okay we put engine together 3 years ago using atkins seals and kit. had good pressure for first year-25 30 at idle 60 or so @6000. Then suddenly after it warmed up say 5min you would it just guage slowly come to zero. rev it up and get maybe 50. We installed manual guage and it says same. we have atkins pellet in so rotors get oil all the time. Car[sons] has been running this way now for last 2 years. Runs well no smoke or noise. Today we pulled pan to investigate. Ckecked relief valve at rear and control valve at front-ok strainer had a patch of what looked like hard plastic on it which i cleaned off. control valve wasnt tight but had not backed out and spring checked out ok. Cleaned up, fixed a couple of small dents in pan put back with new 20-50 and filter-no change. 20 psi at first idle and slowly dropped to 0[maybe 3-4]psi at 10 min idle. He took valve out of oil cooler few months ago which lets oil circulate all the time i presume.---HERES THE QUESTION are the bearings for eshaft and rotors worn that bad or does it sound like a oil pump worn out or both. We use some 2 stroke oil in fuel and always have. Has anyone got any ideas-car is driven daily and runs fine.

 

Check the o-ring on the front cover. Your symptoms match a failed or improperly installed o-ring where the oil feed goes from the front iron to the front cover.

 

I was tired last night and not typing too good but thanks, thats one problem i have not considered. We can pull pan and front cover with engine in car. I have some o rings but no gasket, can silicone be used there? We used it on oil pan. I could get to oil pump then too. Thanks for reminding me-i had forgotten about that seal being there!

 

There has to be an o-ring, and it has to be the proper size. What year is the engine?

 

1988 i got an o ring, i just wondered if i can use silicone to seal front cover instead of gasket when i put back together.

 

[quote name='horn4858' date='May 16 2005, 05:59 PM']1988 i got an o ring, i just wondered if i can use silicone to seal front cover instead of gasket when i put back together.


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Its actually recommended you forgo the stock gasket and just use silicon, but you need a different o-ring. I dont remember the size offhand, but you can email www.rotaryaviation.com and they will give you the proper size.

 

Hi we found problem with shanes[my kid] engine, it was the o ring in front cover with a gasket that blew out. thanks to person that replied[cant rem] we have cover back on. I used gasket eliminator on cover instead of gasket and fitted a different o ring. We still have to put rest back together but thanks again for the help. Its about 90 deg so we in no hurry.

 

update-got-r-done today [off my carport] and running. Have 20 psi at idle and 60 at 55mph. Son is a lot happier and me too. We will prob leave thermostat out of oil cooler still anyway as it does not really get cold here in winter. When eng is cold it stays on 80 for a bit, have regulators tweaked a little. No damage was done by running it for 2years with lower pressure. Mixing a little 2 stroke oil in gas im sure helped that out a lot.CHEERS-froggy