Thanks everybody. I will definitely get the Engine filled with oil asap to try to hopefully avoid air locking in the oil pump.
In hindsight I would have followed the Lycoming storage procedures but it is too late now as I can’t run the engine. The Aircraft is spotlessly clean almost ready for paint.
Luckily the closed loop dryer I made is now working and humidity when it was last checked was 16% and still falling. It will probably drop to around 5% That is really dry so I am happy with that. It also has desiccant drying plugs and all of the in/out ports are sealed.
Before starting the engine, perhaps fogging the internals with ACF 50 might help to lubricate the possibly dry cam. I suppose there is no other way to get oil to the camshaft on a Lycoming – unless somebody has a trick?
Filling an O320 with oil
Has anybody ever done this?
I have an aircraft which will not be flying for at least 3 months and I want to keep the engine safe from corrosion. Unfortunately the wings and tail have had to come off so I can’t even do any ground runs which limits my options somewhat. Unfortunately there’s no electricity supply so dessicators are not an option either.
The suggestion I’ve had has been to tilt the aircraft until the engine is level, then fill the crankcase with oil until full, then block the breather pipe.
I was thinking of using dessicator plugs for the cylinders then blocking the air intake and exhausts.
Anything else I should be aware of? I’ve found a few posts which mention installing sealing gaskets on various places, but they’re a bit vague. I can’t even find what volume of oil I’m likely to need.
Above post moved to a previous discussion.
Certainly filling completely with oil would do the job. You would need quite a lot of it though.
Hmmm…. 25 litres – which was all I could carry. It seemed to be nearly full, then the level dropped again. Being a taildragger in which I could lift and drop the tail, I did so a couple of times and I’m optimistic that I will have coated the cams and lifters. All other ports blocked. Breather tube blocked. I shall take another few bottles back later to finish filling it…
There has to be a better way.
Probably the oil is seeping past the piston rings into the combustion chambers. That will use up quite a bit more oil.
What you don’t want is it coming out of the inlet manifolds and flooding the fuel servo / carburretor. Eventually it will do that. So I would remove the carb etc and put a blanking plate there.
Should be a document from your engine manufacturer(if certified) explaining how to do it. You can probably if not certified as well.
Will do… I have some gasket material.
I think the drop was faster than I would expect if it were just leaking past the cylinder. I wonder whether it was flowing down the pushrod tubes when I tilted the engine.
Does anyone have experience of Lyco roller tappets as in my replacement O-320 from 2009 and are they more / less prone to camshaft and follower corrosion and wear? Just wondering..
Let us know how many litres it took @kwif I considered this route to preserve my engine during my recent respray and mini renovation. At the moment the inside of my engine is 6% Relative Humidity and all engineering work should be finished next week. We plan to spray in Camguard using a shop compressor / fogging unit to try to get a mist of lube on the cam before the first start up in 4 months.
