<VV> Oil in Muffler

John Kepler jekepler at amplex.net
Tue Jun 2 07:12:02 EDT 2009


My question is: how did the oil get inside the right  
exhaust pipe and muffler?


Little known factoid....piston rings only work when the engine is running!
If you over-fill the crank-case, then you flood the cylinders with oil
too....it runs by the rings and "eventually", out the exhaust valves and
into the muffler/manifolds!

One of the reasons you see WW II-era film of Air Force ground-crews pulling
those big honkin' radial engines through by hand before starting them, is
the factoid articulated above!  The bottom cylinders would fill full of oil
after the engines were shut-down, and had to be "pulled through" to clear
the oil, otherwise it'd blow the heads/cylinders apart when you tried to
start them!

John




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