LettersFromFlyoverCountry
Well Known Member
I buttoned up at the airplane after the annual and took it out for a run up and high-speed taxi on Saturday, then noticed a line of oil coming down the gear leg.
The engine has always been a little weepy around there -- I'll never stop the occasional drip coming out of the oil screen plug (at least by following the torque instructions for it . I've got oil around the hex plugs (and the one with the square underneath it on the oil sump that I don't use. I've tried tightening them and they're tight but they still weep (I wonder if some Fuel Lube/EZ Turn would help?).
But this latest leak shown below seems to come from the cover just to the left of the oil return (I have the thing plumbed for CS but I'm fixed pitch) and where it meets the case itself.
I put a wrench on the four nuts here (for orientation, you're looking straight up from the bottom and the studs point straight aft. Oil sump lower and left side) and they weren't loose, really. I could turn them slightly with a bit of a pull. And I couild do the same with the nuts where it attaches to the case.
A couple of questions: (1) Does an engine tend to leak more when it hasn't been run in almost three months? And if so (2) does the leak subside somewhat? (3) What is the art of slowing a leak like this? and (4) What is the point at which you say, engines are dirty things and the I can live with some oil?
This engine does not use much oil. Of course it doesn't run for long periods either. Tops is a couple of hours. If I throw a quart in every 12 hours, it wouldn't surprise me to learn a lot of it is thrown overboard via the breather tube.
BTW, I'm really sorry I ever put a whistle hole in the breather tube. With a 7A, it's almost impossible to bend the breather tube to drop the oil over the exhaust stack... the engine mount gets in the way and the the whistle hole just sends the oil every which way.