In '79 I worked with two old guys who had worked at CAC . One had been there during the war and one had worked as an armorer with the RAAF on bombers in the UK. They kept me entertained.
Thank you for maintaining and caring for it... a very important part of Australian history, and shows what we could achieve at that time.... Thank you.
Good luck guy's with the Wirraway, my uncle flew Wirraway's in Australia during the WW2 training young pilot's. My uncle Cliff wrote a letter to my dad stating they were flying coffins as they had lots of problems with the engine. He crashed in a sugar cane field Queensland after take off and was killed. Thanks for posting this video as it explains what my uncle was talking about.
Ahhh the purr of a Pratt & Whitney radial. I grew up to that sound. My dad had several AT-6s over the years....most well known is "Scrap Iron 4" (Which was an SNJ-5 Naval version (provision for a tailhook..wings that could fold, etc.) The other version was called "Harvard" by the Brits..but they were all the same aircraft...with I miss them all. AT-6 is a fun plane to fly and I did many an hour from the backseat of a T-6. Many of the A6M Zeroes you see in film...and some of the D3 Vals and B5N Kates are converted AT-6s. Again we always talked about making up one of several AT-6s as a Whiraway.
Funnily enough a Wirraway actually scored a kill on a Zero. Tragically though they were completely outmatched more often that not. It would be cool to see how easy/hard it is to develop one into a Boomerang which was a far better fighter but still outclassed by the Zero.
Back in the early 80s I worked in a boat factory using a radial arm router that was used in the manufacture of the Wirraways. Funny, I haven't seen or heard of the Wirraways since till now.
Lived five miles north of Fishermen's Bend Melbourne (Aussie) where Wirraways were built. I was only three by the time CAC went to other types such as the the NA Harvard/Wirraway/variant, and Australia's only early fighter type, The Boomerang.
@@peterkirgan2921 Yep. :-) In my minds eye I can see the Winjeel side by side radial fixed undercarriage trainer. Flying Winjeels then the French (Aussie built) Mirage (Mach 2+ I think) would have been a fabulous adrenaline rush. Saw one one week day (my brother & I were kicking the sherrin on empty footy ground) when a Mirage broke the sound barrier over Melbourne! Was there hell to pay!!! YOU KNOW THERE WAS!!! :-).)
my father worked on Wirraways with Wackett and there was even a film of them bring made at Commonwealth Aircraft Corp with showed him for a few frames.
I really enjoy these close up looks and explanations about what you guys are busy with, What issues you're having and the different ideas you try to solve them. Awesome work:) Kermit! @9:28
Dieseling startup. Crazy to get in there and work after that bit of a fright, always looking over your shoulder for movement. Yank the batt connections for best odds I guess. Sounded beautifully when on the boost and all clicking. Don't pick on the Wirry,,what do you do when you first get up??,,,,that's right,,,you pump ship!. A little piddle all over the place,,but it can't be helped and it's gotta go,,lol. Can't wait for the ride.
You just can't rush a good thing. Radial engines do like to throw oil some times. I remember a friends Beech 18. Holy crap. Great work on the Wirraway and hoping it's flying soon.
My grandfather built these at the CAC factory in Melbourne during WW2. I believe they also built Spitfires and Mustangs there as well as Boomerangs and other makes.
Jimbo voncarguy "It is my understanding that whilst the spits were imported, some were in fact re-assembled at CAC" That's my understanding too. Further, it's my understanding that they also had an assembly line for Merlin engines, although they didn't produce the components.
Some Spitfires were assembled at CAC, along with many USAAF aircraft that were shipped to Melbourne to be assembled and then ferried north to combat units. CAC didn’t start production of Mustangs until the very end of the war.
Good ole Aussie warbird. Its not like the famous ones , but she's ours. We built her. Thumbs up to the crew keeping her running and hopefully flying 👍🍻👍🍻👍🍻👍🍻👍
How often are the truly worthy ignored for the beautiful. Hurricane and Spitfire? As an aircraft that could be built, maintained and repaired easily and matching the available facilities the Wirraway made huge sense. Large numbers of rugged easily repaired aircraft will be a better bet than a complex aircraft that took time to repair. Please don’t get the impression I’m knocking Australia or her engineers or technicians, they were bloody good. Highly complex aircraft needing huge repair resources would have been impossible given the situation.
