Oil spray on climb out

Last Friday I was climbing out of ADM flying back to RQO and noticed a light film developing on my canopy. I quickly realized the film was oil and immediately check my gages. CHT, EGT, Oil Pressure and Oil Temp were all okay. I throttled back and the spay seemed to slow down. Being the dummy that I am, I continued on to my home base while monitoring everything and keeping the engine powered back while always looking for a place to land enroute. Landing was interesting because of the oil blocking my center canopy view but was basically uneventful.

After putting the plane in the hangar and pulling the top engine cowling and propeller spinner we noticed the only oil was outside the engine compartment and none on the prop. Engine compartment was completely dry. After checking oil level it was discovered to be down by only 1&1/2 quarts and it was all sprayed around the two engine air inlets, canopy and vertical stabilizer. None was on the prop or inside the cowling and engine compartment. Obviously it was a high pressure, very fine leak.

Two A&Ps I've talked to but haven't looked at the engine say it's probably the forward oil seal. It seems to me that if it was a forward seal then oil would also be all over the inside of the cowling and the prop.

The engine is a Superior XP IO-360 with only 285 hours. It was torn down at 160 hours, inspected and professionally rebuilt by G&N Aircraft Engines at 160 hours in 2014 due to the previous owner having a prop strike. It runs smoothly but took quite a while to reseat the new rings that were put in at time of tear down.

Does anyone else have any ideas before I have an A&P look at it?

Jim,
Sorry to hear about your problems Friday. I tried calling you on 122.75 when we took off. I never could reach you. If I had known I would have followed you home. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Thanks Steve

Sometimes sh.. happens! I was kind of busy and focused on my situation therefore monitoring 122.75 wasn't in my mind. I probably should have returned to ADM but was hoping the problem wasn't too bad. My advice to the next person this happens to is to land immediately. The consequences of engine failure due to oil loss is too great to risk delay.

I was lucky and got home without further incident but that was just dumb luck. Tomorrow I will meet Eric at the hangar in the morning and see if we can find the problem. I'm hoping my luck holds and it's a simple, cheap fix. My gut says otherwise.

Tankerpilot75 said:

Tomorrow I will meet Eric at the hangar in the morning and see if we can find the problem. I'm hoping my luck holds and it's a simple, cheap fix. My gut says otherwise.

Click to expand...

Let us know what you find.

Jim, do you have the vans breather exit or the anti-splat tap into the exhaust? If the latter check the opening right at the exhaust to ensure it is fully open.

Also, the lower cowl pressure is higher than ambient around the upper spinner gap and the airflow can pull out spray from a front seal on the Vans standard baffle/cowl configuration.

Both of these are located here in the archives somewhere.

Your sig line says you have a constant speed prop; one thing you might check is the prop governer oil line elbow fitting into the nose case. I had a similar issue awhile back and replaced the forward crank seal, which had no effect. Then I pulled the oil line off the elbow fitting... the fitting was barely finger tight. Snugged it down with some fuel lube and that seemed to fix it.

Had a constant speed......

go haywire on my Cessna 182 and it too put oil all over the windscreen.

This seems a bit far feteched but it was much like you described.

The motor ran fine and i was airborne half way between departure and destination airports so like you i was chewing nails as i flew on to my destination as the British Columbia terrain is not friendly to tricycle gear where i was.

Good luck.

Dave

It's fixed - and you won't believe the cause of the problem!

My friend Eric from EAA Chapter 24 (who is a really good A&P) flew over this morning and after he looked at it he said the oily substance was grease not oil. He kept looking things over and discovered a failed grease zert on the hub of the prop was the cause of the problem.

As I said earlier, there was no oil or grease in the engine compartment nor on the engine, propeller, etc. It was all around the engine inlets, on the canopy and as far back as the vertical stabilizer. The seals around the prop were clean and dry. Only on the inside of the spinner did we see a glob of grease just above where one of the four prop grease zerts screw into the hub.

After examining the zert did we identify that the little ball at its top was recessed below the zert's opening. Last Friday was a hot day and the heat plus centrifugal force of the prop spinning at high RPM pushed the grease out through the zert and into the airstream which then spread it around the engine inlets, canopy and vertical stabilizer. The airplane had its annual condition inspection a month ago and the prop was greased then.

The failure of a grease zert to close after greasing a propeller is rare but as I just demonstrated can and does happen. My lesson learned: after greasing the propeller during annual (CS propellers) be sure and check the grease zerts to ensure they are snug in the hub, fitting is closed, and the little ball is sticking above the Zert. Otherwise you may experience my problem.

We went to a local prop shop (which I just learned about today) and they gave me four zerts to replace the one I had installed. They also confirmed this type of failure is rare but not unheard of.

I consider myself very fortunate today that this particular problem was minor and easy to fix. It could have been really ugly! A less inquisitive A&P might have missed the real cause and sent us down the wrong path. Trust me, this did stump a few people before the cause was discovered.

Make sure you check the zerk fittings on the prop. I have seen them leak on several occasions.

In the Hartzell owner's manual:

(10) Make sure that the ball of each lubrication fitting is correctly seated.
(11) Reinstall a lubrication fitting cap on each lubrication fitting

Grease caps

Had grease caps installed! Grease pressure blew cap off the zert however the ring kept it on the hub. It's amazing how much pressure a spinning prop can exert. Like I said, not a drop of grease went inside the engine compartment- it was all thrown into the airstream only to accumulate on the air intakes, canopy and vertical stabilizer.

No plastic cap was going to hold that stuff back!!