When it rains...

[Av8r3400]

Now that summer is finally here and the weather is getting nice, flying season has arrived in the great white north of Wisconsin.

I go over to the hangar this evening to take the Mangy for a ride. When I get there I see that there was a little puddle of coolant under the plane, so I took off the cowl to tighten a clamp or what ever needed to be done.

First: After removing the cowl I see the muffler. Then I see the crack in the muffler. Then I see two more cracks in the muffler! Well, I guess I'm not going bug smashing tonight...

I take apart the muffler and front head pipes, so that I can take it over to a friend of mine, who happens to be a master welder. Been there, done that before. At least the slip joints came apart easily.

Second: As long as the muffler is out of the way I can really investigate the coolant situation. Yup. You guessed it. Coolant coming out of the pump weep hole. Now the entire engine needs to come off the Mangy to take apart the whole back end to get to the water pump drive shaft seal...


I think I may need to take up canoeing...

[Av8r_Sed]

Nah, your canoe would just spring a leak.

[DesertFox4]

Mechanical things can be frustrating at times. Thank goodness it's not a high dollar repair but still eats up precious flying time. Get her Oshkosh ready.

[Av8r3400]

More worried about ready for the Kitfox Fly-In in ID. Don't need a major failure over the big rocks...

[HighWing]

I think I understand the canoeing comment. I sold an antique car I had restored because it was pre chrome and the polishing and polishing again became more than I could deal with. The car morphed into my first Model IV. One thought though. I had the same problem back in the day and was told by Rotax then to add a little Bars Leak to the coolant. Never again a drop. I don't recall the ratio, but not a second hand fix recommendation, but straight from Rotax. This had to have been 2000 or so.

[Av8r3400]

Well, before I tear the whole thing apart, I'm going to try the recommendations here and from Brett at LEAF. Clean it up and run her for several hours and see what happens. This may just be an anomaly.

I did add just a splash of Bars Leak to the coolant. I actually needed to syphon some coolant out to make room...

I will advise on the results.

[Dave S]

Wish you luck Larry.....agreed...sometimes it's best to try the cheap and easy stuff first. Hope it all works out well.

[Bud Davidson]

FWIW I have used Barsleaks in every older engine water cooling system for several years. Including my V6 ford aircraft engine when it developed a crack in the head. After which I flew from Florida to Penna where I then replaced the head. I cold see the brown in the crack but did not leak.

as a precaution, I added a quarter cup to the coolant in the 912 UL. It does not take much. My coolant is mostly red in color with a slight tinge of brown. I suspect if the coolant is very brown there may be too much Barsleaks.

somewhere I was told new vehicles often come with it added to the cooling system. I cannot vouch for that. I drive two Ram Diesels and a VW diesel... old ones... and each have their share of Barsleaks.

Bud
IV 1200
912UL

[jiott]

I had an incident with that coolant weep hole dripping more than I liked at about 350 hours. I kept a watch on it and after about 50 more hours it nearly stopped, and now it is nearly dry. I think the water pump shaft seal may have gotten a small piece of contaminant in it, and later flushed it out or just did a new break-in adjustment. Maybe don't panic yet, although your situation may be more severe than mine was. I didn't have a puddle, just a lot of drops.

[Dusty]

Mine started weeping after replacing the coolant cap,50ish hours later it is an occasional weep.I thought I had dodged a bullet.
Unfortunately the coolant weep has now become an oil weep,just enough to warrant a mirror inspection every few hours
At 1200 hours (on an early 600 hrs engine)I guess it's about time it "rained".
It's a shame it has happened to you at the start of your flying season,but it may settle down.