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Hi All- I had a strange thing happen during a recent flight in my Forney F-1 (with the C-90 engine). I'm hoping somebody here can offer an explanation as to what might have happened. It was about 40 F and sunny, at about 10:00 AM. I took off after a normal runup, showing 38 psi of oil pressure (which is normal for my plane). After I was up for about 10 minutes, I noticed the oil pressure steadily falling. I turned back for the home field, and kept an eye on the oil pressure, which seemed to stabilize at about 20 psi. On short final, when I pulled the power to idle, the oil pressure fell to 0. On the ground, I brought the engine up to 1200 RPM or so, and the pressure came up to about 5 psi. Throughout all of this, the oil temperature never went above about 150 F, and in all respects the plane felt and sounded normal. I shut down the plane and added about a half quart of oil, which brought it up to a little over 5 quarts. Once last winter, I lost oil pressure during runup, but adding a quart fixed it. Not so this time; after re-starting the engine, the pressure wouldn't go above 20 psi. I called the mechanic (who is unfortunately not on the field), and he came down to check it out that afternoon. He verified that my oil pressure guage is working properly (by attaching a separate pressure guage). During his tests, the engine developed the normal 38 psi. Not knowing what else to do, I had him change the oil (which had about 30 hours on it). He checked the oil screen and the oil filter, both of which were clean. By the way, the new oil is the same kind as the old oil -- 20W-50. I've flown 5 times since then, in similar conditions, with no hint of trouble. My mechanic thinks the oil pressure relief valve might have gotten temporarily jammed with a chunk of carbon, but I confess I'm skeptical. So... any ideas about what might be going on? Thanks in advance Peter ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiLm.aVzvvT Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
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