Today I had an inexplicable failure on my Vetterman exhaust system. Up until today I have had 460 trouble free hours. I bought this from Larry around 2007. First flight was in November 2011. At each annual condition inspection I mouse milk the slip joints and put anti-seize on the ball joints.
Today was the first flight after my annual inspection. Because I had one of my cylinders rebuilt, I set up a race track course between two local airports, and flew for 1.8 hours at 75% power religiously monitoring the EMS. There were no EMS anomalies. At one point I did catch a brief whiff of a weird smell that got my spidey senses up but it subsided and I attributed it to the mouse milk or anti-seize burning off.
When I landed I was shocked (and counted my lucky stars) to see that the aft flange at the ball joint, on the left exhaust pipe, failed and was nowhere to be found! This left 1400 degrees of hot exhaust pouring out of the pipe adjacent to the carburetor.
The first picture shows the exhaust exactly how I found it. Note my Reiff oil sump heat pad was burnt and separated from the sump. Also note the fuel line. This is also a testament to the firesleeve on the fuel line. Note the whitish color.
Needless to say the cowl is a mess. For those unfamiliar with Vetterman's exhaust the last pictures the right hand side that did not fail. It shows the two flanges that clamp the ball joint together.
I've sent a note to Clint at Vetterman asking for some guidance on how best to proceed. I'm inclined to ship the entire exhaust system back for his analysis.
Has anyone else seen or heard of a similar failure? Any ideas what would cause such a failure? I've used the rubber hose method to hang the pipes. It's not rigid.
I'll keep you posted on my progress. Check those exhaust systems!
This is what I found when I removed the cowl:
Cowl damage as found:
Picture of flanges that connect ball joint. (white smudges is anit-seize)
Today was the first flight after my annual inspection. Because I had one of my cylinders rebuilt, I set up a race track course between two local airports, and flew for 1.8 hours at 75% power religiously monitoring the EMS. There were no EMS anomalies. At one point I did catch a brief whiff of a weird smell that got my spidey senses up but it subsided and I attributed it to the mouse milk or anti-seize burning off.
When I landed I was shocked (and counted my lucky stars) to see that the aft flange at the ball joint, on the left exhaust pipe, failed and was nowhere to be found! This left 1400 degrees of hot exhaust pouring out of the pipe adjacent to the carburetor.
The first picture shows the exhaust exactly how I found it. Note my Reiff oil sump heat pad was burnt and separated from the sump. Also note the fuel line. This is also a testament to the firesleeve on the fuel line. Note the whitish color.
Needless to say the cowl is a mess. For those unfamiliar with Vetterman's exhaust the last pictures the right hand side that did not fail. It shows the two flanges that clamp the ball joint together.
I've sent a note to Clint at Vetterman asking for some guidance on how best to proceed. I'm inclined to ship the entire exhaust system back for his analysis.
Has anyone else seen or heard of a similar failure? Any ideas what would cause such a failure? I've used the rubber hose method to hang the pipes. It's not rigid.
I'll keep you posted on my progress. Check those exhaust systems!
This is what I found when I removed the cowl:
Cowl damage as found:
Picture of flanges that connect ball joint. (white smudges is anit-seize)
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