA-24-260B Comanche, flying
N678X F1 Rocket, under const.
N244BJ RV-6 "victim of SNF tornado" 1200+ hrs, rebuilding
N8155F C150 flying
N7925P PA-24-250 Comanche, restoring
Not a thing I own is stock.
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12-28-2012, 10:29 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: -
Posts: 502
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Scott,
Would you mind posting what fuel filter you are currently using?
Thanks,
David
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12-29-2012, 01:31 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Arlington, WA
Posts: 799
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Quote:
Originally Posted by digidocs
Scott,
Would you mind posting what fuel filter you are currently using?
Thanks,
David
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Van's Fuel Injection Installation Kit
I have the standard fuel injection system from Van's with the Airflow Performance fuel filter.

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_______________________________
Scott "Grumpy" Stewart
RV-7 N957RV (First Flight on Dec 18, 2009 )
RV-14 N144P (Empennage complete, wings almost complete, fuselage almost complete)
#866 on the Van's RV-7 hobbs
#6563 on Van's generic hobbs
Arlington, WA
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12-29-2012, 02:27 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Coventry. England
Posts: 614
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Good job but.....
Hi Scott,
While all this stuff if bad I would not assume that it was the cause of your problem.......it may be, but for you loose a cylinder, the fuel feed to that cylinder would have to be temporarily cut off.
Compression, fuel and a spark are the three things you need, so a sticky valve could still be the thing that actually caused it.
I have often come across situations like this where you think you have found the culprit only for the problem to occur again, so take care for the next few flights.
__________________
http://www.aerobuilder.blogspot.com
Steve Arnold
England
In completion stage of Loehle P5151
Built and now Flying G.BVLR Vans RV4
Rebuilt G.BDBD Tailwind
Rebuilt G BVTN Kitfox
Built G CDCD RV9A with WAM120
Riveted wings on Glastar G.LEZZ Now (G. SKUA)
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12-29-2012, 04:40 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 427
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The MoGas - do you transport it by some means to your airplane? If so I would look at these items first.
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Doug Gray
RV-6 completed, flying since July 2010
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12-29-2012, 05:23 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX
Posts: 5,686
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DakotaHawk
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The AFP filter is 125 micron so it's not an overly fine unit, I prefer to use a 74 micron unit.
__________________
Walt Aronow, DFW, TX (52F)
EXP Aircraft Services LLC
Specializing in RV Condition Inspections, Maintenance, Avionics Upgrades
Dynamic Prop Balancing, Pitot-Static Altmeter/Transponder Certification
FAA Certified Repair Station, AP/IA/FCC GROL, EAA Technical Counselor
Authorized Garmin G3X Dealer/Installer
RV7A built 2004, 1700+ hrs, New Titan IO-370, Bendix Mags
Website: ExpAircraft.com, Email: walt@expaircraft.com, Cell: 972-746-5154
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12-29-2012, 07:03 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Central IL
Posts: 5,516
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Where to source?
Walt, where to you get that 74 micron filter and will it fit in the Airflow performance housing? Is the pressure drop much more to affect vapor formation? Thanks.
For reference:
Oil filters ~ 30 micron
Diesel prefilters ~ 15 micron
Diesel fuel filters ~ 5 micron
__________________
Bill
RV-7
Lord Kelvin:
“I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about,
and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you
cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge
is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind.”
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12-29-2012, 07:20 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX
Posts: 5,686
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BillL
Walt, where to you get that 74 micron filter and will it fit in the Airflow performance housing? Is the pressure drop much more to affect vapor formation? Thanks.
For reference:
Oil filters ~ 30 micron
Diesel prefilters ~ 15 micron
Diesel fuel filters ~ 5 micron
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I use a FlowEzy 3000 unit, you may want to check with Don at AFP for a replacement element source on his unit.
__________________
Walt Aronow, DFW, TX (52F)
EXP Aircraft Services LLC
Specializing in RV Condition Inspections, Maintenance, Avionics Upgrades
Dynamic Prop Balancing, Pitot-Static Altmeter/Transponder Certification
FAA Certified Repair Station, AP/IA/FCC GROL, EAA Technical Counselor
Authorized Garmin G3X Dealer/Installer
RV7A built 2004, 1700+ hrs, New Titan IO-370, Bendix Mags
Website: ExpAircraft.com, Email: walt@expaircraft.com, Cell: 972-746-5154
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