deadstick

Biggles, what's creative about the pics?

Sorry the pic's are poor but you get the idea, yes I read it as an advisory only, however if it was the root cause of a failure the insurance company would be looking closely at it! It seems fairly benign however if the cracks propagate further than the radius of the bore..... well probably scrap! not sur what the fix will be, probably a SB with limits and monitoring every xx hours, long term will be the removal of the excess metal in the offending position.

Here's some pictures, not as clear as I would like but best I could do.

Yeah sorry mate, long day sore eyes! exactly, wish I had a drawing, but it does appear to be insignificant if it can be stopped from propagating further. I'm just uploading some pic's to the computer and will post when done.

So I just inspected 3 of the spare heads I have in a box, done 600 hr's all are cracked. the cracks are happening where the bolt holes are counter sunk leaving a thin side wall ( top 3 head bolts) nothing sinister just a design flaw by the looks if the wall was machined out there would be no problem.

A top end Chadwick helmeth vibrio comp would find it. Would be interesting to mount a transducer vertical, lateral and for-aft to see what the vibration spectrum is. I recently spent a lot of time balancing the prop on my j160, I got it down to .01 ips, very noticeable and at the time I was considering putting another transducer at the rear of the engine and comparing the vibration results, might have a play around next time I've got it hooked up.

Hi all, I am currently trying to find a supplier of off the shelf aircraft decals etc. my J160 is all white and I would like to give it a nice scheme. Can anyone recommend a sign writer etc that's familiar with aircraft?

Prop was the standard wooden laminate, torqued and tracked . I am suspicious that there is some sort of longitudinal harmonic.

JJ it was running a jab prop, correctly tensioned. It is a strange outcome, I mean the bolts just stress fracture and not from shear loads as the dowels are still in place.

Hi dafydd, I recently experience lifter pump on my 35 he old 3300. I had a minor leak past one of the valves on the leakdown, turned out the lifter was not leaking back. Speaking to Ian at Camit he believes it because the lifters are not designed to lay on their side. Are you able to bait us with some of your test results yet?

Two easily overlooked reasons that the exhaust side gets hot is the exhaust is leaking at the flange or the spark plug CHT ring is leaking. Anyone with the CHT rings under the plug should remove the crush washer to allow the plug to screw down equally with the intake plug. A side effect of head creep eventually is valve leakage as the rod dimensions are closing, meaning the valve is opening earlier or being half off the seat. I wonder if different power outputs per cylinder could be causing the case halves to want to split?or even setting up a harmonic through the crank, ie broken flywheel bolts. Ideas?

Hi mate, Link:- http://tamworthfestivalofflight.com.au Should be a good couple of days, give me a call when your there.

Before you go, can you provide evidenced basis for all these FTF's that are exceeding TBO's? also enlighten me on the engines I maintain on the edge please? just curious! or just answer my questions please? I mean you just traipsed on in, flung handfuls of Bullxxxx and traipsed on out with anything to support a word you said! bit extreme at best dude!!!

Mate, I'm not trying to discredit you but your quals are not transferable to any licence/qualification as far as I'm aware, nor (IIRC) were issued after a skill of hand assessment however if you have retained the knowledge and skill get those pieces of paper together and apply for that L2 that you are wanting! I can assure you each of the categories you mention above are not a walk in the park to attain them as an AME! Lots of SOE and large examinations. Comparing the Dot to CASA is well there is no comparison... Everything I pass on in this forum is mostly to help/inform others, sure I have a vent every now and then when I am overly frustrated but hey I'm human ( I think so). There is no malice intended!!! However you seem to read it that way, should I change the font colour? Give us a break I am not a Jabiru basher I only pass on my in field experiences and lessons learnt, I don't expect you to take my word for it and am happy for you to inspect the box of U/S and quarantine parts I have accumulated whilst repairing these engines! I genuinely get excited when I walk up to either of my Jabs and fire them up, I love the smooth note and the aeroplane feel but I equally loath the times I have been grounded through failure of parts, etc.

If anyone's coming to the air show in Tamworth this weekend give me a hoy, both my Jabs will be on static display, I'm intending on going for a cruise after the show on Saturday, happy to take a passenger.