Hard to contemplate that the RAAF took these Wirraways into battle against the Japanese. I think the Zero and the Wirraway had engines of roughly the same power but that's where the similarity ended, often tragically. I saw A20-103 in the National War Memorial, Canberra, the only Wirraway known to have shot down a Zero.
Magneto 101: Mag switches kill the spark of magnetos gy grounding them. Broken switch or lead then the mags are always hot. Since you've established that she seems to want to start with the mag switches off, it may be not such a good idea to subsequently pull the engine over manually, with mags that may or may not be "hot".... Otherwise great to see this aircraft running!!! And it would be very interesting to see what this huge prop does when compared to that relatively tiny two-blade prop that is normally fitted to a T6...
Australian here, grew up seeing Wirraways as place holders in Hollywood movies. Am a huge Corsair, P-51, Spit fan but damn that one ☝ is so sexy. What is it about WWII aircraft that makes you feel so happy the sound causes water to well up behind the eyes...?
I have had the pleasure of working with Andrew Bishop at the temora aviation museum and he is a very smart engineer and a pretty good salami maker as well.
I’m a mechanic not an aircraft mechanic . It’s interesting how thermodynamics intertwines And because of what I know it’s interesting the differences and learning experience. I love videos like this and engines in general and my love for WW1 and WW2 planes , tanks , guns etc.
nice diesel start! lol (not wondered when y see the amount of oil on the stb wing! lol), looks like the gears of the engine driven punp are leaking, preventing the pressure to build up, or the pump to work.
I really don't know why, but coming from a car hot-rodding background, it tickles me pink seeing a component marked "JEGS" out 'round back of a radial on an old plane. It really shouldn't surprise me.
The problem with the wirraway is that you need an Australian to do it. Tell mr Weeks, there is a complete Bristol Beaufighter in Camden Australia. One of the rarest planes on the earth!......
Is this the same Wirraway that came from Wangaratta in Australia? If so then I've had the pleasure of swinging spanners on it when I worked at Precision Aerospace.
Thanks for the new video. Questions: Was the mag actually Hot when he first pulled it through or was the apparent firing sound during the clearance rotation from dieseling in one or two lower cylinders because of the oil? I can sure understand why he didn't want to pull it through again with the mag grounding in question.
I don't know about aircraft, but in the automotive world adding a back-up electric fuel pump can sometimes be problematic. I've had several vehicles where the engine would starve for gas when running at high speed when I turned the electric pump off, even though the mechanical engine-driven pump was good. I had to install check valves that allowed gas to bypass the electric pump when it was turned off. I also have a car where I installed an electric pump for priming after the car had been sitting for months, priming before cranking the engine. I discovered that in this case the electric pump can't force fuel through the mechanical pump. I might need to install a check valve that allows the electric pump to bypass the mechanical pump.
8:10 to 8:24 sounds like about six of the nine cylinders are firing. Anyone who can get a big radial like this going first try has my hat off. TKS for a review of my Navy ADR training. Read about the "Wirra" when I was a kid and always wanted one. They carried guns as stop-gap fighters early war years. ** Safety note **: Not sure those chocks would hold it were it to suddenly lunge forward. I know they make bigger ones. Just sayin' (OMG 12:05 did he really say that?)
It could try firing on compression pretty easily if you have just the right amount of oil/gas vapor in the cylinders or intake system. You're dealing with dynamic compression pressure and not just static compression ratios when an engine is cranking/running. If the engine is good and tight and makes a lot of compression and the engine is warmed up a little from sitting in the sun on even a cool day, oil vapor can easily "diesel" while cranking. Especially if the cranking speed is on the "slow" side and the pistons are coming up fast enough to do a good job of compressing the air in the cylinders so the little bit of vapor/liquid oil ignites but not so fast that its rolling through that little bit of fire before it can do any good and its just coughing and sputtering a little instead of actually "firing" with enough heat and pressure and energy to "run". A few more revolutions and it would probably have that little of vapor "dieseled" out of the engine and go back to cranking normally. As soon as you introduce any gas you're also going to "wash down" the cylinders a touch and lose a little compression and the mixture will also have a way higher octane rating and will resist auto-ignition. All liquid petroleum fuels and liquids have an "octane rating". Octane and cetane are opposite ends of the same scale so to speak. High cetane = low octane. Cetane is a compression ignition fuel's ability to auto-ignite easily and octane is a spark-ignitions fuel's ability to resist auto-ignition. And the higher octane fuel is, the HARDER it is to ignite and the LESS heat energy it contains. That's why running "high-octane" fuel in excess of what the engine needs to avoid detonation and knock is just wasting power and efficiency. Find the fuel your engine likes and that keeps it out of detonation under its max load/temp conditions and you don't need to go any higher with octane. You're costing yourself power, efficiency and performance if you do.
