Engine corrosion - XH558

[Saracenman]

excellent update as ever Smiler - thanks!

regarding your picture...



it might sound like a daft question (given the quantity of brown areas) but where exactly is the corrosion? I'm sure it can't be a simply as 'anything brown is corrosion' - or can it?

sm

[Mayfly]

Another question for you Smiler - 558 always did lots of seaside venues on VDF so did the same happen 'in service' ? or does this appear to be something new?

[Bovril]

brown is probably the blades .. wheres a sooty when you need one

[Wedgy]

The 'husbandry' is noticable Smiler .... When I caught eyes on her from the hangar doors last week, the first thing I said to SM was that her white looked whiter

[Smiler]

The corrosion is the white bits of powder around the base of the blades and no we never had the problem in the old days.

Our new flight profile is low level and on clear days therefore we do not fly in conditions such as cloud or rain so the engines could have had a wash. However as we are still awaiting results and this is my BWAG (Best Wild A#*e Guess).

[Saracenman]

aha! that all makes perfect sense - thanks for your prompt reply Smiler, BWAG or otherwise!

[Mayfly]

Thanks Taff

[Mackrick]

Taff .. Are comp washes ever done on the Vulcan, and would this help at all ?

[Saracenman]

Taff .. Are comp washes ever done on the Vulcan, and would this help at all ?

without knowing exactly what a "comp wash" is - i was thinking along the same lines

is it a daft question to ask whether simply using a fine mist water spray, with engines running, would counteract the salt deposits?

Nimrods taxy over a spray after landing don't they? obviously they spend the majority of their lives in a marine environment - i assume that ingesting clean water into the engines is the main reason is it not?

sm

[Mackrick]

Taff .. Are comp washes ever done on the Vulcan, and would this help at all ?

without knowing exactly what a "comp wash" is - i was thinking along the same lines

is it a daft question to ask whether simply using a fine mist water spray, with engines running, would counteract the salt deposits?

Nimrods taxy over a spray after landing don't they? obviously they spend the majority of their lives in a marine environment - i assume that ingesting clean water into the engines is the main reason is it not?

sm

In the old days they used to just use a fire hose to spray down the intake with the engine running. A compressor wash is really designed to remove the burnt deposits etc from the compressor blades using water and chemicals. The reason for doing this is improved fuel economy and performance when an engine has been in service for a while. It does have the added bonus of just cleaning out the engine in general.

[Saracenman]

and there was me thinking that suggesting 'spraying a hose into the intake' was an idea that only a dimwit like me could come up with!

[Mackrick]

We use wash rigs like this

[Saracenman]

somehow i suspect that VTS would find this somewhat cheaper.........

[RLN]

We do compressor washes with our gas turbines for the reasons pointed out by MR. We don't usually fly the station over the sea though.

[Saracenman]

Iranians do with theirs don't they?

[RLN]

Funny you should mention that.......


Sorry, forgot to say Bum.

[Old Rigger]

In the 70's, we used to spray WD-40 down the intake on engine shut down using a Juniper rig pressurised to approx 28 psi and long lances to help avoid corrosion as the aircraft was allways flying in salty air. The spray equipment at RAF Kinloss was more for the airframe than engines if memory serves me right, allthough it probably helped with the water being sucked through the engines.

Bum I also forgot to add bum

[Saracenman]

bum - that's an awful lot of WD40 isn't it?

[Mackrick]

Have heard of it being done with nut shells as well .. bum who eat all the nuts

[Old Rigger]

Sm you are correct, but in those days it was cost effective and in bulk probably cost the RAF less (I think it was actually called PX-4, but WD-40 was very similar, like OM-15 was a similar version of REDUX).

[Sooty655]

We also used WD40 on the early marine engines in the early seventies - it was supplied in 200ltr drums.

Getting into the air intake during engine rundown and spraying it by hand from a garden sprayer was a bum job, and despite H&S it was "No hard hats allowed"

[Sad Sam3]

Evening all,

You will all be relived to know that Mark and Ray (Watts, the new sooty) are at present working out a method of getting about a gallon of demineralized water and paraffin down the intake during the shut down.

Hope I'm not speaking out of turn but there were encouraging noises at work on Friday and with a bit of luck we won't have to change the affected engines.

For what it's worth we think harm was mostly done sitting next to the beach in Scotland during the monsoon season.

Edited to include the word bum. (which we will be saying quite a lot next week if we have to change 2 engines next week)

[Saracenman]

that sounds encouraging - thanks SS3

i guess if the engines were to have GUARANTEED protection, they'd all still be zipped up in their dri-clad bags and no-one would've bothered returning 558 back to flight status

problems are designed to be overcome

sm

[Mayfly]

thanks SS

[Stevieboy]

Thanks Sam.

Catch you later in the week.