480-something right now. Like I said, we send a sample off to Blackstone every time, and what I really like is the comparison with previous reports.Dale,
What?s your engine total time? If it?s less than 500 I can see how you could go 100 hrs on an oil change, but after that my oil was pretty brown at 50 hr intervals.
Rich
Fellas, What am I missing? Some of us determine to spend a heap of dough on an airplane, risk life and limb to enjoy it, and then seaming become tight on oil. Why risk all that by hedging against max oil life, other than because you can. IMHO, I share a belief amongst other equipment operators: Oil is cheap and the fresher it is, the happier our work-horse engines are. Please clue me in on the logic of changing oil at the absolute latest possible time?
Very simple... 100 hours is Rotax recommended oil change interval if using 100% synthetic oil and unleaded Mogas. Just like an automobile - you don't change oil at 2500 miles if manufacturer specifies 5000 mile interval. The car I now drive specs 10,000 mile oil change. Modern engines (Rotax) with close mfgr tolerances, good metallurgy, and water cooling far surpass the 1940's technology still used by Continental and Lycoming.
Follow-up to post #132 above...
So, I spent $345 plus shipping for two sets of 861-189 floats and two gaskets. I did the installation this morning and took my digital gram scale with me to measure the old floats, and you guessed it, each pair of floats weighed less than 7 grams. Original floats with 428TT and 100% 93E10. Nuts...
This is 2019 isn't it? I started working in my dad's service station 50+years ago. Rebuilt a multitude of carbs and I don't remember sinking floats. In 50+years Bing carbs have gone backwards. This is my 4th set if bad floats in 3 years. That's $600+ in new floats. Come on Rotax! Sorry for the rant.
Yes they are the new floats
Yes they are the new floats
I think my last sinkers were the new ones with the short sleeves ... Mogas with ethanol used exclusively.
yes, I did
After some 14 months and 167 hours (Hobbs) using primarily Shell 91 mogas with <10% ethanol, my four #861188 floats (ROTAX says these floats are the same as the latest #861189 floats) now weigh 3.6 / 4.7 grams and 5.4 / 4.1 grams. ROTAX has not solved its float sinking problem.
Out of frustration, I talked to the Bing US Distributor Tech Rep. Was told that Rotax does not buy their replacement floats from Bing. Sounds like they found a cheaper manufacturer. Was able to buy floats from Bing for $110 a pair. That's $40.95 cheaper than Lockwood. Additionally I talked to Jeff at Marvel Scherble (sp). He said that their manufacturer was doing a redesign on their floats and that he could not give me a date; however, he did say he would call me if he could get any more information.
My xperience with AVGAS and occasional Car Gas is no sinkers or weight changes in over 400 hours. How hard is it for the carb and engine mfg to rule on the effects of ethanol on floats.
I'm not sure ethanol is necessarily the issue. My understand is that BRP-Rotax tested their engines in Brazil where the fuel, I think, is as high as 25% without issue.
Maybe they just tested engine performance as in the combustion cycle and not about effects on prolonged engine component exposure.
Maybe being just a little past the acceptable level would explain the intermittent nature of the problem.