Ouch, next you'll attack my labedo! LOL MGL is an approved fit by Jabiru is it? So you intall one in a 19'er Sure MGL $2k cost to fit it another $2k equals $4k, now shove the 'approved fit' base model D100 $3k plus, cost to fit $2k getting closer aren't we Occy boy! then lets push to the skyview! oh my we are above $6k easy! Name these FTF's! The Base of this engine! the one that we are speaking of is as bad as I have stated in the previous post! it failed within the first 100 hours! and continues to do so!!!! I have no seething customers my friend, this poor young lady is a seething customer of Jabiru. but by all means shoot from the hip as usual, but be ware how far you go! I will not tolerate misinformation or unfounded professional slander! Oh dear Oscar, the engines that I maintain! Mate factory maintained jabs are failing! I have not had a single engine failure of my causing yet! 20 years in the industry L2/ L4 and LAME. These engines that I maintain that are out on the extreme edge? which do you refer! No need to get nasty mate, I'm coming through that way in November I could drop by the airfield and have a chat, maybe you will see Im not this big bad wolf that's keep blowing down your jabiru temple of worship! Comon! you yourself in previous posts admit there are issue's heck you rattle on about the fix's that you have incorporated at whim and whenever a real life situation from someone else comes to fore you bully abuse and criticise, Why? open discussion and dialogue is what we are here for! Camit themselves admit the hydraulic engine is a dud! but I guess you know best as usual! Do you have to be nasty all the time? it massively discredits anything you have to say and frankly I am interested in some things you mention! Im sure deep down inside you there is a nice guy, so come on tiger play nice for once!!!

Though you are happy to throw a "thought they were perfect???" line out there! they certainly are a LOT better than the engine under discussion in this thread! Frankly Deb, The factory states that the single CHT configuration is fine and actively encourage owners not to worry about installation of multi probes ( ipersonally think its an own goal but it is a published aircraft configuration). This aircraft is a factory built LSA, reliant on the engineering approval of the factory itself for any modification from standard. How can an owner already pushed to the wall financially spend upwards of $6k on a suite of sensors that the factory themselves say are unnecessary? Are you inferring that if the sensors were fitted then this failure would have been avoided? Im sure the factory would be fitting them as standard fit if that's all it takes and why does it happen to better equipped jabs as well. I have seen heads creep around the exhaust valve side on these things with no indication of overtemp in the Dynon data. I've seen heads crack between the intake and exhaust flanges again without any indication in the data. I have seen a head crack straight down the face of the valve guide on an intake side. Not to mention valve seats fall out at idle without any back up data. It appears that Camit may be onto something when it comes to a change in material for this component! The owner of Camit himself told me that the hydraulic engines have been terrible! And aside from all this the factory owes this young lady, if not legally then morally!

