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At 11:00 AM we were at the hoverport everything set up for repairs needed. |
| First new water plug separating oil and cooling system was tapped in place. In fact even though they were nominally same size, the new one was 0,5mm (0,02") larger in diameter than the one that had popped off. It was easy enough to be put in with engine installed in place and soon we were able to check the torque of head bolts and adjust valve clearances. |
| Last Sunday when we were cleaning up the mess caused by water plug popping off, we already run engine with clean oil for few short runs to circulate "smudge" out of the engine. Also new oil filter was put in at that time so we wouldn't expect to need to run the engine long until most of the coolant was out of the oil system. |
| Engine started quite difficulty just as it wasn't running with all cylinders, power just wasn't there. But after warming up it got better. We run the engine at raised idle just enough to keep the craft in place and checked that water didn't escape from cooling system and that oil level didn't raise. |
| After seeing that everything was working it was time to take a short spin to warm the engine completely and force residual water out of the system for last oil change. |
| There were no bigger problems during the run just normal "That was
close !" ones.
So we changed oil and checked coolant level. Oil was already quite clean but to be sure we changed the oil filter also. They are not that expensive anyway. Engine started now quite easely, but throtting caused engine to hesitate rather than pick up revs. By playing with the throttle i got rpms high enough to lift on cushion and started my second test drive for the day. |
| We removed the carburettor for more close inspection
back in the carage were we have a possibility to use compressed air. Also
water was removed from the cooling system incase there will be freezedown
before next Saturday. Next weekend carburettor will be put back in together
with proper coolant to handle -30C temperatures.
Engine seems to run again, but this time i really have to test the engine before putting it to rough conditions. |