Ragsf15e

I believe you, but even with a new battery, that’s what the jpi shows. It’s probably just a function of how/where the ammeter is wired. I bet if i had an old analog ammeter it would look like zero. Sometimes the accuracy of digital is more than we need.

I think you should try it with the engine off and turn everything on. See what it reads. Mine also reads ~4 amps but that’s the current being supplied to continuously charge the battery, not the total load.

Just to be clear, are you talking about leaning during your ground ops, takeoff, climb, cruise, all of the above? Heres a quick primer to make sure you’re on the same page with what most of us are saying… Ground ops ( @Shadrach is going to disagree with this but it certainly won’t hurt anything), lean it way back. Like to the point where it stumbles and just barely push it in to run smooth. This hurst nothing as you are at real low power. Run up, you will need to be more rich but not full rich, especially at your DA. You won’t hurt anything doing a normal runup leaned out somewhat and you’ll likely get a better idea of the health of your ignition. Takeoff, most of us use a target egt number (like shadrach mentioned ~1200 egt) to set the mixture on takeoff. At your DA, you certainly need to lean some. This target egt is found by doing a full rich sea level takeoff and noting your egts but around 1200 is close. You could also do a full power runup to find a good mixture. Climb, climb at a faster speed than Vy for cooling. I use ~110-115mph indicated (mine is mph not knots), and lean every few thousand feet as you climb to maintain that target egt. If your cylinders are going above 400, make it a little richer (and speed up). If you’re too lean during takeoff or climb you will quickly see hot chts, so be careful here. Cruise, lean to peak egt and then choose either rich by about 100 degrees (from the first cylinder to peak) or just slightly lean of peak (from the last one to peak). If you’re lean of peak, leaner still gets cooler chts while richer is warmer. It’s the opposite if you’re rich of peak. Ask questions about what doesn’t make sense to you. It’s not good just to go out and run real lean without knowing when/why you’re doing it and what you’re supposed to get from it.

That seems real good for oil consumption.

I guess what I’m saying is blowby (some) is normal. We all have some. Even a new engine will have some. The tolerances are much different than modern liquid cooled car engines, so expect a little blowby. If suddenly you’re losing a qt of oil every 2-3 hours and the belly under the pilot side is super oily, then maybe you’ve got a blowby problem. What was your oil usage again?

I agree, he doesn’t have a blowby problem, he’s got an air cooled lycoming aircraft engine!

You’ll save money and more importantly you’ll know so much more about your airplane! As you get better, you’ll be able to show up to your A&P having done the troubleshooting and already knowing what needs fixed/replaced. It really works so much better. You’ll quickly get a good idea of what you’re legal and capable (they can be different) to fix vs what you need A&P help for.

If nothing else, you’ll narrow it down to mag, wire harness, or technique!

When my cylinder couldn’t be overhauled, I found an OH one at Western Skyways that they sent pretty quickly for a reasonable (in 2020) $1800.

Wait until the shop gets it and says it can’t be overhauled! Ha, I had that happen, it’s not fun. Also, is it getting oh or “repaired” because you’ll be thinking of all the stuff they didn’t have to do to “repair” it when it’s having issues in 300 hours. I wish new ones were available because 3 of mine are “repaired” and one is oh and I would have been better off with 4 new or at least all 4 oh…

My cylinders always have a little oil in them as they are chrome and the channel chrome doesn’t seal as well with the rings. Anyway, they do have a little oil, they also have good compression, but they have never (kow) fouled plugs. Now I’m using the slightly longer tempest fine wires, so i wonder if that’s the difference? While it’s not cheap (the plugs are ~135 ea), I might change my bottom plugs to the longer fine wires before I start removing cylinders.

Can’t some blockage in the breather make the crankcase pressurize at altitude? Im maybe not remembering that right but I thought there’s a specific blockage that can do this.

If not already, lean of peak might help a little as you get it on the ground. Rich mixture makes more CO. Either way it’s bad.

Only if it actually shows up… didn’t we order those (and put down $$) last December?

My answer won’t help as i have a Dukes, but if they’re selling for $3k and you can make them for less, I say go for it!

I guess that’s my point, if you (or anyone else) can do it for less and thus make a “reasonable” profit, you (or someone else) will do it. Since I don’t see anyone else doing it and am not holding my breath on you doing it, I’m happy Lasar has taken up supporting the airframe.

Hopefully they actually get delivered to those that need them. I ordered one of the E/F intake ducts from Lasar last December. Paid the deposit and the estimated 6 months is well past, I have yet to hear anything. I’m glad I wasn’t grounded for that part! I’m with @N201MKTurbo on this one, I'm glad it’s (probably) available.

Nobody mentioned working inside the wing (or tailcone - which requires hiring a very light midget with small feet) to build a shelf for the magnometor or removing/replacing all the pilots side interior. Those can take some time to do right depending on the airplane. My 2 G5s connected to gns430w and autopilot were about $12k in 2020, so these estimates seem reasonable?

Anything “engine related” with the electric boost pump? There are a couple of lower panels that have control rods going through them. Definitely check the carpet type stuff first, but if that’s not it, I’d definitely find out exactly which panels came off…

Last time someone had a similar issue it turned out to be carpet in the copilot footwell. Has any maintenance been done since last flights?

One other aspect of the starting ignition system that is often overlooked… is your sos strong? They don’t often fail, but they’re also not looked at very often. I didn’t see anyone mention this, but I think a 1970 F has the sos vs an impulse coupled mag. If your sos is getting weak, you could still have spark, a good mag, good plugs, but not as strong as it should be (maybe it’s corroded after 50 years). Just saying that might be something to consider.

Mine is the same. While not terribly difficult, it will require removing the seat on that side, side panel, lower carpet panel. Since you’re going to try to get the sender back on and sealed properly, it’s well worth taking the time to get a good working space available. You don’t want a fuel leak in the cockpit or to have to go back in later.

Yeah they wouldn’t reseal mine because it was past its oh time too. So it’s oh, but was definitely more than $1500! To the OP, mine misted my windscreen too, but I got lucky and that started about 3 weeks before i was down for annual anyway.

I think you’re going to find most people cruising higher than 3500’ which makes it a little easier/safer to go wot lean of peak because mp (power) will be down some already. You probably won’t need the full 50lop at higher altitudes (because you’ll already have lower power). It will also depend on how even your fuel distribution is. No matter what, you’re just making sure the last cylinder gets to lop and then look at the CHTs. You can fine tune your mixture to keep a comfortable cht. At that point, leaner is cooler, richer is warmer/faster. You mentioned 145KIAS… did you mean KTAS? Most guys Ive talked to seem to get around 165-170KTAS ON 12.5-13gph up around 9,000’ or so.

It works well and they enjoy the trips, so no complaints from me. However sometimes I wish they’d look outside more and enjoy the flying. I still remember crossing the Rockies as a 10 yo with my dad in a ragged out 172 while we listened to John Denver on the adf through the speaker and tried to guess exactly where we were on the (very) outdated sectional. Getting kids interested in the bigger picture is hard, but GA seems like it should still be amazing to them!