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High oil consumption

bob888

Well Known Member
Oil consumption has been rising and I have what may be scoring in cylinders. There are vertical black lines seen by borescope on the cylinder walls. Could they account for increased oil consumption? It does appear the oil is going out the breather...
I would like to attach a photo but am technically challenged.
 
What are your levels?

I have an IO-540 with 9:1 compressions. It seems to spit out anything much more than 8 quarts.
 
If your oil temp is under control at 5.5qt, it should be fine to run it there. It seems like ours spits it out until 6.25qt.

could you post the borescope pictures?

I'd recommend checking with SavvyMx. They helped a skyhawk club I used to be in with a high oil consumption issue with a ring wash procedure that worked wonderfully. Consumption went from 1qt in 3-4hrs to 1qt in 6-7hrs. I'm not saying that will be the fix here, but it couldn't hurt to ask them. I've never once met someone who wasn't happy spending the money on their program.
 
You don't have to actually post images here, you can post a link to them wherever they are. Imgur is one site, as is the one above.
 
What is the ring wash procedure?


How many hours on the engine? Do you have temp data since break in?



I can't find the SavvyMX document on the procedure. Don't consider my description of this to be gospel, it was 3-4 years ago this was done on the club plane I was flying.

When the oil control rings get gunked up, they are no longer able to effectively scrape the piston walls clean. this leads to increased consumption. which can eventually lead to plugs fouling, etc. The top plug is removed, the cylinder is filled with a cleaning / penetrating oil and the prop is gently used a lever against the now hydro-locked cylinder to (again gently) push the penetrating oil past the rings.

Obviously this is done in conjunction with an oil change (or two!)
 
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