Originally Posted by
mitchilito
That valve oiling is an interesting idea, Brutus. When I took off my left valve cover yesterday I was surprised by a little gush of oil out of the cover. When I took off the right one (the one with the stuck valve) No gush of oil. Also, I notice when running that a LOT more oil collects on the aircraft from the left cylinder, very little out of the right side. I'm thinking the right cylinder is running leaner than the left but I'm not too keen on changing anything. It's running so darned good!
I'm hoping extra Sea Foam will prevent the sticky valve. I think there was enough oil to prevent premature wear in there, just not enough decarbonizer migrating in.
That little gush of oil from the left is a bit peculiar, these engines tend to stay fairly "dry" up there in stock configuration.
As for the mixture distribution, the slightest assymetry in the induction tract tends to cause uneven distribution, but that is mainly the oil and not so much the fuel (fuel evaporates and separates from the oil pretty rapidly after leaving the carb). In my case the lateral movement of the throttle barrel (the ASP has, contrary to the OS, a carb that works that way) is causing a change in distribution that varied with throttle opening, so the cylinders are never receiving the same quantity of oil, yet they do run more or less equally "rich" when it comes to fuel distribution.
I have never worked with seafoam or the likes, and never have had the need for it. The valve oiling and the fairly fat fuel/oil ratio so far have kept all problems with carbonizing at bay. Initially I did regularly pull a head to check, but I stopped doing that as the levels of deposit seemed to stabilize.
I can really recommend at least lubricating a bit fatter than 20:1 (which from memory, I think you are using?). Because it most definitely will NOT hurt your engine or its performance, and is in the grand scheme of things a cheap way of keeping things AOK. No idea what seafoam costs by the way, but now you're pouring in 6,4 oz of oil and 1~2 oz of seafoam, but probably just pouring in 2 oz extra oil (the difference between 20:1 and 15:1) might do the trick just as well, and 2 liquids is easier than 3