Holy crap, that thing could have barked while you were pulling it through!!! Jesus!!!!!! How come the grey hair lets the young guy pull the prop through????!!!! Spark, fuel, air!!! That Baby was ready!!! Reminds me of a scene from “ flight of the Phoenix” with Jimmy Stewart!!!!
First and only t 6 I worked on had same problem we rebuilt that airplane 20 years later plus all accessories problem went away your booster is probably firing your spark plugs at start if installed
Radial Engines when they sit for a period , oil from the upper half drains down to the lower cylinders. Radials are an oil scavenge system. Exhaust valves are open or wil leak past into the Exhaust manifolds. That why they "Pull" the engine Trough a few revaluations.
Watching the master mechanic walk up to the running engine with his ears only inches away from the exhaust with zero hearing protection.. tinnitus anyone?
Hum. The mechanical pump won't build up pressure, and the wobble pump and the new electric boost pump wouldn't build up pressure until a check valve was installed. This sounds to me like more than coincidence. It sounds to me like there is an internal leak in the main fuel pump, and this is what kept the electric/wobble pumps from building up pressure. You may not need that check valve once you get the engine driven pump sorted.
It sounds to me like some previous owner/mechanic didn't know what the hell they were doing and started "fixing" the fuel system and ended up taking out a check valve that obviously needs to be there. That check valve is probably in a bypass line that that allows excess fuel to go back to the tank when pump output and engine fuel demand are low and that may open to let an extra "supply line" to the pump open up when fuel demand is high. He clearly said the wobble pump was out of the system and not connected at all when they tried it with the "boost pump". The "incidence" is that this airplane was in Australia at some point and some other "experts" in Australia gave him advice on how to "fix" it that was clearly WRONG because the plane didn't need that "boost pump" to fly when new. That's a shadetree, band-aid "fix" that could get somebody killed if other problems in the system exist and putting on the booster pump just adds enough flow to overcome other leaks, a lack of a check valve etc. until the engine needs a lot more fuel. The moral of the story is don't buy vehicles from foreign countries where they shadetree airplanes because the right parts and service information are "hard to find" i.e. "too expensive" and don't trust "experts" who "fix" OEM systems that must have worked fine with add-on aftermarket "help". I wonder who "rebuilt" that wobble pump they "sent off" to have "rebuilt". Fuel systems are a really poor place to cut corners. The Aussie "experts" also mentioned running the tank dry being a problem as far as getting the pump to work again. Yeah. Probably because running the pump dry causes excessive wear, scoring, scuffing etc. that a "rebuild" that might just be slapping in new gaskets and "polishing" the damage out of internal precision-fit parts just creates more clearance and internal leakage. Back to don't trust "experts" who shadetree shit...
"The "incidence" is that this airplane was in Australia at some point..." The Wirraway was an Australian built aircraft. So, in so much as they exist at all, most of the "experts" on Wirraways are probably in Australia. "The moral of the story is don't buy vehicles from foreign countries where they shadetree airplanes..." While that may be good advice for purchasing a modern aircraft, one can't just go down to a dealer and buy a Wirraway. One must get a Wirraway where one can find a Wirraway.
John Stirling - was that in the Japanese attack in the North of New Guinea - when an order was given from Australia - defend New Guinea at all costs. The reply from the OIC of the Air Field - ' We Salute You - We Who Are About To Die".....
