The dumbest thing we've done, yet...

I have a PA28-180 with a quick drain on the bottom of the Lycoming.
You can take off the lower cowl to drain the oil -or- you can attach a
flexible hose to the quick drain and route the oil to a bucket.

That's the same set-up we have.

I had the hose slip off the quickdrain and dump about 2 quarts of oil
into the bottom of the cowling, front wheelpant, and eventually the
hangar floor. What a mess to cleanup.

A little bit of oil looks like a LOT of oil. I can't imagine 2 QUARTS on
the floor.

I spilled maybe a pint once, and it took an entire roll of paper towels.

(We won't talk about the time I dumped an entire quart of dark brown wood
stain on the carpet in the meeting room at the inn.... Although, amazingly,
it eventually did come out with repeated shampooing with alcohol.)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article ,
Nathan Young wrote:
I had the hose slip off the quickdrain and dump about 2 quarts of oil
into the bottom of the cowling, front wheelpant, and eventually the
hangar floor. What a mess to cleanup.

That's why I put a spring clamp on the hose where it slips over the
quick drain.

I still haven't mastered filter removal...

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

Ben Jackson wrote:

I still haven't mastered filter removal...

Can't claim to have "mastered" it, but here's my technique.

My plane is a tailwheel design with an O-320. Because it sits tail-down, the filter
doesn't drain much back into the crankcase.

I take a heavy-duty garbage sack to the airport with me. I tape the top edges of the
sack to the engine mount in such a way that there is plastic under every part of the
filter. When I remove the filter, the oil goes into the sack. I then tear the sack
loose while keeping the filter above and inside it (but *not* letting the filter
drop) and lift the sack out. Dangers to this method are 1) there are various little
items below the filter that can snag on and tear the sack, and 2) if you drop the
filter, it may go right through the bottom of the sack.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.

I take a heavy-duty garbage sack to the airport with me. I tape the top
edges of the
sack to the engine mount in such a way that there is plastic under every
part of the
filter. When I remove the filter, the oil goes into the sack. I then tear
the sack
loose while keeping the filter above and inside it (but *not* letting the
filter
drop) and lift the sack out.

I'm going to try this method next time.

Even with our Air Wolf remotely (vertically) mounted oil filter, I STILL
make a mess of myself each and every time I change the oil. And I usually
manage to cut myself on the oil filter while opening it for inspection --
even with the special oil filter cutter I bought from Spruce.

This time, with two people, the mess was considerably less, since once I
removed the oil filter (and dropped it into a milk jug that I've cut to the
proper size and shape), Mary was able to immediately duct tape a plastic
beer cup over the oil filter mounting plate, which effectively caught the
inevitable oil that continues to drain.

Of course, as we learned, having two heads working a task is not ALWAYS
better than one...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 30-Sep-2004, (Ben Jackson) wrote:

That's why I put a spring clamp on the hose where it slips over the
quick drain.

I still haven't mastered filter removal...


Here's an alternate method. Cut a groove around the outside of the drain
hose, maybe 3/8'' from the end that attaches to the quick drain. Slip a
rubber O-ring into this groove. The O-ring size should be such that it
alllows the hose to slip on and off the quick drain with modest force
applied, but provides enough clamping force to keep it in place otherwise.
Finding the right size may take some trial-and-error.

--
-Elliott Drucker

Jay Honeck wrote:

Of course, as we learned, having two heads working a task is not ALWAYS
better than one...

One of the characters in Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" states "If a job can
effectively be done by one person, it is best done by one person." -- or words to
that effect.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.

"Jay Honeck" :
(We won't talk about the time I dumped an entire quart of dark brown wood
stain on the carpet in the meeting room at the inn.... Although,
amazingly,
it eventually did come out with repeated shampooing with alcohol.)

I would've thought long and hard about dying the rest of the carpet to
match...

Russell Kent

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:HRz6d.281696$Fg5.186950@attbi_s53...


What she didn't know was that the quick drain was still open....

:-(

The inside of our crankcase is really, REALLY clean now.

Been there, done that. Fortunately it was outside and I caught it
after the first quart.
--
Gene Seibel
Hangar 131 - http://pad39a.com/gene/plane.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

In article NmX6d.181877$3l3.89196@attbi_s03, Ben Jackson wrote:
In article ,
That's why I put a spring clamp on the hose where it slips over the
quick drain.

I still haven't mastered filter removal...

The day after I posted that I finished my oil change. I found that the
spring clamp worked just fine, but at some point the quick drain started
draining AROUND the plunger part, down the outside of the tube, along
the clamp and into my cowling, where it threaded its way just far enough
along the gear opening that it missed the bucket and puddled on the floor.
Luckily it was only a third of a cup or so.

Oh, and I cut up an empty quart oil container and used it to catch the
spill from the filter and it was very tidy.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/