On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 21:00:40 -0700, unicate wrote
in :

"Aluckyguess" wrote in message
I'm afraid its going to blow the gage out one cold morning.

"Capt.Doug" wrote:
More likely to blow out an oil cooler.

That is PRECISELY what happened to mine. Oil cooler split on start-up,
unbeknownst to us. Dumped a fair amount of oil right there where we
started, trailed to the run-up area with another puddle there. Gauges
continued to read green/normal until 6 minutes into the flight when we
suddenly had zero oil pressure. Oil temp never went up, probably because
there was never enough oil in there to temp. Less than a minute after
the gauge dropped to zero, it began to buck and shake as the engine
seized, and less than a minute after that, we were down. Thank God we
were over the desert (less than a mile from the intended runway), but
the desert floor is NOT as flat as it looks from 100 or 50 feet. We are
grateful to have walked away with only bruises, but the airplane was
totaled.

I had never heard of an oil cooler failing before this, but since, some
people have said, "oh yeah, they fail sometimes." I also was never
taught to look behind me after taxiing away from start-up or run-up to
check for puddles of oil or fuel.

Shirl

That's a lot of good information. Many thanks.