[taildragger1]

anyone have a picture how van's describes to place the crankcase vent tube near the exhaust to vaporizes excess oil. I surely dont want to install an air oil seperator, i don't see myself putting oil and water back into my engine. Has anyone ever installed a vent tube all the way to the rear of the aircraft as has been done in the past on some aerobatic aircraft? This way you just place a small water bottle on that vent to collect any oil that drips out while parked in the hanger and dispose of?...My O-320 has 70 hrs on it and really doesn't use much oil.

 

[131RB]

Vans old RV4 plans show an option and routing for a breather tube the length of the fuselage. I didn't think it would be a good idea for a couple of reasons. The old residual oil tends to gum up in the tube causing restriction in the line and if not flushed out from time to time will cause problems down the road. If you have moisture in the line it could freeze in the winter with the same results.
Direct routing of the line and securing over the exaust is simple and straight forward. Running a separator is no problem either if you don't want the oil going back to the engine simply install a catch bottle and drain it at oil change time.
Ryan

 

[taildragger1]

thanks ryan

 

[Walt]

Think of the cleaning process as an opportunity to do a detailed inspection the underside of your airplane

 

[Geeman]

Cleaning under my belly last week I found a broken exhaust clamp. Like Walt says....

 

[taildragger1]

well, the worries about the oil on the belly of my RV3 was for nothing.....the majority of the coloring on the belly of my plane was due to soot from the Rotec throttle body set too rich. Cleaned the airplane and adjusted the throttle body and all is ok now.....it just had me baffled that i had very little oil consumption.....