Hi Jabiru. A few days ago during flight I suddenly lost oil pressure. I was hesitating for a while to evaluate if it was an instrument error or the real thing, before I reduced the throttle and looked for place to land. Stopped the engine and landed safely. I removed the cowling and found an oil hose from the oil cooler back to the oil donut, had fallen off its fitting. Most of the oil naturally had left the engine and oil pressure was lost.
After refitting the oil hose, I refilled with oil and checked the engine could be turned by hand without any unusual to be noticed. Then started the engine and it was running well as before the incident. After warm-up and running at high rpm as well as WOT repeatedly, the engine was left to cool down for next morning. Next morning I checked the engine for oil level and started it. Warm-up and when ready checked at high rpm and WOT. Eventually after total close to 2x30 minutes ground run without anything to notice, I took off and flew the 15 minutes flight back to my home airfield.
I am not sure about exactly how long the engine ran without oil pressure before stopped. Could be 10-20 seconds. The engine sounds good and seems not to have been damaged. However, is there any advise from Jabiru advise on what to check after this incident?
By the way. It would have been much better to have the oil drain plug on the right hand side of the engine sump. On my FlySynthesis Storch HS aircraft, the bracket for the oil cooler is in the way when changing oil. I have to dismount the bracket with the cooler and pull the assembly a bit forward to make room for unscrewing the oil drain plug, and drain the oil into a pan. It is awkward and not good for the oil hoses either to be manipulated that way.
If the oil drain plug had been on the right hand side I would only need to partly disconnect and lower the oil cooler assembly on the right side to make room for draining the oil.
Hello Jabiru. Any comments to the incident?
Hello Olav,
Usually if with a loss of oil the first thing that happens is the pistons pickup in the barrels. To check for this have a look and see if there is any sign of heating at the base of the barrel on the top and bottom sides. For example a patch of discoloured or burnt paint.
Otherwise, it sounds like your engine is fine.
@jabiru-support No sign of overheating on the barrels, but I would not expect it either since the oil pressure loss was sudden and only lasted very short beforethe engine was stopped. If anything would be damaged I would have expected crank shaft bearings, camshaft or valve issues.
It does sound like the engine is ok. However I haven't seen the engine. To be absolutely sure you would need to disassembly the engine and check the bearings.
Hi again. The engine has now run 15 hours since the incident. All seems good except it appears there now is a ticking sound after start and during warm up. After a few minutes while heating up the ticking sound is fading away. During magneto check, take off and during flight I can't detect any unusual noise from the engine. Would it be possible to share a sound recording with you to evaluate where the ticking noise is coming from. Could it be a hydraulic lifter making the noise? I know car engines with hydraulic lifters can have a smimilar ticking noice after start and during warm up.
Hello Olav,
Yes of course. Send it to info@jabiru.net.au and reference this thread.
And yes a hydraulic lifter that leaks down will the engine is off could cause a noise that goes away after start.
Thanks. I will try to make a sound recording of the engine after cold start. Is it a likely that the hydraulic lifters are the first or early parts to get damaged from running the engine without oil pressure? If it is the case that a lifter is leaking down while the engine is off - is this something that can create more trouble/damage if not fixed - or is the engine OK for flight as long as the noise goes away during warm up? Some years ago I heard what I believe was excactly the same ticking sound from another Jabiru 2200 engine.
I don't think the lifters would be the first part that would be damaged. Usually the pistons start to pickup in the barrels before anything else, when oil pressure is lost.
If it is just the lifter leaking down, then if the lift pumps up and the noise goes away during warm then the engine is fine. It is worth investigating further especially with the engines previous history.
Thanks. I will try to make a sound recording of the engine after cold start. Is it a likely that the hydraulic lifters are the first or early parts to get damaged from running the engine without oil pressure? If it is the case that a lifter is leaking down while the engine is off - is this something that can create more trouble/damage if not fixed - or is the engine OK for flight as long as the noise goes away during warm up? Some years ago I heard what I believe was excactly the same ticking sound from another Jabiru 2200 engine.
A few years ago, a Jabiru owner I know heard an uncharacteristic engine running sound. I did not have a Jabiru of my own at that stage. But I remembered how he flatly refused to fly until he looked at the engine. He ended up spending two days with the engine.
So yes, the sound of the engine is very important.
