Engine roughness

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tcraftpilot
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2016 12:29 am

Re: Engine roughness

Post by tcraftpilot »

To my knowledge all of the model 20 fiberglass taylorcrafts used the continental 0-470. The original 15 which was then modified into the prototype 15A was engined with 150hp Franklin. Taylorcraft then became concerned about the availability of the Franklin and so made provision to engine the airplane with the C-145. To my knowledge all 15As after the prototype had continentals but the Franklin is on the type cert. And they are rare. I have only ever seen one other besides ours. A model 20 was for sale on barnstormer a this past fall. I total there are around 10 flyable (as we know that does not mean flying!) four seat Taylorcrafts. Four are 15As. The rest are model 20s.
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MoonlightVFR
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Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 5:55 pm

Re: Engine roughness

Post by MoonlightVFR »

Bowl diagnosis

Thankfully you found the problem while on the ground.

You mentioned floaters and crud bumping up against the jet.

Can you go UPSTREAM with the foreign debri?

What exactly was the stuff and where did it come from?

Can I ever hope to prevent what happened in your -145 from occurring in my 145?

Regards
gradyb, '54 B N2890C
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c170b53
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Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2002 8:01 pm

Re: Engine roughness

Post by c170b53 »

I think you can check you gascolator especially if its glass and see whether there's stuff in it and / or drain into a paper filter. As well the drain plug for the fuel bowl is supposed to be pulled each annual and ditto with the paper if you think there's an issue. What was the stuff is a good question.
Jim McIntosh..
1953 C170B S/N 25656
02 K1200RS
tcraftpilot
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2016 12:29 am

Re: Engine roughness

Post by tcraftpilot »

Our crud was from sitting I have no doubt. Gas that had varnished. When we bought the airplane we had drained the bowl. We also emptied the tanks and nothing has been showing up in gascolator strainer. In hindsight guess we should have just pulled the carb off and cleaned on the bench rather than the just draining the bowl and cleaning strainer. The airplane had sat almost year and half plus and had nasty gas in the carb when it was drained. So, my advice is fly fly fly and don't let them sit!
tcraftpilot
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2016 12:29 am

Re: Engine roughness

Post by tcraftpilot »

What was left of it points to mo gas. The bit of fuel that was in it had turned yellowish and had a bad smell. Now have several trouble free hours on it since cleaning the carb. We run mo gas in ours as we can get ethonal free near us but if one of the airplanes has to sit for any reason for a while we drain our tanks.
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flyguy
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Re: Engine roughness

Post by flyguy »

NO NO TO MO GAS says ole gahorn. AN NO MO MMO 2.

I bought a C175 that had been sitting on the ramp at El Monte CA for several years. Tires were flat and had made shallow depressions in the pavement. It was late in the evening when I looked at this poor derelict. I sumped the tanks and the gas was really dark colored. I figured I would have to totally flush the fuel system but next day, to my surprise, I found that the gasoline was vintage 80 octane AV gas and even though it was dark colored, it was still in good condition. We actually started the engine on the fuel in the tanks and taxied to the wash ramp. I did flush the system and filled with fresh gas before leaving California for Arizona.
OLE GAR SEZ - 4 Boats, 4 Planes, 4 houses. I've got to quit collecting!
bagarre
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Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:35 pm

Re: Engine roughness

Post by bagarre »

I bought 95D after it sat in a hangar for 20 years.
The guy filled the engine case with oil (FILLED) and left the avgas in the tanks.
20 years later, we drained and replaced the oil, sumped the wings and gascolator, stuck a fresh battery on it and it started on_the_first_blade.

