Running oil stains on nose gear door

[Pinecone]

The problem is, if you don't know the source, you don't know if this is a no worries or BIG worry.

A leaking O-ring, that is just a few drops, can fail and dump out a lot of oil.  

Personally, I want to know where the leak is.

I am now a huge fan of the UV dye.  Clean off the engine, add the die, do a short engine run, then go over the engine with a UV lamp.  Oil leak will be obvious.

Picture is of a suspected rocker cover leak that wouldn't stop, but turned out to be pushrod O-ring.   Last flight, it put about 1 quart overboard in a 30 minute flight.

 

[Lax291]

Think I've found 2 sources of the oil leaks. 

 

#1 Oil filler tube, v will be replacing with the real gasket. 

#2 Found the tube on the underside of the oil separator very loose and oil chasing down. Looked at the clamp and it was loose and looked like it slipped as well. Pushed tube back up to the top and tightened. Hopefully this helps. 

[Gee Bee Aeroproducts]

I have Flurosilicone drain hose with lined breeze aerospace clsmps

 Ref Chafe

we stock 1” wide and 1-1/2 wide silicone chafe in .032 thickness if you want to eliminate all chafe .

GB-std2180 shown

GB-69603 shown

valve cover gaskets

GB-67193 shown

Silicone With fiberglass, no sponge as the fiberglass reinforcement, same as baffle seal , can be cemented to the cover for a perfect installation.

We have all the dies to cut your material or silicone in AMS3320

Your in charge of the material spec

thickness shown 

.032

.063

.093

Tomorrow we’re cutting per customer sample tio541 engine oil pan gasket, it’s no stock At this time.

[UMRPIlot8]

Could the dark staining on the gear door be the result of a slight metal to metal rub near the leading edge of the door, or maybe a working rivet, and not an oil leaking issue?  I have a similar streak on my F (I know I know, this is the modern mooney section) and I noticed this rub spot on this "doubler" where the forward edge of my nose gear doors touch.

Edited February 11 by UMRPIlot8

[Gee Bee Aeroproducts]

This is why stock various thickness of chafe seal

.032 

1” wide

1-1-2 wide

these were made for the mooney cowling 

Very few install chafe material 

We die cut all chafe seal for various areas of the Beechcraft.

The Mooney owners fail to protect metal on metal.

 

All surfaces on the TBM have chafe seals.

 

[Slick Nick]

@Gee Bee Aeroproducts My MSE came with clear chafe tape on the insides of all cowl edges where pieces meet from the factory. Maybe earlier models didn't? That stuff works like a hot damn. I find it especially useful on the edges of gear doors to keep them from rubbing. 

[Skates97]

On 12/9/2024 at 5:41 AM, Pinecone said:

The problem is, if you don't know the source, you don't know if this is a no worries or BIG worry.

A leaking O-ring, that is just a few drops, can fail and dump out a lot of oil.  

Personally, I want to know where the leak is.

I am now a huge fan of the UV dye.  Clean off the engine, add the die, do a short engine run, then go over the engine with a UV lamp.  Oil leak will be obvious.

Picture is of a suspected rocker cover leak that wouldn't stop, but turned out to be pushrod O-ring.   Last flight, it put about 1 quart overboard in a 30 minute flight.

 

The UV dye is great. One trip around the pattern after adding it and a black light will point it out.

[hammdo]

The dye works great… clean then fly in pattern once…

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002M4G24U/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8

-Don

[Pinecone]

Don't even need to fly a pattern in some cases.  For my leak we did a few minute ground run.  I don't recall if it was 2 or 5 minutes, but longer would have disguised the leak location/

[Gee Bee Aeroproducts]

On 2/11/2025 at 1:11 PM, Slick Nick said:

@Gee Bee Aeroproducts My MSE came with clear chafe tape on the insides of all cowl edges where pieces meet from the factory. Maybe earlier models didn't? That stuff works like a hot damn. I find it especially useful on the edges of gear doors to keep them from rubbing. 

Only silicone material seals from rain or streaking, it also acts as a bumper for vibration isolation.

Same type as on TBM models 

 

Clear chafe doesn’t seal or act as a bumper.