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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date: 1-31-2016
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Number of Hours: 2.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Oil breather tube installation
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Cold weather, holiday & work travel, family commitments…these and several other excuses have kept me away from the project for a couple of weeks. But with the days getting a bit longer, and what has actually been a pretty mild winter, soon to be spring, I really need to stop making excuses and get busy again.
Today I decided to install the oil breather line—a relatively simple aluminum tube that exits the rear case of the engine and descends to just above the left exhaust pipe. During engine operation, the tube vents the oil system, and this causes a small amount of oil to collect in the tube, eventually causing drips that fall into the slipstream and making an oily mess on the belly of the aircraft. Van’s design has the breather tube terminate just above the exhaust pipe, thus theoretically burning the oil instead of allowing it to be carried away. I’m told it doesn’t work all that well and many builders install a custom device, made by Vetterman (the exhaust manufacturer) which solves the problem. I will go with what I have and can always retrofit later if needed.
After initial fitting, the tube didn’t fit properly due to interference with the engine mount. I had to put a bend in the lower 1/3 that allowed the tube to clear the mount, and then curve back towards the inboard to ensure that it terminated over the exhaust pipe. Simple enough. I still need to clamp the rubber union at the top, but since there is still a plug in the line, I’m keeping that unattached to avoid the possibility of forgetting to remove the plug...that would be just like me…
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Tube bend to clear engine mount
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Installation at bottom of engine compartment
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Top of installed line, without clamps in place
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