experience with different gearbox venting solutions - Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers2024-03-29T15:17:44Zhttps://zenith.aero/forum/topics/experience-with-different-gearbox-venting-solutions?commentId=2606393%3AComment%3A613619&feed=yes&xn_auth=noJan,
We just emailed Alissa…tag:zenith.aero,2018-12-20:2606393:Comment:6582632018-12-20T22:07:11.688ZJared G Brownhttps://zenith.aero/profile/JaredGBrown
<p>Jan, </p>
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<p>We just emailed Alissa today to get our new vent, a question I have is about a possible sight glass in our 130 gearbox. Would you say there is any option to install a possible thread-in sight glass to the bottom gearbox hole so that way you could at least see if there is sufficient oil in the system. I'm not sure it is necessary, we just want to make sure we have enough oil in the system and not too little or too much. thanks for your time. </p>
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<p>Jan, </p>
<p></p>
<p>We just emailed Alissa today to get our new vent, a question I have is about a possible sight glass in our 130 gearbox. Would you say there is any option to install a possible thread-in sight glass to the bottom gearbox hole so that way you could at least see if there is sufficient oil in the system. I'm not sure it is necessary, we just want to make sure we have enough oil in the system and not too little or too much. thanks for your time. </p>
<p></p> Jan,
I know what you are sta…tag:zenith.aero,2018-12-20:2606393:Comment:6578752018-12-20T04:54:51.899Zcharlie rosenzweighttps://zenith.aero/profile/charlierosenzweig
<p>Jan,</p>
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<p>I know what you are staying about the tubes being a poor choice to determine how much oil in the gearbox on shutdown. I was thinking more about pre-flight when it is cold.</p>
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<p>Glad to hear about the sight glass on the HD gearbox.</p>
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<p>Thanks for continuing to work on improvements, we all benefit from that approach. </p>
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<p>Charlie </p>
<p>Jan,</p>
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<p>I know what you are staying about the tubes being a poor choice to determine how much oil in the gearbox on shutdown. I was thinking more about pre-flight when it is cold.</p>
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<p>Glad to hear about the sight glass on the HD gearbox.</p>
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<p>Thanks for continuing to work on improvements, we all benefit from that approach. </p>
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<p>Charlie </p> Hey Charlie:
Any external ho…tag:zenith.aero,2018-12-19:2606393:Comment:6578442018-12-19T23:56:41.650ZJan Eggenfellnerhttps://zenith.aero/profile/JanEggenfellner
<p>Hey Charlie:</p>
<p></p>
<p>Any external hoses can not be relied upon as sight tubes. The gear oil is way to sticky even after shutdown to show an accurate oil level referencing inside to outside of the gearbox. Since you decided to upgrade to the heavy duty turbo engine version, it includes a sight glass on the side you will be able to have an accurate reference.</p>
<p>Hey Charlie:</p>
<p></p>
<p>Any external hoses can not be relied upon as sight tubes. The gear oil is way to sticky even after shutdown to show an accurate oil level referencing inside to outside of the gearbox. Since you decided to upgrade to the heavy duty turbo engine version, it includes a sight glass on the side you will be able to have an accurate reference.</p> Jan,
That seems like a good…tag:zenith.aero,2018-12-18:2606393:Comment:6577032018-12-18T04:27:20.625Zcharlie rosenzweighttps://zenith.aero/profile/charlierosenzweig
<p>Jan,</p>
<p></p>
<p>That seems like a good improvement on the gearbox venting. With this new design, will there still be a way to have a sight tube just to make sure we can see that there is sufficient oil in the gearbox? </p>
<p>Jan,</p>
<p></p>
<p>That seems like a good improvement on the gearbox venting. With this new design, will there still be a way to have a sight tube just to make sure we can see that there is sufficient oil in the gearbox? </p> We now have a no-external-ven…tag:zenith.aero,2018-12-11:2606393:Comment:6566962018-12-11T19:43:54.439ZJan Eggenfellnerhttps://zenith.aero/profile/JanEggenfellner
<p>We now have a no-external-vent bottle system perfected. It was demonstrated at our 2018 engine course but we did not get video of it. Maybe someone else did? If not we will post it here. Basically it works like this:</p>
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<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0C0mIVuZ2_U?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</p>
<p>We now have a no-external-vent bottle system perfected. It was demonstrated at our 2018 engine course but we did not get video of it. Maybe someone else did? If not we will post it here. Basically it works like this:</p>
<p></p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0C0mIVuZ2_U?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</p> I moved my gearbox vent outle…tag:zenith.aero,2018-06-14:2606393:Comment:6320392018-06-14T14:57:14.618ZPatrick Hoythttps://zenith.aero/profile/PatrickHoyt
<p>I moved my gearbox vent outlet (from underneath the firewall) to a location towards the top of the firewall. I used a modified motorcycle brake fluid reservior as a "catch can" (first picture, below). The "modification" is drilling a small hole under the cap so air can escape. Also, ignore the "upper" and "lower" level marks on it, as they are not relevant in this case.</p>
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<p>I'd noticed some oil on the bottom of the fuselage, just aft of my old vent location. Rather than venting…</p>
<p>I moved my gearbox vent outlet (from underneath the firewall) to a location towards the top of the firewall. I used a modified motorcycle brake fluid reservior as a "catch can" (first picture, below). The "modification" is drilling a small hole under the cap so air can escape. Also, ignore the "upper" and "lower" level marks on it, as they are not relevant in this case.</p>
