Can anyone tell me if this engine is gone?
Short story: no compression, black piston, sleeve stuck to head cover. Long story - read bellow.
I will try to explain what happened and describe the engine to the best of my abilities.
I posted high quality pictures at [link=http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/
[email protected]/album?.dir=/bee5&.src=ph&.tok=phMeo.DBa1d8nlIr]here[/link] (please let me know if the links do not work)
I had this engine mounted on Sig somethin' extra. I was trying to learn how to hover so the plane was not moving much through the air. I had this engine dead stick on me several times, usually about 7 minutes after starting and getting it up in the air. When I would get it refueled and restarted it would seem to run just fine on the ground, but in the air it would "sound" as if it is not revving up to the same rpms as on the ground. It would hover this plane with 12x4 prop at just under half throttle, and it would have power to pull it out vertical. I would hover it for about 10-15 seconds at a time, fall out, make a pass to realign the plane in front of me and at a comfortable altitude and get into hover again.
On my last
hovering attempt it got another dead stick, but this time I was not able to get it back on the runway, but rather glided the plane into tall grass and weeds. I found the plane with the main landing gear next to it and a broken prop. When I got it back to the bench, I noticed that the bottom of the plane was wet in fuel. During disassembly I noticed that foam pads around fuel tank, and battery were soaked in fuel. I took out the fuel tank and noticed that the rubber plug was loose [&o] and fuel was leaking around it.
I got the plane home and started repairing the landing gear. I did not get to inspect the engine until about two weeks later. I noticed that when I turned the prop by hand, it did not have much compression and it would make hissing sound. When I took off the muffler I noticed that most of the piston side wall was black, and only the lowest portion was brown, changing to gold color (see photos). I tried to remove the head cover but it did not want to come off easily after removing all the bolts. B.T.W., I noticed that couple of those bolts were not torqued. When I pulled on it a little more it came up with the piston sleeve.
Is this a goner?
[&o]