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500 Hours in an RV10

mlinett

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Our third annual condition inspection occurred at about 500 hours and required a lot of parts, and work, to complete. The plane has been flying great. During this annual we had to do the 500 hour Magneto Overhaul and we added a G5 to our Advanced/Dynon panel for more redundancy in IFR conditions. Also, from Advanced we replaced our EGTs. We also worked with the folks at Matco on rebuilding and improving our brakes, added TS Flightlines landing leg brake lines and oil return lines for the engine, and had our flow divider rebuilt by Aero Performance. We also tightened our AirFlow A/C compressor bolts and brackets, and improved the cylinder cooling on the pilot’s side of the cowling with some baffle mods, which reduced the CHT’s on # 2 and #6. We upgraded the brake pedal pivot points with a threaded rod, instead of the independent nuts and bolts on each side which seems to firm things up quite a bit.
It was a lot of work and there were quite a few questions to our parts suppliers. Each of the below provided outstanding personal responses, fast service and excellent support:

• Advanced Flight –Rob & Jen Hickman and Trisha Blank
• Barrett Precision Engines –Rhonda Bewley & Allan Barrett.
• TS Flightlines –Tom Swearingen
• Aero performance –Don Rivera and his team.
• Ariflow Performance—Bill Genevro
• Matco –George Happ and his team

I also want to thank our friends who helped us put N408ZW back together. Kevin Dixon, Rick Kozubec, James Migis, Joe Migis, Matt Plaisier, Nathan Moon, Justin Wylie, Myron Nelson, and Dave Valdez.
This inspection took several weeks and each day we learned something new about our RV-10.
• Sent out Mags for the 500 hour Magneto inspection
• Replaced failed Magneto bearing & race in the case
• Removed sump to check for parts and pieces of the failed bearings and race
• Replaced original engine mounts with new Lord mounts
• Repaired leaking fuel divider
• Installed G5 for EFIS redundancy in IFR
• Replaced Matco brake calipers, pads, and rotors
• Upgraded brake pedal pivot points.
• Installed TS Flightlines oil return lines
• Installed TS Flightlines main gear leg brake lines
• Added a Braley mod on front of baffle by cylinder #2
• Made a slight mod on the back baffle by Cylinder #6
• Pulled the wires for the Duckworks wing lights (not yet installed)
• Performed our regular conditional inspection of everything else!

rv10%2B5-18-20jpeg.jpeg
 
...and improved the cylinder cooling on the pilot’s side of the cowling with some baffle mods, which reduced the CHT’s on # 2 and #6.

Do you have pictures of this or a description of what you did? #6 seems to be the high one for many -10's.
 
Jesse on the #2, here is what my 10 friend did. make sure the holes line up with the fin gaps. He dropped 10F. I think these are #30 drill size holes.

FWIW, he has 600 hrs now and no failure due to the holes.

This 10 was pretty good overall in cooling and I was building and adding the #2 chute. My 7 got a 20F benefit of the chute so 10F is pretty good IMO.

IMG_6027 #2 cylinder cooling.jpg
 
Jesse on the #2, here is what my 10 friend did. make sure the holes line up with the fin gaps. He dropped 10F. I think these are #30 drill size holes.

FWIW, he has 600 hrs now and no failure due to the holes.

This 10 was pretty good overall in cooling and I was building and adding the #2 chute. My 7 got a 20F benefit of the chute so 10F is pretty good IMO.

View attachment 36849

Amazing you dropped 10 deg for those 4 holes. I already removed that front dam piece, but expanding your hole idea, maybe I take a Dremel and slot those holes upward and now have 4 strips to match fins.
 
I’ve experimented with that. Helped #2 but at the expense of #6 so I came to the conclusion that there needs to be something there to “lift” air to 6. The hole idea intrigues me.

I have the air dam for #2 up fairly high. That cylinder isn't a problem unless I'm using a lot of power at low airspeed. 3 (which seems to be unique to my airplane) and 6 (which is common) are typically the warmest cylinders.
 
I have the air dam for #2 up fairly high. That cylinder isn't a problem unless I'm using a lot of power at low airspeed. 3 (which seems to be unique to my airplane) and 6 (which is common) are typically the warmest cylinders.

That is interesting. My 3 & 4 are quite a bit lower than the others. Curious why yours are not. One of these days I plan to make some diverters to push some of this air to 5 & 6, but overall have no CHT issues so low on the list.
 
A common mod on PA28-235's that also use an O-540, and also typically have cooling issues with #2 is to put a small washer or two between the baffle and the front of #2 cylinder to space it out from the cylinder just a scoosh.

Typically drops #2 10-20 degrees.

Oddly, #6 is typically the coolest cylinder on those planes (and where Piper put the single factory CHT gauge of course).
 