Well, since this IS "Mechanic's Corner", and I have worked on enough cars under the shade of trees for the last 43 years that I can call myself somewhat of a mechanic, so, a little "shop talk" if I may...this vid appears to show that three separate and distinct fuel pumps: an original design, rebuilt "wobbely" (whatever that is), a super duper electro/mechanical, and finally, an engine-driven, any one of which i would assume would run the engine under normal circumstances, are not pumping sufficiently. I'm guessing these are draw-through rather than push pumps, so if three new pumps are not working properly, wouldn't that point to the source, meaning, restricted fuel pickup screen, or collapsing fuel lines from the tank to the pump, or perhaps debris gumming up the "works"? No venting? There's no mention of that in the vid. I just wanted to "pipe-up" (no pun intended) because I read about a fuel injected airplane in FAA accident website and it turned out contamination in the injector caused a fatal crash.
Its sure sounds sensible to me, checking for all those possibilities. I would assume that entry to the fuel tank to ensure it is scrupulously cleaned, same for lines and filters? To assume that it is ok is irresponsible. But I'm sure these guys are too professional to overlook that.
wow...a Wirraway in the States??? NICE. But what's even nicer is mechanics that keeps these beautiful planes. Hats off to those mechanics.
he has two but this one is airworthy
Looks and sounds like some Aussies saw an opportunity to dump some shit in the U.S. and took it.
DEEREMEYER1 you got that right mate!
@@deeremeyer1749 hahaha. Nah man we just wanted to be fair as you guys got us to by the f35.
In '79 I worked with two old guys who had worked at CAC . One had been there during the war and one had worked as an armorer with the RAAF on bombers in the UK. They kept me entertained.
I started my apprenticeship in 79 at CAC
Thank you for maintaining and caring for it... a very important part of Australian history, and shows what we could achieve at that time.... Thank you.
Good luck guy's with the Wirraway, my uncle flew Wirraway's in Australia during the WW2 training young pilot's. My uncle Cliff wrote a letter to my dad stating they were flying coffins as they had lots of problems with the engine. He crashed in a sugar cane field Queensland after take off and was killed. Thanks for posting this video as it explains what my uncle was talking about.
magic sound !!! greetings from Australia
Ahhh the purr of a Pratt & Whitney radial. I grew up to that sound. My dad had several AT-6s over the years....most well known is "Scrap Iron 4" (Which was an SNJ-5 Naval version (provision for a tailhook..wings that could fold, etc.) The other version was called "Harvard" by the Brits..but they were all the same aircraft...with
I miss them all. AT-6 is a fun plane to fly and I did many an hour from the backseat of a T-6.
Many of the A6M Zeroes you see in film...and some of the D3 Vals and B5N Kates are converted AT-6s.
Again we always talked about making up one of several AT-6s as a Whiraway.
Funnily enough a Wirraway actually scored a kill on a Zero. Tragically though they were completely outmatched more often that not. It would be cool to see how easy/hard it is to develop one into a Boomerang which was a far better fighter but still outclassed by the Zero.
Back in the early 80s I worked in a boat factory using a radial arm router that was used in the manufacture of the Wirraways. Funny, I haven't seen or heard of the Wirraways since till now.
Lived five miles north of Fishermen's Bend Melbourne (Aussie) where Wirraways were built. I was only three by the time CAC went to other types such as the the NA Harvard/Wirraway/variant, and Australia's only early fighter type, The Boomerang.
remember the Windjeel ??? flew these before the Mirage Ca-29???
@@peterkirgan2921 Yep. :-) In my minds eye I can see the Winjeel side by side radial fixed undercarriage trainer. Flying Winjeels then the French (Aussie built) Mirage (Mach 2+ I think) would have been a fabulous adrenaline rush. Saw one one week day (my brother & I were kicking the sherrin on empty footy ground) when a Mirage broke the sound barrier over Melbourne! Was there hell to pay!!! YOU KNOW THERE WAS!!! :-).)
Great to hear it running! Hats off to the people that keep these old planes the way the should be kept.............RUNNING.
For those that dont know, a check valve normally ensures fuel flows in one direction only.
🙄
cant wait to see her in the air........even though it's well away from where she was built...great work
my father worked on Wirraways with Wackett and there was even a film of them bring made at Commonwealth Aircraft Corp with showed him for a few frames.
