Well, into each life some rain must fall... through the crack in the engine
case no less. I had been noticing a small oil leak for some months, but
could never track it down. Unfortunately, when I did I wished I
hadn't. I found a small 1/4" crack at the 2 o'clock position on
cylinder #2.
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My good friend Jason Owen, Northwest Captain and master A&P was kind
enough to do the work on it. Well, the important stuff anyway. I get
to do all the unimportant, dirty, cleanup, mindless stuff... but I'm not
complaining! Its a heck of a lot easier taking this apart than it is
putting it all back together. He's got some good ideas on reworking the
nose bowl and building a plenum box for better cooling so there's a lot of extra
work in store.
The process will be covered here in sections: