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Cooling System
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There are lots of little things here to consider and left to your own doing.
There are several things you need to consider while you running your hoses. One big thing is that when the ships main drive belts stretch as they break themselves in during the break in process and you move the engine forward in the ship the hoses may have to be lengthened. That means one or more of the hoses may have to be replaced and in order to do that the cooling system will have to be drained and refilled not to mention the cost of the hoses, antifreeze and the mess it's going to create. Doing the best you can, the hose to the LH side of the radiator from the thermostat housing will already be in a bind placing quite a bit of stress on the radiator pipe. Tom Smith said that when the hoses get hot the first time they will mold and the stress should be eliminated then but when you move the engine forward I can't see any way to relieve the extra stress with out replacing the hose with the possible exception of rotating the engine with the torque link if you can do it without causing a tight situation somewhere else like where the oil drain fitting comes out of the left hand cylinder head. It's already a pretty tight situation between it and the rear brace. I have talked to several owners who have said they didn't have the problem on their ship but like I said I find it hard to believe until I see the actual results myself. I may be wrong but him thinking that this hose stress may be a contributor to some of the fires in these ships over the years.
Something that needs to be installed in these ships when they are built is a valve to drain the coolant.
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The valve Im talkng about isn't in this pic but you can get an idea of the location from it.
We figured this out when we wanted to totally renew the coolent (Antifreeze) in our ship. There are plugs in the front of the radiator but that leaves alot of coolent traped below them in the hoses and oil cooler. When I was at RotorWay for training I noticed they have a drain installed on the pilots side just behind the tub where the tail rotor cable is routed through to the front of the ship. Thats about as low of a point as you can get from what I can see and we sure wished we had installed one during cunstruction of our ship. The way the ship is set up now the only way to totally remove all the coolent is to pull the hose off the oil cooler and that makes for a hell of a mess in the tub of the ship.
When we changed our coolant lines during our 100 hour service
we found there isn't such a thing as a non messy way to do it. The easiest way to save a big mess is remove the tub wrap the exhaust pipes with plastic and then just start pulling lines. From what we could see there isn't any way there isn't going to be a hell of a mess because next to the radiator, the cylinder jugs and heads on the engine retain a great majority of the coolant.
To drain the entire system you have to remove both radiator plugs, both lower engine hoses and both water lines on the oil cooler. We didn't try it but it looks like you might get buy without unhooking the water line to the oil cooler on the passengers side of the ship. If that line is all down hill with no valleys in it, unhooking the pilots side water line from the thermostat housing after the rest of it has been drained may do the majority of it.
This isn't really the section for it but you know that heat shield you worked so hard on to get to fit tight, with factory belts on the ship it will have to be notched in the forward direction at least 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch or more to allow the engine to move forward when you ajust the main engine belts, bummer huh. lol
I made those shields twice trying to obtain that perfect fit and in the end I could have just ball parked them had I known this up front.
Later on we installed the Prodrive Electric Clutch and the belts it comes with don't stretch to the lengths the Rotorway factory belts do so that allows the fit of the pipes to the heat shields to be much closer.
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We ducted all of the bleed valves except the one on top of the engine over board through the radiator shroud with plastic tubing.
The reason we did this is so we would be able to readily bleed the system at random with out going through a hassle doing it and looking for hoses when it had to be done or checked. It surely added some weight to the ship but we thought it was worth it.
Make sure you safety wire the air bleed valve in the top RH side of the engine.
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This happened on a ship I was flying in at RotorWay. When it opened, it flooded the coil packs or FADECs causing the engine to cut in and out several times on our way down in an auto and and let me tell you it wasn't a fun ride. We hit the ground hard, rolled up on the nose and then luckily back down and the tail rotor strut and one blade on the tailrotor was trashed when it dug into the sand. In our case it was the turbo belt that bit the dust and looking at the alignment of the belt you wouldn't think it could happen. The main engine belts have that valve in perfect alignment so don't forget this, it may save your ship and even your life.
We
feel Protecting the hoses with firesleeve is necessary in a few
other places then RotorWay says you need.
The
books say anything within 3 inches of the exhaust pipes.
All RotorWay gives you in the kit is enough to do the one hose on the passengers side and we found it's not big enough in diameter to do it with without splitting the firesleeve to allow it to make the bends.
The reason why we later found out is "you can't get it in bigger sizes".
After much of a tadoo looking all over the net we called the place that makes the hose. And after chatting with them we figuring out you'd have to be a rocket scientist to understand the abbreviations used for this material and that was the answer we received.
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As you can see from the pictures we got a little wild with it. On the pilots side we even used it to protect our com antenna cable, tail rotor cable and our wiring that runs past the engine to the tail boom so it has a double use aside from protecting the hoses.
