I bought my 1977 Archer II a year ago and knew that the plane had a period of long inactivity. At purchase the engine had 1100 SMOH. I flew it 110 hours last year and didn't have any trouble till the last flight....
Took off from mild temperature Slidell, La. to Charlottesville, VA. which was about 7 hours. Stopped in Atlanta for fuel. Oil burn was "normal" which was about a quart over three hours. Next leg four hours. Landed in Charlottesville where tps were mid 20's and parked it for the night. The next morning oil was down a little more than a quart, still "normal". On the way home landed back in Atlanta to discover over 4 hour flight it ejected 4 quarts out the breather. Added oil and the second leg 2-1/2 hours ejected almost five out.
The next day discovered the front crankcase had become very leaky. Am guessing it blew and caused over pressurized case forcing oil out.
Relaced seal and on ground test the engine had a miss, like one cylinder was dropping out periodically. Not bad but noticeable. Pulled plugs and one cylinder was obviously passing oil, plug was oil fouled. Cleaned everything up and flew to the A&P 30 minutes away without incident. The miss was aparent at idle but under power ran perfectly and no sign of miss. However, a 30 minute flight consumed 2 quarts of oil. The plane following me report seeing blue smoke from exhaust while taxiing.
The next day my mech and I ran a solvent flush through the offending cylinder just for fun. Loads of carbon flushed out. After flushing a handful of times we refilled crankcase and ground run. Now the engine misses like crazy and when at 2000rpm starts backfiring. We shut it down while hot and did a compression test. 70/80 so it still has compression but the cylinder is full of oil.
The only thing I can figure is since it happened pretty abruptly on the flight home from. VA. is the oil control ring broke. Does this seem logical?
Mech thinks because it is still holding compression it is probably a candidate for rehoning the cylinder and installing new rings, but won't know until he gets the jug off next week.
Would anyone else care to suggest what may have happened?
Took off from mild temperature Slidell, La. to Charlottesville, VA. which was about 7 hours. Stopped in Atlanta for fuel. Oil burn was "normal" which was about a quart over three hours. Next leg four hours. Landed in Charlottesville where tps were mid 20's and parked it for the night. The next morning oil was down a little more than a quart, still "normal". On the way home landed back in Atlanta to discover over 4 hour flight it ejected 4 quarts out the breather. Added oil and the second leg 2-1/2 hours ejected almost five out.
The next day discovered the front crankcase had become very leaky. Am guessing it blew and caused over pressurized case forcing oil out.
Relaced seal and on ground test the engine had a miss, like one cylinder was dropping out periodically. Not bad but noticeable. Pulled plugs and one cylinder was obviously passing oil, plug was oil fouled. Cleaned everything up and flew to the A&P 30 minutes away without incident. The miss was aparent at idle but under power ran perfectly and no sign of miss. However, a 30 minute flight consumed 2 quarts of oil. The plane following me report seeing blue smoke from exhaust while taxiing.
The next day my mech and I ran a solvent flush through the offending cylinder just for fun. Loads of carbon flushed out. After flushing a handful of times we refilled crankcase and ground run. Now the engine misses like crazy and when at 2000rpm starts backfiring. We shut it down while hot and did a compression test. 70/80 so it still has compression but the cylinder is full of oil.
The only thing I can figure is since it happened pretty abruptly on the flight home from. VA. is the oil control ring broke. Does this seem logical?
Mech thinks because it is still holding compression it is probably a candidate for rehoning the cylinder and installing new rings, but won't know until he gets the jug off next week.
Would anyone else care to suggest what may have happened?