Yep you do get a warranty on work performed by a LAME, a warranty that it has been undertaken in accordance with the latest practices and documentation. The heads! don't be mistaken in identifying head recess as being caused by hot torqueing, a recess on one side ( nearly always the exhaust side indicates heat, in this case having a known history of the services completed I would say the head has simply been hot! There is a reason why Camit have changed the spec of the aluminium with their version and not having any cockpit indication of a thermal runaway (this aircraft has one CHT gauge IIRC) how can you blame an operator who keeps her aircraft in spec and operated IAW the manufacturers best practices. Poor girl has had one thing after another! within the first 100 hours the engine failed on her at the end of the strip on a go-around ( sounded like it dropped a pot) causing a hard landing and broken aircraft, back to the factory on a trailer. Aircraft fixed, returned to owner, Jabiru did not even lift the heads to have a look, just ran the engine and returned to service, blaming ice IIRC, a week or so later the thru bolt SB came out, ( could have at least done that for her) so I am tasked with carrying this out, I removed the heads to find one of the pistons with a big smiley from valve impact, quickly add 2 and 2 together and surmise that lifter pump had caused the dropped pot accident previously, I call Jabiru to which I get an oh that's pretty likely the cause and a just check the valve for damage and put it back together and that its common!!!! WTF. So I elected to replace the valve blend the smiley on the piston crown and add a new lifter. Thru bolts and studs done and away it goes, some time later owner describes an off pulse shudder every now and then in the cruise, but no performance issues or mag drops so after discussing further we agree it was probably icing but an inspection of the engine would be prudent working back to front I check the plugs caps and rotors, Good burn colour, minor corrosion under the caps that's it, hmm check the anti tamper paint on the fly wheel bolts, nil movement its not until I get to the front that I notice a missing thru bolt stud! WTF I instantly think crap is my torque wrench in calibration? sticker says yes but I sent it away anyhoo! came back all good! a discussion with the owner and we both agree that the factory should handle the strip and rebuild so its removed and sent on its way, a little while later the owner receives a call stating that they had supplied the wrong hardware for the job causing the failure! still a 12 point nut but machined too small on the radius! so they warrant the thru bolts! LOL but nothing else! $4k later she gets the engine back its installed and all's good, I quickly notice that its still got the 3/8 thru bolts and studs fitted! Why wouldn't they machine the cases for 7/16 whilst they were line boring it? as their own advice dictates that a broken thru bolt necessitates the splitting of the cases, new tighter fit dowels and an upgrade of hardware etc? in fact they replaced the camshaft due wear beyond limits, one cylinder and a few other bits and pieces but no larger bolts. Next on the agenda the owner feels something strange on the first pull through of the day, an inspection reveals broken flywheel bolts ( latest configuration),defect repaired and away it goes, and now she has another broken thru bolt. you have gotta feel for her took the leap purchased a new plane and watched her peers with different brands fly hour after hour of trouble free flying. However I must say I did receive excellent customer support this week, I recently had a mechanical pump start leaking, engine had 35 hours on it but was just outside the 1 year warranty, so I purchased a replacement fitted it up ran the aircraft up to full power and it cant supply enough fuel! I rang the engine department who graciously offered to replace the unit under warranty and stated that they are having a run of issues with pumps since changing supplier.

Isn't this 330 hours since the last thru bolt failure? I thought this engine went back to the factory after a front stud failure? have you got any pics? id like to see if they are the 7/16 through bolts. I am truly sorry to hear this, the owner has had a worse run than me with this plane! best of luck and let me know if I can help in any way, ( beer economy)....

If reported correctly, neither vortex ring state nor dynamic rollover were a factor. For vortex ring state to be responsible the heli would have to be close to zero forward speed and the results would have been a lot worse, if it were a dynamic rollover event then the rotors would have had to be turning and again the results would have been a lot worse.

Had an interesting problem today with the hydraulic roller lifters, number 3 cylinder had a leak passed the inlet valve when doing the leakdown today, so with the cylinder pressurised I pushed the valve open in an attempt to dislodge what I thought was a bit of carbon. What happened next was that the lifter took up the extra slack and went solid as a rock holding the valve open, I had to remove both open them up and press the ball relief open manually. Does anyone have info on the leak rate on these new lifters? I tacked down the part number HT-2270 but cant get the details, this thing did not want to leak back at all rock solid...

While cruising the web tonight I found this list of alternate parts and suppliers for Jabiru, not sure if its been posted before. http://www.jabiruowner.co.uk/spares.htm

Hmmm, I have been leaving the fuel cock on in my jabs since day one, in fact every school I know that has one does so. I know what your saying bob and I always use a checklist for the PTVA's but my routine is what it is and it has to date served me well including showing this defect. I have no reason to change my practice of leaving it on however other aircraft that I have flown it is part of the post shutdown checklist to turn the fuel cock off but it isn't in this type. Thanks for the pointer alete same.

Hi Bob, I know what your saying but I have this fear of missing the fuel cock on pre take off vitals! Just one less routine change and hole in the cheese.

Had an issue last week with the mechanical fuel pump on my J230-D, had a fuel fume smell in the cockpit on the last flight, next morning I went to pull the cowls but as I approached the A/C I noticed the tarmac had been eaten away near the nose wheel. So I pulled the cowls and found the fuel pump was leaking between the diaphragms and that the retaining screws were loose. Interestingly the screws have no form of locking! they have now ( LT 620) as I think an inflight fire would have been inevitable if I was on a longer flight the day before. Engine and pump have done a total of 35.4 hours. Anyway just sharing for info as its definitely something to check. (Defect report submitted)