Russian radials

[Geert Frank]

Hi to all! In 1976 I attended Oshkosh in my Russian Antonov AN-2, it had
the 1000 hp Russian radial engine and a few years later I used a Wilga 260
hp radial under consignment for about a year. Both engines were very
reliable and I would not worry too much about the hours between overhaul,
BUT I lost a 95 hour engine on the AN-2, on the ground to be sure, enormous
chunks of metal were found during a routine oilfilter check. It turned out
the engine had not been turned over by hand, prior to starting same, even
though it had not been that long since its last run. With this engine and
the smaller radial one on the Wilga, I found time and again that they
hydraulic locked much faster and much easier than their US made counter
parts. One had to almost always( sometimes after only a three hour period)
drain the lower two cylinders (by removing sparkplugs) or use the drains in
the lower sections of the exhaust manifold. This must be a pain with a float
mounted SR, but I have no experience there. See this bleep only as my own
experience with the above engines, that are however similar to this 360 hp
one. I also have no real idea why the above is so, something about the
piston rings not being as tight? Another bonus (price being the first
bonus!) is the fact that with the engine comes a large crate with tools and
some spares, at least it used to be that way. Leaves me to wish all of you a
very merry Christmas! Geert.

*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
Contributors' page at:
http://www.dcsol.com/murphy-rebel/contributors.htm
Visit the book store at:
http://www.dcsol.com/murphy-rebel/book_store.htm
Archives located at:
http://www.dcsol.com/murphy-rebel/archives.htm
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------*




-----------------------------------------------------------------
List archives located at: https://mail.dcsol.com/login
username "rebel" password "builder"
Unsubscribe: rebel-builders-unsubscribe@dcsol.com
List administrator: mike.davis@dcsol.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------