We had an issue arise on our ship with the fire sleeve.
Luckily we caught it in time before it managed to do any more damage. The stuff was chafing it's way through the aluminum tube you see in the pic so be sure not to allow this to happen on your ship.
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This picture was taken when we discovered it during our 50 hour service.
This is a picture of the special fleetguard antifreeze
Theres also an Additive and a test kit you must have on hand to use it. First off there is two versions of this stuff you can buy. One is premixed and the other is a concetrate.
If you use
the premixed version
be sure to check
the levels in
each jug
before you add
it to
the ships cooling system .
Its
been reported by folks not to be testing at the proper level of
right off the shelf so its not a poor n go situation like its advertised.
The test
strips you buy have a shelf life and it must be strictly adhered to.
The
reason for this is because after the strips get old (time out so to
speek) they may indicate the correct test level when in reality it's
below standards required.
All this stuff can be obtained at Cummings dealerships and most big truck as in 18 wheeler parts supply houses.
The range of levels in the 3 different parts of the test chart
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Pre Charge |
Service |
Test |
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0.0 |
1.2 |
3.1 |
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0.3 |
1.4 |
3.2 |
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0.6 |
1.6 |
3.3 |
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0.8 |
1.7 |
3.5 |
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0.9 |
1.8 |
3.6 |
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1.0 |
1.9 |
3.7 |
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1.1 |
2.0 |
3.8 |
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- |
2.1 |
4.1 |
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- |
2.2 |
4.3 |
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- |
2.3 |
4.4 |
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- |
2.4 |
4.9 |
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- |
2.5 |
5.1 |
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- |
2.7 |
5.7 |
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- |
2.8 |
- |
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- |
3.0 |
- |
It would seem to me that there should be a target something.something to shoot for as far as the green zone here gos but so far the only answer I got from anyone is if it's in the green your good to go.
In April 2004 I found this information on the net at the link below.
I've no idea if its the same thing were supposed to use so be sure to check with RotorWay before using this product or procedure.
Cummins
Northwest, Inc.
News and Announcements
Fleetguard
Inc. Releases ESXtreme Organic Acid Coolant Extends Service to
600,000-Mile Protection
Date : 10/07/2002
Source:
Business Wire
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 2002--(NYSE:CUM - News) Fleetguard Inc. has released its new extended life antifreeze coolant product, ESXtreme(TM). An organic acid formulation that is borate, phosphate and silicate-free, ESXtreme(TM) provides minimum 600,000-mile or 12,000-hour protection for heavy-duty diesel engines. The new coolant prevents a wide variety of maintenance problems, including scaling, foaming, corrosion and liner pitting, as well as extends water pump life and provides extremely low maintenance.
"ESXtreme(TM) utilizes superior organic acid technology," explained Dave Brisk, Coolant Product Manager for Fleetguard. "It is Fleetguard's answer to the maintenance demands of heavy-duty diesel coolant systems. It provides superior protection against freezing, boil-over, cavitation, liner pitting, erosion, corrosion, elastomer gasket degradation, and scaling. It offers a lot of protection and worry-free maintenance in one simple package."
With its unique organic formula and ethylene glycol base, ESXtreme(TM) meets North American, European and Asian Original Equipment Manufacturers requirements for extended life coolants. It also meets the performance requirements of ASTM, TMC, SAE and GM specifications and is compatible with conventional antifreeze and supplemental coolant additives. ESXtreme(TM) Extender liquid chemical replacement and ESXtreme(TM) ESI Filters have also been released for extending coolant life.
"It simplifies the entire coolant maintenance process," Brisk said. "It is easy to use--simply charge the cooling system with ESXtreme(TM), top-off with ESXtreme(TM) Premix, and after 300,000 miles or 6,000 hours, recharge with a quart of ESXtreme(TM) Extender and add an ESXtreme(TM) ESI coolant filter. You are then good to go for another 300,000 miles or 6,000 hours of operation."
The new coolant is formulated in ethylene glycol premix and concentrate formulas and is available in bulk, 55-gallon drums and one-gallon bottles.
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List of Hoses
used in the
cooling and oil system
We got these numbers off the old hoses when we did our 100 hour service in February 2005
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RotorWay Part Number |
Manufacturer Part Number |
Hose Used for |
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7E17 EBP 80 MH00 |
- |
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012498 |
- |
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7F20 |
oil line
from bottom of engine |
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6L22 |
- |
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8B07 |
- |
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2976932728 |
- |
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LOL PLUS 8LOLA+1/2" 300 PSI |
water pump to thermostat housing |
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LOL PLUS 12LOLA+ 3/4 300 PSI FLAME RESISTANT COVER |
water pump
to oil sump, |
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8B25EBP |
END
