Is your 2-stroke Engine About to Fail

[horsepower 24]

Anybody have any questions on their Rotax should watch this webinar presentation.It made me feel alot more comfortable about my 582.The guy definately knows his stuff,he talks about prop loading and jetting and everything that makes a aircraft 2 stroke different than a regular 2 stroke engine.It reduces the failure rate by a bunch if you do what he says.I know the 912 guys wont be into watching it buta lot of you on this forum may find it interesting.Some or most may have already watched but here is the website,not sure if you have to be a EAA member or not.It is titled, Is your 2 -stroke Engine About to fail? www.eaa.org/webinars

[akflyer 1427]

I know that from what I have seen, the engine can go either way... Most time she will give you plenty of warning that it is not feeling well and you need to check it out. Say the seals start leaking.. you will notice one EGT start climbing as that cylinder leans out, or she starts loosing power and wont turn full RPM on take off for no good reason, check the compression and the rings and see if you have some carbon in there that are causing them to stick.

Then there are the sudden HOLY SHIT moments.. I had this happen to me when the rings failed on BOTH cylinders (sure am glad I had that 20 knot tailwind to make the airport). I was flying along fat dumb and happy, EGTs and water temps perfect, then suddenly... the loudest silence you can imagine.. Turns out that the pistons and rings that ole will wayne sells on ebay are junk. The rings railed on both my engine and AKFLYERBOB's engine (on his we were able to milk it around a very short pattern and get her back on the ground).

Say one of the hoses ruptured or came on on the RV oil bottle. I know from experience that when you run out of oil in that center cavity, you have about 15 minutes before the engine stops running, for no apparent reason... That one was a real head scratcher for me till I pulled the air filter and looked through the carbs while the kid hit the key..

At any rate, I still trust the engine to get me where I want to go and dont even think twice about it. I have had engine failures on Lycomings too so it is not just 2 strokes that give up the ghost on you!

[C5Engineer 1170]

Shit I hope not.. I'm headed on a 1500NM X-country over labor day