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Hi guys,

After a short flight yesterday, I got back to parking and ran couple of electric test at low RPM on my 100hp 912 rotax. At some point, I heard a large burst followed by a lot of white smoke coming from the engine. I followed the emergency procedures and quickly realized that something wrong happened with the fluid cooling system as the ground was filled with coolant. This was confirmed later on as the overflow tank appeared to have burst from the interior on one of its bottom corners.

Our mechanic will have a look at what exactly happened, but I was wondering if anyone had clues into what could have happened. For context, I never had overheating issues in the past, and the day of the incident the weather was not hot (low 70F), and I kept the RPM well within the green, for just couples of minutes.

Having read about the 912 cooling system, my initial assumption is that the cooling pump stopped working, the engine overheated, and the expansion valve sent more water to the overflow tank than it could handle.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks!
  • Re: Burst of overflow tank 912

    by » 6 years ago


    I suspect that the vent in the overflow tank cap was clogged up allowing pressure to buildup in the overflow tank.

    Thanks,

    Jim

  • Re: Burst of overflow tank 912

    by » 6 years ago


    Vent clogged or if you have an aftermarket reservoir then someone did not put a vent hole in it. Plus as you stated you do not want to over fill your reservoir tank.

    Roger Lee
    LSRM-A & Rotax Instructor & Rotax IRC
    Tucson, AZ Ryan Airfield (KRYN)
    520-349-7056 Cell


  • Re: Burst of overflow tank 912

    by » 6 years ago


    A couple of years ago, I burst my overflow tank also. I was a dumb a$$ and had covered my radiator with cardboard to protect it from damage when replacing my engine cowl and forgot to remove it. The engine boiled over in about 3 minutes. When it boiled over the small vent hole in the Rotax overflow tank could not cope with the volume expansion of the boiling coolant. The permanently deformed coolant tank hangs above my bench to remind me to not be so stupid... You boiled over your 912. You will want to understand why. Eg, No air moving through the radiator will do it every time.
    Good luck,
    Joe

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