Larry's Story

The following is forwared to the Lancair list for overall consumption
in hopes that you will make better decisions in your engine compartment;
and for all around chucklage. I'm thick skinned but go easy as my flame
suits are almost worn out.

Mike,

Here's the abridged version of the most intense airplane fabrication
and productivity I have ever been a part of. The started started 3 weeks
earlier with an inopportune meeting between my propeller and a moist
grass taxiway.

On Tuesday (before Saturdays race) I finally got my Crank back from
the grinders and decided to start the fabrication. By Wednesday
afternoon engine was assembled and hanging on the mount.

On Thursday morning I attended a Dr visit for my wife Kim (she has a
broken Knee). On the drive home, it occurred to me that I had one piece
left over. This is a lot like building a Lego with your kids. Just
throw away the extra piece and no one will be the wiser. The item in
question was a clip ring.

After consulting with my building buddies and the Lyc parts manual it
was determined that my tach drive was not clipped to my cam. D#$*!
(rimes with cam). So, we pulled the accessory case and applied much pooky
for reassembly.

Before you consider leaving out your tach drive consider the cap you
intend to use to seal the opening. I chose to leave my tach drive in
(even though I get rpm elsewhere). If you leave it in, please include the
clip ring.

One slight challenge to pulling one's accessory case is damage caused
to the aft portion of the sump gasket. We didn't like it and added much
pooky to try to seal it back up.

During engine test runs we found several minor gotchas (two untorqued
injectors make a big fuss) and a small oil leak in the center aft
portion of the sump. This leak was deemed significant but not unsafe to fly.
BTW, one of the other minor tweaks was the need to add washers to the
oil pressure ball and spring assembly.

Thursday night came and went with 4 hours of sleep.

You know where this is going, don't you....

I flew the plane friday afternoon and aside from minor lower than
normal oil pressure it flew fine. But wait, there was little to no oil burn
or leak. Why did I not loose any oil to that pesky sump leak?

After a little more head scratching the sump gasket was blamed for the
low oil pressure. Sure enough gasket damage in the vicinity of the oil
suction tube was allowing air to leak into the oil pump causing the oil
to foam.

Now it's 8 pm friday night. With little more than 12 hours to the race
I decided the safest thing to do was change the sump gasket. My helper
suggested we'd get it done in about an hour. This was very entertaining
to the neighbors.

Have you used that new anaerobic gasket sealer. Holy smokes it sticks.
We pulled the sump and extracted it from the plane and scrubbed and
scrapped. Finally after midnight it went back on with a new gasket and
more purple pooky. Also, removed were the oil pressure increasing
washers.

Friday night sleep; 4 more hours.

The next morning oil was added, engine run complete with 88 psi oil
pressure and off on a 30 minute flight to the race I went.

The end of the "why was your cowl off?" story was fear based. I
landed in Taylor with 30 minutes to brief and suspected a little sticky
throttle during the flight. As I had been the one to reinstall the
throttle linkage and holders the night before, I doubted my work. The cowl
was removed to inspect 3 attach points for the throttle and cable. All
were fine. Let's race.

Last detail. Upon returning from the race, #2 lower spark plug wire
was smoked against the #4 exhaust. This is but one of the contributors
to my crummy 235 mph performance and second place finish in the race.
Shame on me for getting whipped by a Berkut :( And shame on your
Lancairs seeking the title "Fastest LNC2 in the Western Hemisphere". If you
don't attend, you can't beat me.

Special Thanks to Don Saint and Charles Williams without whose help I
would have had no chance at all of attending the Taylor 100. These guys
are absolute Hero neighbors!