Hi Scott,
This sounds extremely upsetting and it is the first time that I have heard
of such a problem. It is very unlikely to be a manufacturing problem, but
one of incorrect long-term storage. Some more detective work would be
required like: exactly who did you buy it from, and when was it
manufactured. The factory would know this from the serial number. If it was
purchased from an appointed Rotax dealer, then I think he would be liable.
If he blames it on the factory, then it is up to him to claim a replacement
---From them. In the meantime he should honour the guarantee to you. In any
case, it looks like a long wait, because of long lead times at the moment on
new engines.
I am puzzled by the corrosion. According to the maintenance manual, the
engine has internal corrosion proofing, to avoid just such problems from
occurring.
Hope you get it sorted, without having to resort to legal action.
Karl
> First I want to thank all of you who have responded over the last few
>months regarding my rough running 912. I tried almost every possible fix
>and nothing worked. I was still short 500 rpm and very slow to take off. My
>europa would also back fire and miss whenever a load was put on the engine.
>I finally transported my plane from Xenia Ohio to East Troy WI and had a
>certified rotax mechanic troubleshoot the problem for me. What he found was
>shocking. Two of the cylinders had low compression. One of which reading
>43/80psi, and the other just barely 70/80. He thin removed the head
>expecting to find a cracked ring, but instead found a corroded exhaust
>seat. The corrosion was so bad that the valve was leaking thus the low
>compression. This engine was purchased and remained crated and stored in a
>climate controlled building at Flightcrafters in Florida until put on the
>aircraft in the fall of 2006. The bottom line is the fact that I was trying
>to fly my europa on three cylinde
> rs. Lakewood aviation had my jumping through all these hoops and
>rebuilding my carbs to the tune of $180. Buying a pneumatic carb sync kit
>$160. They even had me completely remove my gas tank system out of the
>equation by having my wife hold a 5 gal can of fuel beside the plane while
>I did a full engine run. Here is the real rub! I'm still waiting to hear
>from rotax on what they plan to do about my new $15000 engine that is
>corroded inside. I'm hoping that they will realize that they need to do the
>right thing and replace a very defective engine. Years ago I worked as a
>manager at a seafood steak house and very quickly realized that a customer
>who gets a bad meal will tell everyone he meets for years about the bad
>meal he got at your restaurant. I hope Rotax does not make that mistake. I
>was very impressed when the USAF started flying predators with rotax
>engines, and I would hope that Rotax would want to keep their good standing
>in the experimental aircraft field. Any thou
> ghts that any of you may have on this dilemma would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>MSGT SCOTT L. DINGMAN RRT, USAF RET
>________________________________________________________________________
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