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It’s been about eight weeks since I reported the engine issues, and we’re more than due for an update.

The oil cooler arrived back from Pacific Oil Cooler Service about a week ago. They flushed it and inspected it. No issues.

I’ve got to flush the oil cooler and prop governor oil lines. That is on the To Do List before the engine is reinstalled.

 

The repaired exhaust system arrived back on Thursday. Clint at Vetterman Exhaust welded the cracks closed, and added circular reinforcements at the top and bottom of both Y joints - i.e. on the cracked Y and also on the uncracked Y.

 

Here is the reinforcing patch they welded on the uncracked Y. There is a similar one on the other side of this joint. Vetterman is continually adjusting the design based on the service history, and this may be the current configuration. I’ve got one of the early exhaust systems for IO–360-A on the RV–8. Larry Vetterman said that this engine/aircraft combination had been the one that gave him the most trouble with cracks.

 

I had sent the autopilot back to Trio for a software upgrade - it arrived home on Friday. I’ve got to follow up with Canada Customs, as they didn’t read the paperwork that Trio sent very closely, and they charged me taxes as if it was a newly purchased item. I need to fill out a pile of paperwork to get a refund.

The prop is still at Hope Aero. It should be ready to ship back this coming week, but I’ll be on the road. The way my schedule currently looks I’ll be on the road for most of the next four weeks, so I’ll ask Hope Aero to schedule the return shipment to have the prop arrive home the second week of October.

The engine is in pieces at Aero Sport Power. They reported that there was quite a bit of corrosion on the cam, and that the cam and tappet bodies were spalled other. This explains the observed reduction in power and the steel in the oil filter. They said that corrosion on the cam was normally due to inactivity, and thus was not their responsibility. They quoted me a pretty good price, considering all the work to do and parts to replace, but I wasn’t happy with their position that the issue was caused by inactivity, as my aircraft flew almost every week. But, after further discussion they reduced the quoted charges substantially, so I am quite happy with the situation. Their reputation for doing whatever it takes to keep the customer happy is still intact.

There was a bit of confusion about the prop governor. Aero Sport had told me to leave the governor on the engine, and that they would ensure it was inspected. But, after arrival at their facility nothing was done with the governor, as they assumed that I had already had the inspection done. We sorted that out this week when we spoke on the phone, and they will send it off to an overhaul shop ASAP.

Realistically, given my busy schedule, I don’t expect to be back in the air until mid-October, at the very earliest.

Once the engine is broken in, I’m seriously considering using ASL Cam Guard. I can’t see my flying rate increasing much, and the ambient environment isn’t going to change, so I should do something to reduce the odds of anther similar issue in the future. Cam Guard seems to get good reviews, from what I can glean from the web and reading Aviation Consumer.

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I’ve got a short list of RV–8 maintenance items to work on while the aircraft is out of service, and today I knocked the first two items off the list.

I opened up the right lower wing intersection fairing to check out the blue fuel stain I had noted during the annual inspection. The situation didn’t look any different than it had before, so I’ll leave it alone for now.

Next I attacked Service Bulletin 12–08–14, “AN4 Bolt Installation, Wing Attach”, that Van released recently. There is a large vertical bar between the lower and upper spar caps on each wing root. This bar fits tightly between the two spar caps, and ensures that they cannot come closer together by collapsing the spar web. These bars are temporarily riveted in place when the wings are constructed, but they must be secured with 1/4" bolts when the wings are attached to the fuselage. It is not possible to insert the attach bolts until the wings are installed, as the attach bolts also go through the wing centre section. Apparently Van’s Aircraft has become aware that some builders have neglected to install these bolts during the final assembly phase, as this step was not clearly indicated in the instructions. The Service Bulletin (SB) calls for the aircraft owner to check for the presence of these bolts prior to the next flight.

I couldn’t remember whether I had installed those bolts or not, and none of the photos I took showed this area during the final assembly phase. Another Ottawa area RV–8 builder had found that his bolts were missing when he did his inspection, so it was quite clear that this was a potential problem.

The SB suggested that the bolt heads would be visible if a mirror was used to look into the side of the fuselage through the aileron pushrod hole, after removing the upper wing intersection fairing. I duly removed said fairing, only to be rudely reminded that I had installed flexible aileron pushrod boots to stop cold air from coming into the fuselage through the aileron pushrod holes. These boots also did a perfect job of stopping me from peering through those holes to find the all-important bolts.

I looked for other easy ways to visually check for the bolts, but quickly gave up. I decided to remove the pilot’s seat and the passenger footwells, which then allowed complete access to the back side of the wing centre section, where the bolts should be. I was very happy to see that the four bolts were in place.

Getting everything back together was a painful job, as there are an awful lot of screws, and I had to be all bent over at an awkward angle to reach them while standing on the wing root. My lower back was talking to me in no uncertain terms by the time I was finished, and I learned a long time ago that when my lower back starts complaining I should drop tools and give it a rest. So, I called it a day.

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There is nothing about RV–8s in this post - fair warning.

Terry and I got back today from a week long trip to Paris to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It was a wonderful trip. We started off with a tour of Paris in a Citroën 2CV, complete with bottle of Champagne while we toured. We hit the Eiffel Tower twice; once to go all the way to the top, and once to have an anniversary dinner at the Jules Verne restaurant (a fabulous, expensive, once in a lifetime experience). We ate lunch at Le Procope, the oldest café in the world, founded in 1686, full of history, and frequented by Voltaire, Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, etc. We inadvertently ended up at several of the locations featured in the Woody Allen movie “Midnight in Paris”. And much, much more.

Our flight home was interrupted by a diversion to Shannon, Ireland due to a passenger who suffered a heart attack (she survived, according to Air Canada). The captain hoped for a short stop in Shannon, but an attempt to refuel was fouled by some issue with the fuel dump system. We had dumped some fuel before landing in Shannon, to get down to an acceptable landing weight. Fuel dump systems are rarely used, and it seems that something had not properly reset. The captain kept coming on the PA to explain that they hoped the problem would be resolved in the next half hour or so, and then we would be on our way. This went on for over five hours, until it finally became impossible to complete the flight within the allowable crew duty time.

We finally got off the aircraft in the late evening, then lined up for a slow Customs clearance (two agents for a Boeing 777 full of pax). Then a wait for a 30 minute bus ride to a dingy hotel in Ennis. At least the hotel staff were well organized, with a very efficient check-in process, then a quick late dinner and a pint of the obligatory Guinness. We had never been to Ireland before, and I can report that Guinness is even better over there than it is in North America. I was amazed to see how thick and viscous the head was; it stuck to the sides of the glass as I drank the beer.

We finally got home around 1800 on Monday, a day later than originally planned. It’s going to be tough to go back to work.

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I spent most of Saturday and Sunday at the airport, pulling the engine. Thanks to Steve and Ken for helping me get the engine off the mount and into the crate.I dropped the crate off at a trucking depot on Tuesday morning, and it should be on its way to Aero Sport Power by now.Next is the prop.

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Terry and I went to Oshkosh this year, by car. I had hoped to never have to do that drive again, but no such luck. We had done the drive many times in the past, but we really got spoiled by having our own aircraft. With the aircraft, we could be airborne less than 90 minutes after leaving the house, and it would be about 5:00 flying time to Oshkosh, plus an hour stop to clear Customs and have a bit of lunch. Wtih the car, it was 16:30 of driving, spread over two days. Ouch.

We camped in Camp Scholler, with several other RV–8 guys from the Ottawa area who drive down and camp together every year. We were very glad to tag along, as they always sent one guy down early to grab choice spots in the shade under the trees.

It was a pretty hot year at Oshkosh. Monday was 99 deg F. Tuesday was much more bearable, in the mid 80s. Wednesday was almost as warm as Monday. We met many old friends, which is really the highlight of the show. Lots of ice cream was consumed to keep cool in the afternoons. We bought a few small odds and ends, such as a new iPad kneeboard to replace very cheap plastic one I bought last year so I could try out the iPad.

There were two main themes at Oskhosh this year - the 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub, and the 40th anniversary of Van showing up at Oshkosh with the RV–3, which started Van’s Aircraft on its way.

Monday afternoon Van flew the RV–1 into Oshkosh, along with one each of the various RV models, and a 40 aircraft formation of RVs. There was a big ceremony as the aircraft was donated to the EAA Museum.

There were dozens and dozens of Cubs all lined up in rows down in the Vintage Aircraft area.

One of the highlights of the show was the Rimowa Ju–52 (actually a Spanish-built CASA 352) that crossed the Atlantic from Germany.

The Ju–52 was in immaculate shape, and we felt very priviledged to spend a few minutes inside it.

I talked to Bart Lalonde at the Aero Sport Power booth, to get his take on our engine issue. He guesses that we have a cam shaft that has inadequate surface hardness, and that it and one or more lifters are grinding themselves to bits. He said that they would cover most of the costs of the work under the warrantee - big relief. He agreed that the prop governor must be inspected, as it gets unfiltered oil. He said to leave it on the engine and that they would take care of it. I spoke with a technical support guy at MT Propeller - he said that I should send the prop to an overhaul shop so they could open up the hub, flush it and inspect it. I’ll talk to Hope Aero about that. I’ll send the oil cooler to Pacific Oil Cooler Service.

After three days at Oshkosh we had accomplished everything on our list, and we had enough of the heat. Late Wednesday PM we decamped and started visiting some of Terry’s family in the Green Bay area. We drove back home on Sunday and Monday.

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I got back out to the hangar on Wednesday, and pulled the oil filter off the aircaft. It showed similar metal contamination, after about 20 hours of operation as the previous filter showed after 50 hours. I’m not sure if that means the wear rate is increasing, or if the problem only started part way through the 50 hours on the first filter. Probably a bit of both.

I talked to Aero Sport Power. Given the amount of steel in the filter, and the observed reduction in power, they agree that the safe course of action is to open up the engine for inspection. I’ll pull the engine off after Oshkosh and ship it back to Aero Sport Power.

I’ve also got an exhaust system issue to deal with. I forgot to mention that last weekend, as I was focused on the more significant “metal in the oil filter” issue.

I discovered a significant crack in the exhaust system when I was doing the big inspection last weekend. The pipe from #3 cylinder, which was the one that broke off at the cylinder last year, has a 4" long crack near the outlet, at the Y that joins it to the pipe from #4 cylinder. That Y is all that would have been supporting the pipe after it broke off at the cylinder. Perhaps it was overstressed during that event and that eventually led to a crack.

This shot shows the bottom of the exhaust system. The crack runs along the left side of the weld, and then branches off at each end to start going around the exhaust pipe.

 

I pulled the exhaust system off today, and found that there was a second crack on the top side of the Y. That pipe wasn’t too far from failing. I’ll contact Larry Vetterman to arrange to send the system back again. The exhaust system is in six separate sections that fit together with slip joints. I’d like to get a whole new section rather than do a big repair, given the extent of the cracking.