Darrel Starr
Registered User
Plymouth, MN
A couple of weeks ago, I made a flight into Wisconsin stopping at seven airports. Normally with the original breather tube installation, I would get a few drops of oil on the boot cowl after a ride around the patch. But all that stopping and starting left quite a mess on the bottom of the boot cowl and left gear leg. Apparently some oil condenses in the aluminum breather tube and blows out on restart.
So last week I installed an Airwolf Minisep air/oil separator. Today I took a short ride just to make sure all was well and in 0.2 hr with the oil temp at 180F I got no noticeable residue out of the Minisep outlet. Then Vivian and I flew it for an hour at 2350 rpm, 195F oil temp. At the end of the flight I had no oil residue inside the cowl but had a moist crescent on the right side of the boot cowl where the water vapor had re-condensed after being sucked out through the right cheek. So far so good. I like being able to see that water vapor isn't just draining back into the engine. Next, I'll make one of those multi stop trips to see what happens.
So last week I installed an Airwolf Minisep air/oil separator. Today I took a short ride just to make sure all was well and in 0.2 hr with the oil temp at 180F I got no noticeable residue out of the Minisep outlet. Then Vivian and I flew it for an hour at 2350 rpm, 195F oil temp. At the end of the flight I had no oil residue inside the cowl but had a moist crescent on the right side of the boot cowl where the water vapor had re-condensed after being sucked out through the right cheek. So far so good. I like being able to see that water vapor isn't just draining back into the engine. Next, I'll make one of those multi stop trips to see what happens.