“I wonder how much longer it would
have taken for this to cause a catastrophic
engine failure? I believe monitoring the
engine helped find this, but clearly it would
have been found much, much earlier had we
been inspecting the pickup screen on a regular basis.”
MONITORING FOR METAL
The oil system of any piston aircraft engine
provides two levels of filtration. There’s a
relatively coarse suction screen at the oil
pickup tube whose job is to catch large
chunks of metal before they can get to the oil
pump (and possibly damage it). Then there’s
a fine screen or oil filter after the oil pump
whose job is to catch tiny pieces of metal
before they can get to the engine’s bearings
(and possibly contaminate them).
The Lycoming piston damaged by the flying oil nozzle. All
six pistons, two connecting rod caps, and the inside of the
crankcase were damaged.
