Just curious as my RV4 is the fist plane that I have owned that has an oil / air separator on it...do they typically get clogged or need any kind of regular inspection / cleaning?
Thx
The antisplat air/oil separator with the one way valve connection to the exhaust have been known to get clogged and needs regular inspection. I believe they call for a 50 hour inspection but I could be wrong on the number of hours.
To clarify - it's the check valve at the exhaust pipe connection that needs to be checked and cleaned, at least on each annual. The heat from the exhaust can cause coking of the oil mist and plug that valve. I'm not aware of any issues with the separator itself, which operates in a normal-FWF-temp environment.
But to answer your question, there is some really gnarly stuff in there, so left to its own devices I would not be surprised if it could clog up, even if you were draining it to the exhaust or somewhere. I understand some people drain it to the sump but that seems like a bad idea to me. The guy who wrote the sky ranch manual compared that to running a tube from your butt back to your mouth!