I really enjoy these close up looks and explanations about what you guys are busy with, What issues you're having and the different ideas you try to solve them. Awesome work:)
Kermit! @9:28
This plane was built in my home town Melbourne.
matube73 was this the one in the servo at Gilbert or St. George’s Rd ... I sat in it as a kid
Dieseling startup. Crazy to get in there and work after that bit of a fright, always looking over your shoulder for movement. Yank the batt connections for best odds I guess. Sounded beautifully when on the boost and all clicking. Don't pick on the Wirry,,what do you do when you first get up??,,,,that's right,,,you pump ship!. A little piddle all over the place,,but it can't be helped and it's gotta go,,lol. Can't wait for the ride.
Magnetos generate their own voltage. You must ground them out. Grounds can go open too. Thats a hot mag.
You just can't rush a good thing. Radial engines do like to throw oil some times. I remember a friends Beech 18. Holy crap. Great work on the Wirraway and hoping it's flying soon.
Really enjoying these videos
My grandfather built these at the CAC factory in Melbourne during WW2. I believe they also built Spitfires and Mustangs there as well as Boomerangs and other makes.
No Spitfires were made in Australia, they were all imported from England.
It is my understanding that whilst the spits were imported, some were in fact re-assembled at CAC
Jimbo voncarguy "It is my understanding that whilst the spits were imported, some were in fact re-assembled at CAC"
That's my understanding too. Further, it's my understanding that they also had an assembly line for Merlin engines, although they didn't produce the components.
Some Spitfires were assembled at CAC, along with many USAAF aircraft that were shipped to Melbourne to be assembled and then ferried north to combat units.
CAC didn’t start production of Mustangs until the very end of the war.
SilentOtto CAC license built Merlin’s. All components were manufactured in Australia. They manufactured a total of 108 Merlin 102’s.
Good ole Aussie warbird.
Its not like the famous ones , but she's ours.
We built her.
Thumbs up to the crew keeping her running and hopefully flying
👍🍻👍🍻👍🍻👍🍻👍
for some reason i like the sound a radial makes when idling. its just such a beautiful sound on such a nice airplane
How often are the truly worthy ignored for the beautiful. Hurricane and Spitfire? As an aircraft that could be built, maintained and repaired easily and matching the available facilities the Wirraway made huge sense. Large numbers of rugged easily repaired aircraft will be a better bet than a complex aircraft that took time to repair. Please don’t get the impression I’m knocking Australia or her engineers or technicians, they were bloody good. Highly complex aircraft needing huge repair resources would have been impossible given the situation.
Maybe it hasn't run in a while?.
Whew! He said it would be a smokey start and he was right. It was an eargasm to hear that thing runnin.
Hard to contemplate that the RAAF took these Wirraways into battle against the Japanese. I think the Zero and the Wirraway had engines of roughly the same power but that's where the similarity ended, often tragically. I saw A20-103 in the National War Memorial, Canberra, the only Wirraway known to have shot down a Zero.
yes spot on A20-103 Jack Archer & Les Coulson !! absolute legends !!!!
Wirraways we’re not built, nor used as fighters
They were never meant to engage Japanese zeros
Sounds pretty darn smooth.
Absolutely amazing!
Magneto 101: Mag switches kill the spark of magnetos gy grounding them. Broken switch or lead then the mags are always hot. Since you've established that she seems to want to start with the mag switches off, it may be not such a good idea to subsequently pull the engine over manually, with mags that may or may not be "hot"....
Otherwise great to see this aircraft running!!! And it would be very interesting to see what this huge prop does when compared to that relatively tiny two-blade prop that is normally fitted to a T6...
Australian here, grew up seeing Wirraways as place holders in Hollywood movies. Am a huge Corsair, P-51, Spit fan but damn that one ☝ is so sexy. What is it about WWII aircraft that makes you feel so happy the sound causes water to well up behind the eyes...?
Let's not forget these are North American AT-6 with a geared 3 bladed prop....and some tweaks to the wings (Mainly dive brakes) Great Machines.
Wow! The starboard exhaust really threw a lot of oil on the wing!
I have had the pleasure of working with Andrew Bishop at the temora aviation museum and he is a very smart engineer and a pretty good salami maker as well.
Kermit Weeks photo-bombing his own channel!! That's absolutely peerless!
