914 turbo issues
We recently had what appeared to be a major oil leak in flight, evidenced by large clouds of white smoke. Engine immediately shut down and landed safely (Its in a motor glider so all designed to land power off - hence no drama). Despite the smoke all P&Ts remained in the green.
Visual inspection revealed no faults in the oil system, so attention turned to the turbo.
We have removed the turbo oil sump, cleaned and replaced. Blown through the turbo oil scavenge lines. Checked the scavenge pump itself is apparently doing what it should. None of that revealed any problems.
We have ground tested the engine and also done a test flight, which included a max boost climb to about 3000ft agl.
No recurrence of the major leak, but after the test flight we could see that oil had leaked from the hose connecting the turbo to the air box.
The engine only has about 400 hours on it, but the aircraft is used as a glider tug so typical flight time is 10-15 mins which does mean its worked quite hard over those hours. Rotax make clear there are no serviceable parts in the turbo but does anybody have a bright idea as to something we have missed/overlooked?
