Hot Wash Sprayer

Prop wash, Jet wash, Hot Section Wash. Only one has something to do with a bath. In a previous maintenance post, Jon talked about his work chasing rising temperature indications in our Cold War Air Museum, L-39, Bord 107.

Another step in the maintenance process involves washing the engine with a special cleaning solution while it is running. Essentially this gives the guts of the engine a bath, helping to clean out any accumulated gunk interfering with the combustion process.

After receiving diagrams and information from a former Eastern Bloc specialist, Jon fabricated a high volume, high pressure spray unit to inject the cleaning solution into an intermediate stage of the engine at high power. With the help of our local network of scroungers and specialists (not to be confused with scoundrels and speculators), Jon created this unit to deliver the pressure and volume specified.

To test the unit we timed the required delivery of the required volume of fluid. The test went exceedingly well.

Jon demonstrates the cleaning solution delivery system by a emulating a boy in a European fountain (well, he sorta kinda had that Greek/Roman statue look anyway).

Before the wash procedure, copious quantities of distilled water were acquired to mix with the cleaning solution.