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Bravo Conversion


Piloto

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On 4/14/2018 at 10:24 AM, LANCECASPER said:

Originally had hoped to have everything done by the end of March, but would be thrilled if it was done by the end of April. Realistically it will be early May since the work is being done in my hangar and we only get a chance to work on it a day or two a week, some weeks not at all.

It looks like tomorrow we should be able to start it up and look for leaks. It is amazing how fast it is to take it apart and how long it takes to put it together.

The clutch driven back-up vacuum pump has been removed and has freed up some space on the backside of the engine. As soon as an Aspen is installed the other vacuum pump is going away. I already have an electric Mid Continent Lifesaver as backup so I'm legal to go all electric.

The V-bands that connect the wastegate got torqued and safety wired today. The prop was installed. The ignition was timed.  A few little odds and ends to do in the morning. Hopefully by 2 pm it will be running.

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On 4/27/2018 at 7:27 PM, LANCECASPER said:

It looks like tomorrow we should be able to start it up and look for leaks. It is amazing how fast it is to take it apart and how long it takes to put it together.

 . . . Hopefully by 2 pm it will be running.

Well . .  we got all of the rest of the annual inspection items wrapped up that had been started back in January and all of the last details done on the engine.

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Later this afternoon we cranked the engine without the bottom plugs to circulate some oil and found a couple of oil leaks.

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And yes we wired up the loose items so we could run it without the cowling.

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So it looks like some more work this week chasing down the oil leaks before it's running and we start the break-in process. During the Bravo conversion the oil filter adaptor had to come off to accommodate the new oil lines. When it was reinstalled we used a new gasket that came in the Bravo kit, but it looks like one place we are getting oil is there. Also it looks like maybe where we removed the clutch driven vacuum pump.

We're almost there . . . .

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/28/2018 at 10:52 PM, LANCECASPER said:

Later this afternoon we cranked the engine without the bottom plugs to circulate some oil and found a couple of oil leaks.

IMG_0463.thumb.jpg.c5fa0e57122ae0188dbdeab8fcfd3d1e.jpg

So it looks like some more work this week chasing down the oil leaks before it's running and we start the break-in process. During the Bravo conversion the oil filter adaptor had to come off to accommodate the new oil lines. When it was reinstalled we used a new gasket that came in the Bravo kit, but it looks like one place we are getting oil is there. Also it looks like maybe where we removed the clutch driven vacuum pump.

We're almost there . . . .

Follow up . . . 

The oil leaks on the back of the engine are fixed - the oil filter adaptor was tightened up and where we took off the clutch driven vacuum pump that leak was fixed.

We started it up this afternoon and it ran well but there is a significant oil leak on one of the three left cylinders (2, 4 or 6). So tomorrow we will start chasing that down. The first place we are going to look is making sure that the oil drain line clamps are tight. Any other suggestions?

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Well done Lance - you're getting there step by step and I admire your persistence to get through this!

For the oil leak, might be worth checking the cylinder head feeds too - I had a leak on one of mine some time ago, but due to the downdraft of cooling air, the drips and mess would always be on the bottom of the cylinder

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13 hours ago, Awful_Charlie said:

Well done Lance - you're getting there step by step and I admire your persistence to get through this!

For the oil leak, might be worth checking the cylinder head feeds too - I had a leak on one of mine some time ago, but due to the downdraft of cooling air, the drips and mess would always be on the bottom of the cylinder

Thanks, yes one of the oil leaks was on the T fitting on the oil supply line on cylinder 6. It looks like the other one is on the turbo oil inlet fitting - new part should be here tomorrow.

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