I’m a mechanic not an aircraft mechanic . It’s interesting how thermodynamics intertwines And because of what I know it’s interesting the differences and learning experience. I love videos like this and engines in general and my love for WW1 and WW2 planes , tanks , guns etc.
She's ALIVE! What a beautiful, historic bird. She wants to fly, you can hear it....
nice diesel start! lol (not wondered when y see the amount of oil on the stb wing! lol), looks like the gears of the engine driven punp are leaking, preventing the pressure to build up, or the pump to work.
I really don't know why, but coming from a car hot-rodding background, it tickles me pink seeing a component marked "JEGS" out 'round back of a radial on an old plane. It really shouldn't surprise me.
What a good noise ! Outstanding !!
Who was that long-haired guy, at about 9:30 or so,
with 2 thumbs up?
Has to be someone from Salt Lake City.
Kermit. GREAT UA-cam channel!
steve
The owner of the place
The problem with the wirraway is that you need an Australian to do it. Tell mr Weeks, there is a complete Bristol Beaufighter in Camden Australia. One of the rarest planes on the earth!......
i agree get Aussie mechanics to work on it ! then it will be good as new !!!!
Great video, love seeing the engineering side of things and of course who doesn't love the sound of a R1340! More please!
Is this the same Wirraway that came from Wangaratta in Australia? If so then I've had the pleasure of swinging spanners on it when I worked at Precision Aerospace.
Geez I love this, can someone build a CAC CA15 PLEASE! I Need to see and hear this fly before the end. No pressure.
VERY GOOD TEAM CARMIE CAM, BRASIL CONGRATULATIONs
I don't know why, but that wirraway is the best sounding plane when it's flying.
ua-cam.com/video/-9-luVivamY/v-deo.html
Very Awesome wow a beautiful plane great video too.Thank you so much
Oh man I though fantasy of flight shut down. I need to come down there as I only live an hour away!
Our "Museum Lite" is open seasonally. Check the Fantasy of Flight website for open dates.
I swear to god, Kermit scared the bejesus outta me!!!!! LMAO
Better check those mag circuits out for integrity.A hot mag in the off position is a rattlesnake.
Great channel.
Thank you!
...and who was that guy who photo-bombed?
What was that metal on metal sound when hand pulling through at first??
Possible live mag and they stand in the propeller arc and move the prop!
It's a Wirraway and you're in the northern hemisphere. Turn it upside down and try again.
A Jegs check valve? Any more automotive parts in the aircraft?
great ol bird, A Wirraway shot down a Zero once in WW2, more by luck than design.
A JEGS check valve!
Maybe my next catalog will have a Wirraway on it instead of another Camaro
I thought exactly the same thing. At least put a piece of tape over that JEGS logo please!
The guy with the tools didn't use a torque wrench to tighten the two plugs or wires he removed. I wonder if the whole aircraft was rebuilt that way?
This guy has a build-in torque wrench
I'm just wondering if now that you have added the check valve have you reinstalled the wobble pump?
Cue announcer: "Brought to you by Naked In Jamaica Rum!" -- Cue jingle: **singing** "Naked In Jamaica" -- "annnnnd CUT!"
(Fixed that for ya!) ;)
11:45 sound reminds of the pod racing scene in Star Wars.
Wayne Root looking towards the Wing Root!
Might try a new pump if one can be found.
Kermet...!!! You have an Aussie in the fleet! Cool!!
Great work gents! cant wait to see her fly :)
Thanks for the new video. Questions: Was the mag actually Hot when he first pulled it through or was the apparent firing sound during the clearance rotation from dieseling in one or two lower cylinders because of the oil? I can sure understand why he didn't want to pull it through again with the mag grounding in question.
Was that a sea fury in the background?
I don't know about aircraft, but in the automotive world adding a back-up electric fuel pump can sometimes be problematic. I've had several vehicles where the engine would starve for gas when running at high speed when I turned the electric pump off, even though the mechanical engine-driven pump was good. I had to install check valves that allowed gas to bypass the electric pump when it was turned off. I also have a car where I installed an electric pump for priming after the car had been sitting for months, priming before cranking the engine. I discovered that in this case the electric pump can't force fuel through the mechanical pump. I might need to install a check valve that allows the electric pump to bypass the mechanical pump.
