Reddaero Posted March 4, 2016 Report Share Posted March 4, 2016 Has anyone installed an Airwolf air oil separator on a 252 or 231? Where did you attach the oil return line to the crankcase? I'm installing one on my 252. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenL757 Posted March 5, 2016 Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 Not sure if you have your mind made up completely to install one, but after having one in my IO550G for 4 years, I chose not to reinstall it in my reman IO550N due to the excessive crankcase back pressures it was creating. At the factory in Mobile, they ran several tests on this, and highly recommended I remove it, which we did. Although I clean the belly regularly now, I choose to live with that rather than put a 40+ AMU engine at risk. Should you choose to go ahead with one, you'll replace one of your factory pushrod tubes with one that Airwolf will supply with your kit. It has a small hollow stem on it. You'll attach the small hose coming from the bottom corner of the separator canister to this stem, and the oil will drain into that and back down into the cylinder. Let me know if you need a couple of pics. Regards, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reddaero Posted March 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 Thanks for the reply Steve. The aircraft already has an air oil separator. It looks to be factory installed but is not functioning. I've tried cleaning it but I still get a good bit of oil on the belly out of the breather tube. TSIO 360 has about 400 hours SMOH with good compressions. I was just hoping the Airwolf would perform better. Steve Stansel 252TSE N252VA Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenL757 Posted March 7, 2016 Report Share Posted March 7, 2016 Although the Airwolf performs much better than the M20 - or any of them really - I'd still be very cautious of its use. If you do choose to switch, have an A&P do a crankcase pressure test after installation using an airspeed indicator at multiple power settings - including takeoff power. If you're generating any kind of crankcase pressure, it will show clearly, and you'll probably start blowing oil out your slip joints all over your engine compartment. If you indicate "0" on the tests, then you're probably ok to continue its use. You'll still deal with oil on the belly - just not as often. Your choice on whether to spend ~ $1000-$1200 on hardware + installation. I've mentioned this on other posts - Although I have an Airwolf oil sep installed, it's only there because I have a solid aluminum wet vacuum pump (Airwolf 3P-194) installed. It's only there to catch oil from the wet vac pump and return it to the engine. The crankcase breather itself is set to CMI/Mooney factory standard, so I have zero crankcase pressure issues. Next month when we start avionics upgrade (finally), the primary + secondary vac pumps and the oil separator will all come out as we convert to all-electric. This will save us between ~13 - 15 pounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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