There have been a lot of comments over the years concerning the pro's
and con's of injecting air tool oil (and other substances) into the air
system of YAK's and CJ's.
There is no doubt at all that oil can help slow down corrosion.
But there are other things just as dangerous as corrosion and I will say
this about the whole issue: BE CAREFUL.
Not all seals are the same. Not all seals are created equal. One test
on one airplane is proof that what was done worked on one aircraft, and
that is all it proves.
I have seen with my own eyes (and on my OWN AIRPLANE) where injecting
this kind of oil into the air system caused the seals in the cylinder to
just simply disintegrate. This resulted in the requirement of using the
emergency gear blow-down system, which worked. It worked mainly because
the emergency gear blow-down in the YAKS does not have flow restrictors
and full pressure all at once was enough to get the gear down with what
was left of the seals.
My "take it or leave it" unsolicited advice to all of you is this: DO
NOT INJECT ANY DARN THING INTO THIS SYSTEM ***IF**** you have old seals
that have been in for a long time and you do not know their origin or
condition. That is what I did. It was a BAD MOVE on my part. I also
know of one other YAK-50 that this happened to as well. Both mine and
the other one had original Russian seals.
If you want to try this procedure, first rebuild your actuators, get an
extra seal or two and dump it into a jar of "whatever" you plan on
putting into the system and let it soak for a week or two and see what
happens. Better yet... Contact the maker of the seals and ask what
happens when you expose them to whatever you plan on putting in there.
Whatever you do, don't start putting this stuff into an aircraft that
has old seals from Russia. Rebuild them FIRST~!
Mark Bitterlich
N50YK/N66PW