8:10 to 8:24 sounds like about six of the nine cylinders are firing. Anyone who can get a big radial like this going first try has my hat off. TKS for a review of my Navy ADR training. Read about the "Wirra" when I was a kid and always wanted one. They carried guns as stop-gap fighters early war years. ** Safety note **: Not sure those chocks would hold it were it to suddenly lunge forward. I know they make bigger ones. Just sayin' (OMG 12:05 did he really say that?)
It could try firing on compression pretty easily if you have just the right amount of oil/gas vapor in the cylinders or intake system. You're dealing with dynamic compression pressure and not just static compression ratios when an engine is cranking/running. If the engine is good and tight and makes a lot of compression and the engine is warmed up a little from sitting in the sun on even a cool day, oil vapor can easily "diesel" while cranking. Especially if the cranking speed is on the "slow" side and the pistons are coming up fast enough to do a good job of compressing the air in the cylinders so the little bit of vapor/liquid oil ignites but not so fast that its rolling through that little bit of fire before it can do any good and its just coughing and sputtering a little instead of actually "firing" with enough heat and pressure and energy to "run". A few more revolutions and it would probably have that little of vapor "dieseled" out of the engine and go back to cranking normally. As soon as you introduce any gas you're also going to "wash down" the cylinders a touch and lose a little compression and the mixture will also have a way higher octane rating and will resist auto-ignition. All liquid petroleum fuels and liquids have an "octane rating". Octane and cetane are opposite ends of the same scale so to speak. High cetane = low octane. Cetane is a compression ignition fuel's ability to auto-ignite easily and octane is a spark-ignitions fuel's ability to resist auto-ignition. And the higher octane fuel is, the HARDER it is to ignite and the LESS heat energy it contains. That's why running "high-octane" fuel in excess of what the engine needs to avoid detonation and knock is just wasting power and efficiency. Find the fuel your engine likes and that keeps it out of detonation under its max load/temp conditions and you don't need to go any higher with octane. You're costing yourself power, efficiency and performance if you do.
Kinda the Aussie version of the AT6 but with issues and a skeevie girlfriend.
Can you get an STC for that fuel pump mod?????
Is there a leak somewhere? Everyone wants that plane aloft, doing rolls and loops.
2:52 is that a vultee valiant BT-13?
Would love to see that wirraway in person. Does Fantasy of Flight allow visiting aircraft ?
All slimed out like an old 2 stroke nitro R/C job! Where's the windex and paper towels?
Holy crap, that thing could have barked while you were pulling it through!!! Jesus!!!!!! How come the grey hair lets the young guy pull the prop through????!!!! Spark, fuel, air!!! That Baby was ready!!! Reminds me of a scene from “ flight of the Phoenix” with Jimmy Stewart!!!!
Kermit's cameo at 9:30!!
My dad flew these for hundreds of hours before he flew the P-40 in New Guinea with 80 Squadron RAAF..
First and only t 6 I worked on had same problem we rebuilt that airplane 20 years later plus all accessories problem went away your booster is probably firing your spark plugs at start if installed
Wow! What a beautiful bird!! What year is it?
So when the oil pours out of the exhaust manifold, does that mean that some of the exhaust valve guides and seals are nackered?
Radial Engines when they sit for a period , oil from the upper half drains down to the lower cylinders. Radials are an oil scavenge system. Exhaust valves are open or wil leak past into the Exhaust manifolds. That why they "Pull" the engine Trough a few revaluations.
I’d love this know the story of how you acquired this aircraft.
JEGS to the rescue! Is that FAA PMA approved?
hot rod approved
Did Mel Blanc do the audio track?
How the hell did you get one of those planes? Greetings from Australia
Watching the master mechanic walk up to the running engine with his ears only inches away from the exhaust with zero hearing protection.. tinnitus anyone?
Wow a T-6 , what advantage was there to this over a T6 ??
Is there a flight video ? I cant find one.
Not yet!
Great work. A rare aircraft in good hands
Kermie's Wizards
Hum. The mechanical pump won't build up pressure, and the wobble pump and the new electric boost pump wouldn't build up pressure until a check valve was installed. This sounds to me like more than coincidence. It sounds to me like there is an internal leak in the main fuel pump, and this is what kept the electric/wobble pumps from building up pressure. You may not need that check valve once you get the engine driven pump sorted.