A let my home generator sit for two years and had to rebuild everything due to varnish.
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170C
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Re: Engine roughness

Post by 170C »

As they say, "Back in the day", in 1971 or 72 we cleaned out all the bird nests, ck'd the oil, provided 100LL and started several P&W 4360's on a B-36. Those 5 engines (didn't start #4) had not been pickled, simply shut down in 1959. They coughed a bunch of dust, smoke and then ran like a sewing machine. Guess old engines can sit for a long time and still run if corrosion hasn't taken its toll.
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hilltop170
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Re: Engine roughness

Post by hilltop170 »

170C wrote:As they say, "Back in the day", in 1971 or 72 we cleaned out all the bird nests, ck'd the oil, provided 100LL and started several P&W 4360's on a B-36. Those 5 engines (didn't start #4) had not been pickled, simply shut down in 1959. They coughed a bunch of dust, smoke and then ran like a sewing machine. Guess old engines can sit for a long time and still run if corrosion hasn't taken its toll.
Frank-
I remember one of those engine runs when you guys were trying to get it back in the air and was greatly impressed! Years earlier, my parents had taken my brother and I out to Amon Carter Airport several times on a Saturday when the B-36 was open for kids to get inside and ride the trolley past the bomb bay. I went by several times after it was being broken up and took pictures of the 4360s sitting on the ground, sad sight. At least it did not get scrapped, it's on display at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson all put back together.
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
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170C
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Re: Engine roughness

Post by 170C »

Yea Richard, when you were going out there to tour the plane it was being looked after by the management club from General Dynamics (Convair). They lost interest at some point and the vandals took over. I got involved with the Peacemaker Foundation in 1970 or 71 when it first began the project to make the B-36 a flying museum. We did a lot of work to that end before discovering the head man did not vet the aircraft properly. The city of Fort Worth wanted to get rid of the plane as Greater Southwest Int'l Airport (Amon Carter Field) was going to be closed since DFW airport was to open in 1974, so they "sold" it to the foundation for $1.00 & other considerations. However the plane still belonged to the Air Force and was on loan from the Air Force Museum. When they and the FAA got wind of the plan, they stepped in and said that plane was not going to fly. That ended that project.

About 12-18 months later we formed the Museum of Aviation Group, later The Southwest Aerospace Museum, to make the plane a static display. A decision to remove the engines, which I disagreed with, was due to the aircraft being tail heavy w/o fuel, 5 of the 6 P&W 4360's needed removing and the prop case would be welded onto the engine mounts which would allow the props to turn, but reduce the weight. 3 of the J-47's were also removed. We moved the plane to a 12.5 acre site on the west side of Carswell AFB, just outside the gate of the factory where all 385 B-36's (and B-58's) were built. We set it up and acquired 15-20 other aircraft for display. The Alliance Air Show proceeds were to help fund a permanent location/hangar for the B-36, but that didn't happen. The aircraft was disassembled and the forward & aft fuselage's were put inside one of the B-58 run stations and the GD/Lockheed Martin retirees refurbished both to pristine condition. The City of FW would never get behind the museum movement (with all the aviation history and economic impact that existed, we never could figure that out) and the AF Museum finally loaned the aircraft to Pima. On our way back from the San Diego convention we landed at Tucson and I spent 1/2 a day in the museum and especially to see how they were taking care of the "City of Fort Worth" B-36J. Unfortunately visitors are not allowed to view all the restoration of the interior. At least the aircraft wasn't scrapped! The B-58 Hustler (#668) we moved from Tucson to FW is now on display at Little Rock AFB.
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blueldr
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Re: Engine roughness

Post by blueldr »

I met a guy that bought a P&W R-4360 engine from a junk yard, They said it was too difficult to disassemble to separate the various metals to be economically salvaged, The engine was on a big build up stand made of steel and he paid more for the stand than for the engine. The engine looked to me to be off of an early C-119. It did have a starter installed, but I don't remember any other accessories excepy the carburetor. He has it hooked up to a 24 volt power unit and starts it up and makes shotr runs at idle on mogas. It has no propeller but apparently the internal mass works as a flywheel to carry it around the firing order. Since there is no flow of cooling air, the runs must be quite short to keep it from over heating. It has five gallon oil and gas tanks attached.
BL
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170C
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Re: Engine roughness

Post by 170C »

With a 5 gallon fuel can he won't have to worry about keeping the engine run short :lol:
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