The Sky Has No Limits

Enthusiasts around the world share your same burning passion for aviation, a collective obsession that’s at the beating heart of EAA.

Exhaust Issues

By Vic Syracuse, EAA 180848, Technical Counselor/Flight Advisor

February 2017 - I was performing a prebuy inspection on an RV-6, when I noticed the right exhaust stack was so close to the cowling that the cowling had been burned. Usually that is caused by a broken exhaust hanger or misaligned exhaust stack. When I went to move it around, it was frozen in place, so the usual suspect hanger wasn’t the culprit.

I did notice a broken Adel clamp holding the exhaust stack, but as I ran my eyes further up the stack towards the engine, I was shocked at what I found. Someone had welded a patch right across the ball joint, which is there to allow the exhaust system to flex! Please don’t do that. The engine moves around in the mounts quite a bit, so there needs to be some flexibility in the exhaust system. That is what the ball joints are for. This fix would require a new exhaust stack to rectify, and I recommended not flying the plane until then. It certainly wouldn’t be any fun if that exhaust stack failed in flight and started dumping the exhaust heat on the fiberglass cowl!

To provide a better user experience, EAA uses cookies. To review EAA's data privacy policy or adjust your privacy settings please visit: Data and Privacy Policy.
loading

Loading...