Magneto Piston PTO Side

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This is the magneto piston PTO side and you can see very clearly deep gouges where the pieces of crankshaft rod bearings passed the skirt of the piston probably into the combustion chamber and got violently embedded in the top of the piston and head.  Mark surmized that my reports of high water temperature and high fuel consumption was an indication that the engine was working much harder to overcome the crankshaft rod bearing friction.  I remember the water temperature went over 175 during my test flight but I rationalized that it was due to the 107° outside air temperature in connection with 80% humidity.  When I nosed over and throttled back to 5400 RPM the temperature went back down to acceptable level but still a little higher than normal.  I had never flown in those conditions before and even though I went through the motions, there might have been a little blindness to small details that indicated such a long trip was unwise.  By the grace of God there go I.  I can thank Him the outcome was not much worse.

dsc00121

Copyright © 2000 Updated: Saturday, June 16, 2001 07:10