F & M oil filter adapter gasket failure

[bgold]

Hey guys just thought I would pass along something that those of us with F&M oil filter adapter kits might be interested in.
My buddy was out flying his c-172 and his F & M oil kit /seal failed. For those of you that have the kit, the failure occured at the point of where the F&M fitting attaches to the back of the engine case. The piece of seal is physically missing. How much of the seal ? Approximately 3 m.m. is gone.
He was able to make it back to a local airport however the engine is done. Lost most of the oil (nothing on the dipstick) but the ole girl kept running until they got it on the ground.

Anyways looking at the F&M website I see they now have a note on their website that states that the gasket must be replaced any time the adapter/fitting is taken off of the engine, and or every 3 years and or every 300 hours. Essentially it would be an airworthiness directive I believe.

My buddies plane was way beyond those limitations. However the directive is dated October 8, 2013. When I installed my kit approximately 18 months ago there was no directive stating the above times and procedures, nor have I recieved anything in the mail notifying me of this maintenance procedure.

Engine is being sent to Ken Vike - Vike aeromotive in Kamloops B.C. for tear down and rebuild. He did my engine and is totally a soild respected engine rebuilder shop. I highly recommend him.

I should also mention this kit was installed approximately 15 years ago. So according to the company they have changed their seals to a proprietary seal since then.

So bottom line guys- check those seals, replace as per above note from F& M. And keep your fingers crossed!

All the best- Barry Gold

[lowNslow]

Barry, thanks for the heads up. I just started the annual on my 170 and will put that on the todo list. I have not changed that gasket in over 10 years.

[bagarre]

Thanks for the info!
I just bought their gasket set because mine has two crush gaskets and leaks like a sieve.

[n2582d]

There are two areas in red hash marks in the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness of the F&M filter adapter. The first one says change the gasket every three years or 300 hours, whichever occurs first. The second one says, "There are no mandatory replacement times for the parts described by this ICAW." Huh???

[lowNslow]

Thanks for the info!
I just bought their gasket set because mine has two crush gaskets and leaks like a sieve.

David, do you have to buy the gaskets from F&M or are they standard parts available at Spruce?

[bagarre]

The outer gasket is a standard copper crush gasket but the inner one is a thick (1/8th inch) paper gasket.
It's supposed to help with the unit rotating and thus leaking.

[lowNslow]

The outer gasket is a standard copper crush gasket but the inner one is a thick (1/8th inch) paper gasket.
It's supposed to help with the unit rotating and thus leaking.

Where did you get them?

[bagarre]

I contacted http://www.fm-enterprises.com directly.

[GAHorn]

The gaskets will be injured by improper torque and/or subsequent movement of the filter adaptor, and the best way to prevent this type of damage is to torque according to the STC instructions.
I have 800+ hours and over 12 years on my FM Enterprises adaptor and have never experienced any problem whatsoever on the original gaskets (one copper crush and one heavy paper.)

[bgold]

Gee whiz George thats EXACTLY what my friend said just enforcement seal blew and puked oil all over the first trees up here in British Columbia!

I would think there might be a valid reason why F & M has decided to implement this maintenance procedure ?
Regardless of how many hours the kit has been on anyones engine/ aircraft I believe it would be foolhardy to ignore the maintenance procedure as outlined by the manufacturer.
To be honest im a little surprised by your comment. Your statement would give the impression that you would choose to ignore
the maintenance procedure? Surely that is not the impression you wanted to give to the members?

The reason why I brought it to everyone's attention is this is an actual event that occured. A gasket failure that lead to engine failure or would have very shortly with possibly very dire consequences. Why would ANYONE ignore the maintenance procedure? Unbelievable.........!!!

Regards, Barry Gold.

[c170b53]

Oh man this effort to keep civility amongst posts is becoming a full time job. This post took an interesting turn as I know both of these gentlemen and I can assure both that again there has been a misconception of what is being conveyed . Barry ..George is an airplane person. George ..Barry taught me to fly (which took a fair bit of effort on his part) by the way Barry, haven't seen you on a flight deck lately, you obviously not working hard enough.
May I suggest to both there's likely more to this than meets the eye and maybe we can discuss the specifics.
As an example Bagarre posted

The outer gasket is a standard copper crush gasket but the inner one is a thick (1/8th inch) paper gasket.
It's supposed to help with the unit rotating and thus leaking.

Likely he meant something else, I'm guessing the paper gasket prevents the unit from rotating but maybe he's talking about the crush washer....see what I mean?
Here's another one to get our collective heads around, mechanical items fail for many reasons but the specific full reason behind a failure may not be readily apparent.
Ok boys I'm dropping the puck now.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

I did not read Georges comment as Barry did. I read it to say that George has that much time and no trouble. I didn't take it to meant George doesn't perform specified maintenance or that he suggests others don't need to. Barry is just bringing this maintenance info to light. How could George perform the maintenance if he didn't know about it. Yes now I can see how one might read it as Barry did.

For many of us who have been on this forum for a long time, the news of the F&M leaking is not new. They originally stipulated two copper crush gaskets together. Proper torque was a problem because of the specialty wrenches required and just when you had it correct, you moved the adapter while removing the filter negating all previous effort to seal and or torque the unit.

When the new (present) owner took over the new paper gasket was introduced. Sounds like the ICA was only a late thing. Many people who installed this 15 years ago probably don't have the ICA as it was not required at the time. Many of them don't even know there is a new gasket. They still use two copper gaskets, throw a open end wrench on the adapter and give it a tug using their calibrated arm and except a minor leak.

I appreciate the info Barry, thanks.

[lowNslow]

I decided to take Barry's advice and replace my gaskets as it has developed a leak anyway despite re-torqueing. As I recall when they went to the new style gasket they increased the torque value. My paperwork was for the original copper gasket and may have the incorrect value. Does anyone have the latest installation instructions with the correct torque value?

[RickG]

There is a link to the Installation Instructions on this page:
http://www.fm-enterprises.com/product.html

[lowNslow]

There is a link to the Installation Instructions on this page:
http://www.fm-enterprises.com/product.html

The only thing I could find were the "Instructions for Continued Airworthiness" which is just a couple of pages from the installation instructions and does not include torque values.