Webra bearing life report

[David Wartel]

I've been running the 1.45 for a couple of months and have about 10 hours (58 flights) on it so far. The bearing is showing no signs of wear yet. I'm running 15% S&W fuel and run the engine dry after every session and LOAD it with Mobil 1; not just a few drops - probably about a tablespoonful, maybe more. I removed the integral pump and am using a Perry so probably any after run oil would do; no diaphragm to worry about.

For the first run of the day, I remove the glow plug and blow out the oil with the starter, replace the plug and start it up. It usually "complains" a little for the first start, but it always runs on the second or third try. Thereafter it will flip start for the rest of the day.

It does eat plugs, though. They seem to last only about 10-12 flights. (OS F's) Any cure for this?

Dave Wartel
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rcmaster199 at aol.com 
  To: discussion at nsrca.org 
  Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2004 9:59 PM
  Subject: Re: Webra bearing life report


  That is terrible bearing life from the set-up Keith. Mine lasted about 100 hours (452 flights) until the pump finally went, which meant the engine ran lean for several flights and then the bearing went.

  Bearing no 2 has run all season and has about 32 hours on it so far, or about 150 flights; same engine with a new pump.

  Fuel is the same cool power I spoke about before: 50:50 mix of 5% CP and 30% heli mix, plus one ounce of Klotz Pro per gallon

  MattK


    Prompted by Brian's excellent news regarding the new stainless steel bearings available for the Webra 1.45/1.60 I thought I'd share the following info on my Webra bearing life (standard non-stainless steel). 

    I keep a log of all flights  including the duration of each flight (rounded to the minute). Last week I went through the arduous task of entering data on about 340 flights into MS Excel. I also keep a log of each bearing change so I was able to compile data on bearing life on over 70 hours of flight time. 

    All of my statistics below are reported in hours because flights differ in duration. Also, the decimal points represent a fraction of an hour, not minutes. For example 2.5 would be 2 1/2 hours. 

    I currently have three Webra engines, one in each of my two planes and one backup (thanks to the RadioSouth $259 special). I also had one Webra in which the bearings disintegrated and the engine was destroyed. Horizon replaced this engine free of charge (thanks Horizon). I have broken out bearing life times based on each engine. 

    Webra 1: 
    - Original Bearings: 12 hrs (may be off an hour or so, first runs were not in current aircraft and not logged)
    - Bearing 2: 13.22 hrs
    - Bearing 3: 9.40 hrs
    - Bearing 4: still in engine, 0.67 hrs

    Webra 2: 
    Original Bearings, 7.85 hrs (bearings disintegrated and destroyed engine)

    Webra 3: 
    Originals Bearings: 11.38 hrs
    Bearing 2: still being used, 6.37 hrs

    Webra 4: 
    Originals Bearing 9.02 hrs 
    Bearing 2: still being used, 2.9 hrs.

    As you can see the times for replacement vary between 7.85 hrs and 13.22 hrs. If you take out Webra #2 that suffered the early bearing disintegration then the range is consistently between 9 & 13 hrs. The average being 11 hrs.

    I found this quite interesting as it represents a fairly consistent pattern of bearing life.

    I'd be interested to hear anyone else's results or comments. 

    Keith Black
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