Oil leak MT Prop

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Rich
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by Rich »

A useful activity from time to time (annual maybe?) is to pull the spinner off and examine the innards. My prop is off for overhaul. Here is the interior of the spinner after about 300 hours and 7 years. Note that there are grease deposits at the fore and aft (relative to prop rotation) of several of the blades. Nothing has made its way up the blades or onto the cowl/windshield, etc. I never thought to do this as a routine so I do not know whether this happened early on (2015) or represents a current trend.
N40XE Spinner 20221022.jpg
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Boatguy
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by Boatguy »

I had one blade leaking grease at the annual last March. The grease was from the base of the blade and sprayed onto the inside of the spinner. It was cleaned off, but six months later when I went in for the 600hr service (3 1/2 yrs) there was again grease on the inside of the spinner.

I was told that if the grease is coming out, something else (e.g., water, moisture) will be getting in. There were no issues in flight, but I suspect that is binary situation. Since I also had some pretty good dings in the leading edges of a couple of blades which had been patched with epoxy, I opted for a prop overhaul. It's been a month and I hoping for no more than six weeks.
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Rich
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by Rich »

Boatguy wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 12:05 am I was told that if the grease is coming out, something else (e.g., water, moisture) will be getting in. There were no issues in flight, but I suspect that is binary situation. Since I also had some pretty good dings in the leading edges of a couple of blades which had been patched with epoxy, I opted for a prop overhaul. It's been a month and I hoping for no more than six weeks.
There is that breather hole in the front of the hub. So ambient air will breath in and out with temperature changes (ambient or internal to the hub) and pressure changes (especially due to climbs/descents). This happens whether or not minuscule amounts of grease ooze out.

My prop was just picked this past week by American Propeller but no elapsed time to return was proffered. I wouldn’t have taken it as assured, anyway.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Boatguy
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by Boatguy »

Rich wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 12:25 am My prop was just picked this past week by American Propeller but no elapsed time to return was proffered. I wouldn’t have taken it as assured, anyway.
My prop is also at American. They said 4-5 weeks. :(
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dmloftus
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by dmloftus »

MT in Deland is running about 5 weeks currently. I will likely fly my plane down there for prop overhaul.
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by Boatguy »

They told me that it's a complete rebuild of the prop down to the wood. The long time is required to cure the epoxy over the wood, apply new leading edges, etc.
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by dmloftus »

What price are you getting for an overhaul? Does that include governor?
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by mhoran »

dmloftus wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 4:27 pm What price are you getting for an overhaul? Does that include governor?
I have the aluminum Hartzell prop but hopefully my numbers will be helpful for comparison. Prop was sent off during engine overhaul to Sensenich Propeller Service out of Gainesville, GA. I opted for an IRAN instead of full OH since the aluminum can only be overhauled a limited number of times. This was $1,750 and an additional $1,450 for the governor.

I had an estimate for full OH from another shop at $3,000.
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Boatguy
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by Boatguy »

dmloftus wrote: Fri Oct 28, 2022 4:27 pm What price are you getting for an overhaul? Does that include governor?
The overhaul of my MT came to just over $10K. Overhauled the hubs, rebuilt the blades, no leading edges, etc.

One hub was leaking grease, the leading edges were pretty beat up with three fairly large dings and the paint was heavily chipped.

Now it flies 20kts faster! ;)
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dmloftus
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Re: Oil leak MT Prop

Post by dmloftus »

Thanks Matt and Russ. With the pictures I shared earlier in this thread, MT says it is not an emergency fix. They say the prop should still have plenty of grease left. But I'm 64 months into a 72-month TBO so I will go ahead and bite the bullet. I'm a 10-minute flight from Sensinech Gainesville, but they want $2000 just to reseal blade #2. MT is quoting me $6200 for full O/H, and another $1200 for the governor. Since I will fly the plane to them in Deland, no shipping costs. Aside from a couple of small nicks on one trailing edge, my prop looks amazing. But I get a zero-time prop out of it. I would love the extra 20kts that Russ got, but probably not likely ;-)
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