A common mod on PA28-235's that also use an O-540, and also typically have cooling issues with #2 is to put a small washer or two between the baffle and the front of #2 cylinder to space it out from the cylinder just a scoosh.

Typically drops #2 10-20 degrees.

Oddly, #6 is typically the coolest cylinder on those planes (and where Piper put the single factory CHT gauge of course).

The washer trick is typically what many builders, including myself, used to fix issues with #5. As for #6, no clue about the 235, but on the RV-10 right behind #6 is the 4” opening for the oil cooler which robs a significant amount of cooling air from the cylinder. This is why I’m of the mind that the air dam in front of #2 is important to getting enough air back to #6.
 
That is interesting. My 3 & 4 are quite a bit lower than the others. Curious why yours are not. One of these days I plan to make some diverters to push some of this air to 5 & 6, but overall have no CHT issues so low on the list.

Dunno. My #4 is typically the coolest cylinder. #3 is typically second warmest. It doesn't make sense to me, but that's what the expensive black box says. I probably need to swap around some CHT probes to validate the comparison.

Looking at a few data points taken months apart and under different power settings and different OAT's, the CHT's (1-6, in order) were:

375, 357, 388, 349, 359, and 390 (high-low spread 41F)
357, 359, 371, 341, 348, and 374 (high-low spread 33F)
379, 376, 385, 364, 368, and 391 (high-low spread 27F)

So, categorically, 3 and 6 are the warm ones, although the high to low range has narrowed, probably due to my efforts (fin flash filing and adjusting cylinder air dams).

Heavy and hot, it is easy for the warmer cylinders to exceed 400F during takeoff and initial climb, and #'s 1 and 2 become warmer relative to their "normal" ranking vs the rest.
 
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Our fourth annual condition inspection was completed with 620 hours and was relatively painless. N408ZW has been flying great. During this annual we replaced a Kavlico fuel pressure sender, right tire, and right brake rotor, balanced our propeller, and replaced normal maintenance items such as spark plugs, and oil filter.

Each of the vendors below provided outstanding personal responses, fast service, and excellent support over the last year:

• Advanced Flight – Rob & Jen Hickman and Trisha Blank.
• Barrett Precision Engines – Rhonda Bewley & Allan Barrett.
• Matco –George Happ and his team.

2024 N408zw at Hendrick .jpg




Our third annual condition inspection occurred at about 500 hours and required a lot of parts, and work, to complete. The plane has been flying great. During this annual we had to do the 500 hour Magneto Overhaul and we added a G5 to our Advanced/Dynon panel for more redundancy in IFR conditions. Also, from Advanced we replaced our EGTs. We also worked with the folks at Matco on rebuilding and improving our brakes, added TS Flightlines landing leg brake lines and oil return lines for the engine, and had our flow divider rebuilt by Aero Performance. We also tightened our AirFlow A/C compressor bolts and brackets, and improved the cylinder cooling on the pilot’s side of the cowling with some baffle mods, which reduced the CHT’s on # 2 and #6. We upgraded the brake pedal pivot points with a threaded rod, instead of the independent nuts and bolts on each side which seems to firm things up quite a bit.
It was a lot of work and there were quite a few questions to our parts suppliers. Each of the below provided outstanding personal responses, fast service and excellent support:

• Advanced Flight –Rob & Jen Hickman and Trisha Blank
• Barrett Precision Engines –Rhonda Bewley & Allan Barrett.
• TS Flightlines –Tom Swearingen
• Aero performance –Don Rivera and his team.
• Ariflow Performance—Bill Genevro
• Matco –George Happ and his team

I also want to thank our friends who helped us put N408ZW back together. Kevin Dixon, Rick Kozubec, James Migis, Joe Migis, Matt Plaisier, Nathan Moon, Justin Wylie, Myron Nelson, and Dave Valdez.
This inspection took several weeks and each day we learned something new about our RV-10.
• Sent out Mags for the 500 hour Magneto inspection
• Replaced failed Magneto bearing & race in the case
• Removed sump to check for parts and pieces of the failed bearings and race
• Replaced original engine mounts with new Lord mounts
• Repaired leaking fuel divider
• Installed G5 for EFIS redundancy in IFR
• Replaced Matco brake calipers, pads, and rotors
• Upgraded brake pedal pivot points.
• Installed TS Flightlines oil return lines
• Installed TS Flightlines main gear leg brake lines
• Added a Braley mod on front of baffle by cylinder #2
• Made a slight mod on the back baffle by Cylinder #6
• Pulled the wires for the Duckworks wing lights (not yet installed)
• Performed our regular conditional inspection of everything else!

rv10%2B5-18-20jpeg.jpeg
 
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