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hobie16
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:40 am    Post subject: VW Airplane Reply with quote

I'm visiting a friend in Ohio who is a private pilot. We visited his favorite airfield where there's a pretty hot biplane racer. In his hanger was a small plane powered by a built VM engine. The plane had sat for five years before the current owner bought it.

He flew it and suffered diminishing oil pressure. It went from 45 psi at start to almost zero once the engine was warm. A mechanic found that the oil pump was the smallest capacity available and has a larger one on order.

Any other thoughts or ideas on what to look for? TIA!
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vwjetboat
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 6:49 am    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

something else is amidst.. but hey im not vw airplane mechanic.. just a vw jet boat wanabe..
sounds more like wore internals..
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williamM
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:38 am    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

would want to know how many hours on it and did he test fly it and how did it perform?
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hobie16
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:17 pm    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

williamM wrote:
would want to know how many hours on it and did he test fly it and how did it perform?

Not sure how many hours. No test flight. He got it in an estate sale. Pressure failed first time he flew it. It apparently was an exciting five minutes.
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vwjetboat
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:19 pm    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

hobie16 wrote:
williamM wrote:
would want to know how many hours on it and did he test fly it and how did it perform?

Not sure how many hours. No test flight. He got it in an estate sale. Pressure failed first time he flew it. It apparently was an exciting five minutes.

its a volkswagen engine.. pull it out and apart.. its not safe to ever run again untill then.. if it lost oil pressure then there very well is internal damage that masking right now will lead to a rod out the block in the air.. plane and simple not pun intended..
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hobie16
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 3:27 pm    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

vwjetboat wrote:
hobie16 wrote:
williamM wrote:
would want to know how many hours on it and did he test fly it and how did it perform?

Not sure how many hours. No test flight. He got it in an estate sale. Pressure failed first time he flew it. It apparently was an exciting five minutes.

its a volkswagen engine.. pull it out and apart.. its not safe to ever run again untill then.. if it lost oil pressure then there very well is internal damage that masking right now will lead to a rod out the block in the air.. plane and simple not pun intended..

My thinking exactly. I believe his strategy now is to install the new pump and see if the oil pressure issue is solved. A full teardown to determine if there's any damage is next.
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vwjetboat
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 3:57 pm    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

hobie16 wrote:
vwjetboat wrote:
hobie16 wrote:
williamM wrote:
would want to know how many hours on it and did he test fly it and how did it perform?

Not sure how many hours. No test flight. He got it in an estate sale. Pressure failed first time he flew it. It apparently was an exciting five minutes.

its a volkswagen engine.. pull it out and apart.. its not safe to ever run again untill then.. if it lost oil pressure then there very well is internal damage that masking right now will lead to a rod out the block in the air.. plane and simple not pun intended..

My thinking exactly. I believe his strategy now is to install the new pump and see if the oil pressure issue is solved. A full teardown to determine if there's any damage is next.

if the crank and things have been modified.. for prop or what ever.. i would not crank it back up.. every second that motor starves for oil again is $$$ going down drain.. and some of the stuff for those can get very pricey depending on the prop set up crank and case mods
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ldj1002
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 8:15 pm    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

He flew it and suffered diminishing oil pressure. It went from 45 psi at start to almost zero once the engine was warm. A mechanic found that the oil pump was the smallest capacity available and has a larger one on order.


A small capacity oil pump has nothing to do with it. If he found something wrong with the oil pump then yes. Sounds like he found nothing wrong with oil pump. If he had he would know the problem. I have never rebuilt a vw engine but engines I have worked on have a pressure relief valve. My guess is that a piece of carbon got behind it relief valve holding it open causing pressure to go down. In that case you still had a lot of oil flow to moving parts. No longer than it ran it didn't hurt the engine. I would remove pressure relief, check and clean, start engine up and if good oil pressure and sounds good I wouldn't worry about it. My $.02 worth
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Ray Syverson
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:27 am    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

I would say that you want to be DARN sure that your engine is fixed and reliable before you do any flying. It is a VERY sick feeling that you get when you are 500 feet off the ground and your engine quits, especially when there is no good place to land.You are in a way trusting your life to that engine and airframe. Everything should be bullet proof reliable.
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Ray Syverson
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:29 am    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

I would say that you want to be DARN sure that your engine is fixed and reliable before you do any flying. It is a VERY sick feeling that you get when you are 500 feet off the ground and your engine quits, especially when there is no good place to land.You are in a way trusting your life to that engine and airframe. Everything should be bullet proof reliable.
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Ray Syverson
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:29 am    Post subject: Re: VW Airplane Reply with quote

I would say that you want to be DARN sure that your engine is fixed and reliable before you do any flying. It is a VERY sick feeling that you get when you are 500 feet off the ground and your engine quits, especially when there is no good place to land.You are in a way trusting your life to that engine and airframe. Everything should be bullet proof reliable.
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