Mooney-Shiner

Read my pirep on Black Max. Bottom line: build your own in a fraction of time /cost

Rich, I can see that you are never taking an easy road out

Yes, I agree with you. Ben is helpful. However, the system is simply unreliable. It was disheartening to see my inside engine humidity reading at 60% after months of Black Max working. I ended up building a simple desiccant system and getting instant results. Now I need to figure out what to do with two of my Black Max systems in my garage.

I used an old pelican case to protect it from weather

I bought the BlackMax before going on deployment in 2023. Installed the the output into the oil drip stick tube, the humidity reader installed in the breather fitting at the top of the engine (Lyc IO-360). Came back after 7 months to see 60% humidity reading. The device didn't function right due to dead cooling fan. Sent it back to manufacturer in November. The fan had quit and allowed the block to overheat. Manufacturer replaced the thermal element, temp ic and heatsink/fan assy. Received it back and checked the proper flow level according to the manufacturer. The standard is air bubbles forming a "string of pearls" at the 3" depth of 2L water bottle. I was still getting between 50%-60% humidity. In December, I sent it back again to Ohio, but it passed the manufacturer test and maintained sub-20% humidity on their test bench. I installed it back, but still was getting 60% RH in the crankcase. I decided that the culprit is my engine. So I pressurized crankcase with the mattress pump and used soapy water to find any significant leak areas on my IO-360, but none were found. So I figured that the flow was not enough to keep up with humidity inside of my IO-360. I opened the Black Max and increased to max flow on the aquarium pump-looking pump. The RH was finally at 20-30%. A week later I discovered that the pump had quit and no longer pushed the air in my crankcase. I showed it to manufacturer and received the replacement BlackMax (still in the box). Overall, the manufacturer was pretty responsive, but I just don't have any confidence in the Black Max technology. I decided to do an experiment. I took the 27 gal plastic tote. Ran the drying line from BlackMax inside there and installed the probe from the humidity reader. After 24 hours of operation, the humidity was at 60%. In despair, I installed basic make shift desiccant bead dryer (much simpler than one in my original post). To my surprise, within 15 minutes the humidity inside the tote became 15%. Honestly, best you can do is build your own engine dryer where everything is clear and simple. I'm now getting 10-24% humidity in the crankcase. How is that for 10 seconds?

Hopefully, entire engine is the path. But I'm thinking the dry air enters at the oil level (low) and then eventually exits thru the high point of engine breather. Hopefully, the dry air circulates all of the nukes and crannies (maybe even packing thru piston ring gaps?)

Great work on the cost saving with using simple/surplus components! I frankly surprised that more people don't use/build these systems. This kind of threads never get any significant interest.

Here is how everything plugs to my engine.

I used the plug similar to this (I don't remember exact diameter). I drilled the hole in it, and pushed in the tubbing thru it. I plugged the breather tubbing in the lower cowling. I used the earplug to seal the backup hole. I will take the photo next time I visit the plane. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-0-8125-in-Black-Neoprene-Hole-Plug/3013260

Depends. I saved couple of hundred on JPI900 at SNF

I know that OP already solved this issue, but for sake of posterity: I used black iron pipe 3/4x18" to lift by the truss. I've never seen it flex. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Southland-Pipe-3-4-in-x-1-1-2-ft-150-PSI-Black-Iron-Pipe/1000227953

Hey, crew! I finally got a minute to post my PIREP of home-made dehumidifier/dryer system for my IO360. I designed my system to run 15 minutes, shut down for 45 minutes. I found this to be a good work ratio to keep my crankcase dry (25 % relative humidity) here in South Florida. Also I installed the humidity meter probe(green line) in the return moist air line (marked blue line on the sketch). The dry air (orange line) gets pumped thru the oil stick tube, the return moist air (blue line) come back through the engine breather line. List of materials: Fuse box https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XWQHMZJ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 Solar Controller https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075NQQRPD?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title Motor https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D98KH74P?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title Humidity meter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V1P9921?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 Bottles https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09446XH8K?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title LiFePO4 battery 20AH: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKLQVGG1?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_10 Solar mounting rack: https://www.ebay.com/itm/126310204673 Solar panel 100W: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124397245729?var=425269527294 Desiccant: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TX3DNY5?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1 I hope this helps our community to stay away from those expensive SMOH because of the corrosion damage. Sorry for non-doctrinal schematic, I wanted to make something quick. Please let me know if you have any suggestions, I'm always looking to improve this system. At some point I will also wrote my PIREP on the BlackMax saga which didn't work for me that well.

I would be interested in several if we are doing this buy again

I was able to resurrect my belly beacon, so I guess I will fly some more with it. Just to verify the install: Does the beacon mounts from the inside of the empennage or bolts to the bottom of empennage on the outside? I can't recall the correct installation.

Thank you for all of the great responses, guys! I will start by spraying the outside of the outer spiral trying to soak the piano wire. I will also check the sharp bends.