[Vwdiesel] Oil Light/Buzzer

[James Hansen]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: vwdiesel-admin at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-admin at vwfans.com]On
> Behalf Of Sandy Cameron
> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 6:46 PM
> To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] Oil Light/Buzzer
>
> At shutdown, a valve was opened by the pilot, that allowed
> gasoline to enter
> the crankcase, diuting the oil, while the engine idled, circulating it
> through the engine's lubrication galaries. the engine then was stopped,
> covered for the night, and the next morning started without trouble.


Yep.  Most had a small tank to so this in, so the "starting tank" was really
thin, and it mixed in with the main oil tank when started to protect the
bearings.  The engine HAD to run for a prescribed time regardless, or the
fuel was not boiled out.  There were a number of engine failures related to
insufficient run up times that occurred, usually the engine lasted long
enough to get off the ground, then bearing failure ensued. Kind of dicey
with the Harvard being a training aircraft and all, but I think you are
right on the 20 minute runup- had to be done at half throttle IIRC. They HAD
to do this, as there was no way with oil technology in those days that you
could reasonably get heated oil into an aircraft sump that was at -45
or -50, and get the engine started before it was back to corn syrup.

Heck, I even had a 73 volks van that did this on occasion. Automatically
too.  heh.
-James


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