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At , Don Yoxsimer wrote: Don, I strongly recommend purchase of any one of a number of books which cover the procedure. I'll plug one called *Airplane Ownership* by Ronald J. Wanttaja. Ron is a net.denizon from way back, and has written a lot of intelligence on the whole subject, including basic owner-maintenance procedures and guidelines. Changing tires and taking care of your wheel bearing are covered, and these are important skills. >It is time for an oil change in 08H. It looks straight-forward...lift >the draining device and put in new oil when finished. Warm up the engine. The engine kind of needs to be warm for single-weight to move and to get nasty stuff in suspension in any oil. Get an old length of garden-hose and an empty liquid detergent container or a bleach bottle. Put the garden hose over the drain fitting and down through the wheel exit hole into the bottle. Cheap, stiff, old crappy hose works better, cuz it stands up on its own. Open the dip-stick (for air). Now open the drain. > My C-85 has no external filter. Consider getting the adapter installed. It really makes a difference. You'll run cooler and it gets a lot of crud out of the system. > I'm thinking there has got to be more to it than that. Well, a bit. The above and the below. > I saw a posting earlier about a screen or two that may need attention. The oil screen, or 'elephant catcher' (so called because it's such a lousy filter. If you don't have a paper filter, you really need to clean this every oil change. If you do get a spin-on, at annual is likely sufficient, and you'll be grateful after what you're about to go through! Some people even '86' the screen entirely, by removing it, once they get the spin-on. But if it's there, it must be cleaned at least annually, or at every change if you have no other filter. To do so, you will need one or two crush gaskets, which cannot be re-used. I don't have the exact AN-numbers, but Lee at Skyport can send you a few of each for cheap. Or your mechanic has them. Really, the first time you do this you may want to do it under supervision at the FBO. You can buy some more gaskets from them to keep in stock. Okay, here's the deal. On the back/bottom of the engine, accessed from the right side, there is a protuberance about the size of a tomato-paste can. That houses the oil screen. To remove it, you must (and this is important) first detach the oil-temperature capillary tube that goes into an adapter. Be gentle with this, it's delicate and hurting it means a whole new oil gauge! DON'T bend the tube that's attached sharply! DON'T twist it! At this point, it'll start drooling oil. There are many solutions to this problem. Some use rags, some try to catch it in a tin, some just give it up and clean up afterwards. What can I say. It sucks, it's messy. Once the capillary bulb is out, you can unscrew the screen. You want to turn the square (on a C-series Continental) flats on the cover. No need to unscrew the adapter, but if you do, then you must replace *its* crush gasket. Yes, getting a wrench on the thing at an angle so you can turn it is a bitch. Do your best. You'll probably struggle a bit. A ratchet open-end wrench adapter can be handy. Once you unscrew it, it'll start drooling oil. Oy vey what a mess! When it's loose take it out with a rag so you don't make a trail from one place to another. Okay, get a jar full of avgas from the fuel drain (some object to this, it's what you need to do, just don't smoke). Put the screen in it to dissolve the oil. Look at the screen to see what's in it. Big chunks of metal are bad news, and if there are same in the screen or in the cleaning jar, get mechanical help. I've found a starter clutch bushing in mine before! By now, you smell really sexy to women with a fetish for Aeroshell. and avgas ( see www.babesandairplanes.com ). The rest will toss you in the shower as soon as you get home. Take a shop rag (get some of those red ones at Wal-Mart) and wipe out the screen housing, getting any of the particles still sitting there out. Then put on the new gasket and screw the screen back in. You have to squish the crush gasket to about 2/3 of its uncrushed thickness. Don't go nuts, this is brass and bronze remember. You can always tighten it a bit more if it leaks. Put the oil temp bulb back in. Again, easy does it. You're going to look for leaks later. Mine aren't rigged for safety wire, yours might be. Pity if they are, because safetying in that corner is going to be a bitch. Clean up. Oil will be everywhere. There's a lip on the edge of the nose-gear mount that catches a lot of oil. Wipe it up. Wipe it out of the cowling. Try and get it out of the crack between the cowling and belly. Wipe down all of the hoses, and the breather. Make sure the fittings around the screen and temp-bulb are really really dried with fresh paper towels. You're going to need to check for leaks, and if you're a slob now, you won't know if you've got leaks or left-overs. Move the hose and drain bucket, put the lid on. Close the drain. Close the drain. Hey! Close the damned drain. Okay, now fill the engine with oil. What kind are you going to use? Why? Put in about 3.5 quarts, wait a couple minutes, then fill the rest of the way to 4 quarts. Any more, it's on the belly. You're almost done. Button up, and go start up. Do a full-power run-up and taxi back to the hangar. You want it to get fairly hot so it flows (and leaks now if it's going to). Open the cowling and with a clean, dry, paper towel wipe over where the bulb enters the adapter and where the screen screws into the hosing. There should be NO oil. About 25% of the time, there'll be some, so get the wrench and nudge it a twiddle tighter. Don't go nuts and bust something. Just a bit tighter. Re-test if necessary. Now, NEXT FLIGHT, I want you to look at this again after a bit of air time. No, you're not going to leak catastrophically at this point, but just take a look, okay? Don't go nuts if you see one drop, but tighten it up when you get home. That's it! You just saved yourself 50-75 bucks by changing your own oil. Do it again after 25 hours or every change of season. Especially until you get that spin-on filter! Oh, and when you do get that spin-on, don't forget to safety-wire it and to write the date and the hours on the new one. And cut open the old one to dissect it for appearance of metal shavings. Most airports have oil disposal facilities. DON'T put it down a storm drain. The basement of Hades is reserved for people who commit such acts.But save that big detergent bottle. It's eminently re-usable! Greg __________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiLm.aVzvvT Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01 ==^================================================================
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