It sounds to me like some previous owner/mechanic didn't know what the hell they were doing and started "fixing" the fuel system and ended up taking out a check valve that obviously needs to be there. That check valve is probably in a bypass line that that allows excess fuel to go back to the tank when pump output and engine fuel demand are low and that may open to let an extra "supply line" to the pump open up when fuel demand is high. He clearly said the wobble pump was out of the system and not connected at all when they tried it with the "boost pump".
The "incidence" is that this airplane was in Australia at some point and some other "experts" in Australia gave him advice on how to "fix" it that was clearly WRONG because the plane didn't need that "boost pump" to fly when new. That's a shadetree, band-aid "fix" that could get somebody killed if other problems in the system exist and putting on the booster pump just adds enough flow to overcome other leaks, a lack of a check valve etc. until the engine needs a lot more fuel.
The moral of the story is don't buy vehicles from foreign countries where they shadetree airplanes because the right parts and service information are "hard to find" i.e. "too expensive" and don't trust "experts" who "fix" OEM systems that must have worked fine with add-on aftermarket "help". I wonder who "rebuilt" that wobble pump they "sent off" to have "rebuilt". Fuel systems are a really poor place to cut corners.
The Aussie "experts" also mentioned running the tank dry being a problem as far as getting the pump to work again. Yeah. Probably because running the pump dry causes excessive wear, scoring, scuffing etc. that a "rebuild" that might just be slapping in new gaskets and "polishing" the damage out of internal precision-fit parts just creates more clearance and internal leakage.
Back to don't trust "experts" who shadetree shit...
"The "incidence" is that this airplane was in Australia at some point..."
The Wirraway was an Australian built aircraft. So, in so much as they exist at all, most of the "experts" on Wirraways are probably in Australia.
"The moral of the story is don't buy vehicles from foreign countries where they shadetree airplanes..."
While that may be good advice for purchasing a modern aircraft, one can't just go down to a dealer and buy a Wirraway. One must get a Wirraway where one can find a Wirraway.
Don't feel bad, those things didn't work fresh out of the factory :)
T6 with fabric ? was this better than a T6 ?
So Is it a T6 or no?
Fun to watch...you guys have the patience of Job! Hang in there, guys! ☺
John Stirling - was that in the Japanese attack in the North of New Guinea - when an order was given from Australia - defend New Guinea at all costs. The reply from the OIC of the Air Field - ' We Salute You - We Who Are About To Die".....
Boy, the traffic on I4 is loud
Turn it into a Boomerang Kermit!
He Did!
Need a wah-wah pedal for the wah-wah pump.
Jegs to the rescue for the check valve. Actually it looks like an Aeromotive item. 5*.
Well, since this IS "Mechanic's Corner", and I have worked on enough cars under the shade of trees for the last 43 years that I can call myself somewhat of a mechanic, so, a little "shop talk" if I may...this vid appears to show that three separate and distinct fuel pumps: an original design, rebuilt "wobbely" (whatever that is), a super duper electro/mechanical, and finally, an engine-driven, any one of which i would assume would run the engine under normal circumstances, are not pumping sufficiently. I'm guessing these are draw-through rather than push pumps, so if three new pumps are not working properly, wouldn't that point to the source, meaning, restricted fuel pickup screen, or collapsing fuel lines from the tank to the pump, or perhaps debris gumming up the "works"? No venting? There's no mention of that in the vid. I just wanted to "pipe-up" (no pun intended) because I read about a fuel injected airplane in FAA accident website and it turned out contamination in the injector caused a fatal crash.
*Or perhaps a leak in a line and you're sucking air?
Good ideas, blocked or closed tank vent. A vaccuum gauge temporarily installed on the pump inlet would show any problems with supply blockage.
Its sure sounds sensible to me, checking for all those possibilities. I would assume that entry to the fuel tank to ensure it is scrupulously cleaned, same for lines and filters? To assume that it is ok is irresponsible. But I'm sure these guys are too professional to overlook that.
thank you for using a slooow shutter speed :D
Tip a can of beer down the intakes, beer fixes everything.
If beer does'nt work, you're not using enough beer!
You have a Wirraway too?
Might as well buy a spruce goose
Not easy to find the problem.