Hope you don't mind
Yep, I have the Hartzell prop too. An A&P/IA stopped by my hangar one day and mentioned the .032 safety wire on my prop and said I needed .040. I pulled out the manual and showed him the .032 callout. He said it was the first he had heard of that and acted very surprised. I've heard it time and time again that .040 should be used, but I guess the prop manufacturer knows best??osxuser said:Interestingly enough, Hartzell tells you to use .032 wire on the prop bolts. I found that out when we installed our new 3-blade on the Cardinal. The 'standard' .040 is something that every mechanic I know swears by, but the hartzell manual doesn't bear out.
Just curious what the gripe was there?mark manda said:Crankcase vent tube venting right on top of the exhaust pipe.
mark manda said:well, I figure I have an Anna Nicole model and a Paula Abdul version!!!
I got dinged by the FAA Inspector for .030 safety wire on the prop bolts. (I didn't think the .040 would go thru there, it does now.)
A starter cable sitting too close to the exhaust.
Crankcase vent tube venting right on top of the exhaust pipe.
And nylocks on the front rudder pedal and cable assy.
20 hrs. Phase One
60 nm miles
$$$ one bottle of water; our tax dollars at work!!!
(you probably won't hear from me for a while. gotta fly now )
pierre smith said:When you guys get ready for the DAR, think of how neat this inspection was. A clean table for the DAR and a bottle of cold water! First impressions folks.....this was a class act.
Pierre
I have had some negative experience with this installation. On my rocket I was getting excessive oil on the belly, increased oil consumption and a few more minor leaks from the engine than I would have liked. I had been reducing the size of my cowling outlet air and thought that I must have created some more suction in that area. To test that theory I hooked up a water manometre to the dipstick tube and another one too the area above the engine plenum and another tube by where the crankcase vent dumped on to the exhaust pipe. The results were exactly opposite from what I was expecting. The crankcase is being pressurized relative a full 7" of water. Relative to the lower plenum it was about an inch higher. I spoke with knowledgeable engine guys at AirVenture, Bart Lalonde and Allan Barrett, and they both felt that the pressure would cause the problems that I was seeing.The FWF instructions tell you to vent the crank case breather tube over the exhaust so that the oil vapour burns off and doesn't grease up the belly of the plane! Go figure?
Jim Sharkey.
I rerouted the vent aft of the cowling and now I have a -2" reading, or a slight vaccum. Since that time I have over 25 hours on the engine. The oil on my belly has decreased dramatically and all the minor oil leaks, particularily around the prop seal, have dissappeared. My oil consumption went from about 5.5 hours per quart to well over seven hours.
Based on my experience I could not reccomend venting the breather line into the lower cowling area. Oh, yea I do get two or three drops on my hangar floor now. That was the reason for venting the crankcase to the exhaust pipe in the first place but it is a bad tradeoff in my opinion.