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A pro tip from a mechanic and instructor.


Anticept

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Posting this here in fuels and fluids because it's the most appropriate place for it. I realized I never did post this here on this forum, despite it being an astoundingly useful troubleshooting tool.

If you aren't already doing so, create a sheet that you put your hobbs and tach times in (if you can find tach). These serve as your "per hour" measurements.

To the right of this, put your fuel quantities that you start and end with; as well as columns for oil added and coolant added.

Get 12oz white paper cups (the kind used for drinking coolers) and use those as your quantities for oil and coolant (just count oil bottles if you are doing this to an air cooled engine).

Fuel should fluctuate with your tach readings if you have them, but otherwise stay within a reasonable per hour range if you don't change your flying habits much.

Oil and coolant, however, are fantastic tools to see if you have something developing that is subtle. Usually, a Rotax engine might consume a couple paper cups of oil at most between 50 hour oil changes, and next to no coolant.

The idea is not so much the amount you are using right this moment, but monitoring for trends in fluid consumption. An uptick of consumption signifies a possible issue that warrants attention. A gradual increase over the life of the engine isn't what I mean here, if you find that you are having to add 3 or 4 paper cups of oil more than the last inspection, it's something to investigate.

Please remember to stay consistent though or this will cause problems instead of solve any. Be careful to record the fluid levels at oil changes and inspections on your sheet. You don't want to panic about having to add a bunch of extra oil shortly after an oil change and it turns out you didn't add as much at that last change... And also remember oil level CHANGES A LOT between a hot engine and a cold one so keep that in mind too!

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