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First Oil Change

It's been a while since my last post here. I've been flying, but the flights have been intended simply to put time on the plane and most have been pretty uneventful. However, the last two flight have been particularly nice because my wife came with me. I had enough hours on the engine that I felt I could trust it enough to take a passenger.

I've now put over 25 hours on the engine since the overhaul and it's time for its first oil change. That was just completed, and the Aeroshell mineral oil used for break-in has been replaced with Phillips XC ashless-dispersant oil. The plan is to run it another 25 hours, at which point we'll change the oil again. At that time, we'll send a sample to Blackstone for analysis, and I will also resume adding Camguard.

I also had the shop take care of a few other squawks while they had it in. The biggest of these is its tendency to pull to the left in the air and on the ground. I suspected that it was due to the nosewheel centering cable needing adjustment. I haven't yet spoken with them to confirm whether or not that was the issue. I plan on flying it tomorrow afternoon so I'll ask about it then.

There was also a longstanding issue with the port fuel tank sump valve. From the beginning when I first purchased the plane, there has been a substance that has been coming out of the valve, and the fuel flows rather slowly from the valve presumably because this substance is obstructing it. It's obvious that it's some sort of sealant, it's not dissolving in the fuel, and it obviously had been doing that even before I bought it. One of the mechanics even commented on it once while I was in the shop but didn't say it was anything I had to worry about, so I assumed it was no big deal. But I decided to get it taken care of so it would at least allow fuel to flow more freely when sumping that tank.


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