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<p>I'd noticed some oil on the bottom of the fuselage, just aft of my old vent location. Rather than venting oil overboard, and thus losing it, I thought it would be better to allow that oil to drain back into the big aluminum gearbox oil reservior.</p>
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<p>Seems to be working fine. Not losing anymore gear oil overboard. Haven't even noticed any reaching the level of the new "catch can".</p>
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<p>The way I routed the vent lines on my airplane is shown in the 2nd picture below.</p>
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<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2171044809?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2171044809?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-full" width="721"/></a><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2171049431?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2171049431?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-full" width="721"/></a></p> Patrick,
I have both the alu…tag:zenith.aero,2018-03-27:2606393:Comment:6211432018-03-27T02:40:30.087Zgeo. keyes, jr.https://zenith.aero/profile/georgeekeyesjr
<p>Patrick,</p>
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<p>I have both the aluminum canister installed, and I received an email from viking recently suggesting the canister be vented out the top and down the firewall. i then debated running from the top of the canister into the clear tank (which i had, but was never installed). this way it would catch anything that was frothed/pushed out. more for inspecting the oil if it were being pushed out, and then perhaps it would settle back into the gearbox.</p>
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<p>Also,…</p>
<p>Patrick,</p>
<p></p>
<p>I have both the aluminum canister installed, and I received an email from viking recently suggesting the canister be vented out the top and down the firewall. i then debated running from the top of the canister into the clear tank (which i had, but was never installed). this way it would catch anything that was frothed/pushed out. more for inspecting the oil if it were being pushed out, and then perhaps it would settle back into the gearbox.</p>
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<p>Also, I'm interested in the data logger you have as well.</p>
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<p>Thank you all for the photos!</p>
<p>geo.</p> Patrick,
Yes, that does make…tag:zenith.aero,2018-03-23:2606393:Comment:6205162018-03-23T02:20:56.344Zcharlie rosenzweighttps://zenith.aero/profile/charlierosenzweig
<p>Patrick,</p>
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<p>Yes, that does make sense thanks for clarifying that. Good flying to you!</p>
<p>Patrick,</p>
<p></p>
<p>Yes, that does make sense thanks for clarifying that. Good flying to you!</p> Hey Charlie, the hose coming…tag:zenith.aero,2018-03-22:2606393:Comment:6202172018-03-22T12:41:52.124ZPatrick Hoythttps://zenith.aero/profile/PatrickHoyt
<p>Hey Charlie, the hose coming off the top of the black tank is the vent line for the gearbox. This line goes up, over the engine, and down the firewall. I bought the black tank from Viking.</p>
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<p>The white tanks are different. They are for the coolant overflow. The big tank is the old one that I removed. The smaller tank is the new one (which was my old gearbox overflow tank, but I cleaned it out and re-used it for this. Hope that makes sense). </p>
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<p>I haven't taken…</p>
<p>Hey Charlie, the hose coming off the top of the black tank is the vent line for the gearbox. This line goes up, over the engine, and down the firewall. I bought the black tank from Viking.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The white tanks are different. They are for the coolant overflow. The big tank is the old one that I removed. The smaller tank is the new one (which was my old gearbox overflow tank, but I cleaned it out and re-used it for this. Hope that makes sense). </p>
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<p>I haven't taken any special note of the gearbox temperatures during flight testing, other than not seeing any temperatures (indicated on the Viking View display) that were any cause for concern. A lot of that kind of data also gets separately logged to a Data Logger, but I'm still learning a lot about that).</p>
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<p>- Pat</p>
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<p></p> Patrick,
Thanks for sharing.…tag:zenith.aero,2018-03-22:2606393:Comment:6202082018-03-22T02:26:03.011Zcharlie rosenzweighttps://zenith.aero/profile/charlierosenzweig
<p>Patrick,</p>
<p></p>
<p>Thanks for sharing. So the top line goes to that white resevoir on the firewall, in addition to the black tank you have up near the gearbox? If so, why did you choose to use two tanks? Just curious.</p>
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<p>Also, the black colored tank up front is that something you made or is it an off the shelf product? </p>
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<p>Last, the temp probe. Interesting, have you run it long enough to get a feel for average temps, and if so, is that in flight or ground…</p>
<p>Patrick,</p>
<p></p>
<p>Thanks for sharing. So the top line goes to that white resevoir on the firewall, in addition to the black tank you have up near the gearbox? If so, why did you choose to use two tanks? Just curious.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Also, the black colored tank up front is that something you made or is it an off the shelf product? </p>
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<p>Last, the temp probe. Interesting, have you run it long enough to get a feel for average temps, and if so, is that in flight or ground testing?</p>
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<p>Charlie </p>