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After four new nose seals I finally stopped my oil leak!
A bit of background on my engine: I had the crank ground 10/10 in 2000. At that time the shop dressed out a small groove worn into the shaft at the front oil seal - in retrospect that was probably a mistake because it obviated to ability to put a shim behind a new seal and make it rest on a new, wider spot on the crank.
The dressed crankshaft was still in limits, but was/is, of course, slightly smaller at the seal location.
I tried using two springs to hold the seal tighter to the shaft. Seemed like a good idea, but that did not work.
This weekend I took a new split seal and shaved the ends ever so slightly by rubbing them on sandpaper. I was careful to keep them square and retained the flush fit, but I definitely made a few "rubber crumbs" on the sandpaper - first with 100 grit then finishing with 320. I probably removed a maximum of 10 thousandths - .005 from each end of the seal. The seal was now a smaller diameter, but not too small. It still required a little pushing to get it into the seal recess. I used plenty of Permatex on it and of course brushed a bit of oil on the crank so it would be lubricated right from the first start.
Today I flew 1.5 hours and was at max power most of the time trying to keep up with Doc. His plane is a shade faster...(I gotta lose some weight
) At any rate, after returning from our $100 hamburger there was no oil on my windscreen -- first time in several years. And yes, I took off with four quarts for all you wiseacres about to ask that question 
Now I figure there are 25 experienced Tribesmen out there who will be saying to themselves -
"well duh! everybody knows that trick."
So I say, well now there are 26 experienced Tribesmen that know the trick and a whole lot of others who will read it here.
And I'm going to save a lot on oil.
A bit of background on my engine: I had the crank ground 10/10 in 2000. At that time the shop dressed out a small groove worn into the shaft at the front oil seal - in retrospect that was probably a mistake because it obviated to ability to put a shim behind a new seal and make it rest on a new, wider spot on the crank.
The dressed crankshaft was still in limits, but was/is, of course, slightly smaller at the seal location.I tried using two springs to hold the seal tighter to the shaft. Seemed like a good idea, but that did not work.
This weekend I took a new split seal and shaved the ends ever so slightly by rubbing them on sandpaper. I was careful to keep them square and retained the flush fit, but I definitely made a few "rubber crumbs" on the sandpaper - first with 100 grit then finishing with 320. I probably removed a maximum of 10 thousandths - .005 from each end of the seal. The seal was now a smaller diameter, but not too small. It still required a little pushing to get it into the seal recess. I used plenty of Permatex on it and of course brushed a bit of oil on the crank so it would be lubricated right from the first start.
Today I flew 1.5 hours and was at max power most of the time trying to keep up with Doc. His plane is a shade faster...(I gotta lose some weight
) At any rate, after returning from our $100 hamburger there was no oil on my windscreen -- first time in several years. And yes, I took off with four quarts for all you wiseacres about to ask that question Now I figure there are 25 experienced Tribesmen out there who will be saying to themselves -
"well duh! everybody knows that trick."
So I say, well now there are 26 experienced Tribesmen that know the trick and a whole lot of others who will read it here.
And I'm going to save a lot on oil.
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