HLA's on ebay

[barnstorm2]

Recently I had an HLA fail on my EJ22. After researching the issue I found this is not uncommon and I have found several other gyro owners that have replaced theirs.

I called the local Sub dealer for a price and they wanted $30ea! So I used one from my spare engine. When checking my spare engine I found one of those (though not failed) were not in prime shape.

Currently on ebay there are several batches of new HLA's for sale FYI.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7934940127&category=33621

[Friendly]

Tim, what happened when your HLA failed? I have a 2.2 and I would like more information on it.

[barnstorm2]

Mark,

When my HLA failed the engine still seemed to run fine. No problem with idle or starting at all. The symptom is noise. On one side of the engine the 'valves' became very noisey. It sounded just like an old push-rod engine with a valve out of adjustment. I would describe it as the sound of a small brass hammer tapping out beats to the engines RPM.

I don't know what the symptoms are for a weak HLA. My assumption is that it would be a noiseyer top-end.

There are two ways (that I know of) to test your HLA's. The first way is to take the valve covers off and press on the rocker arms with your finger. They should be tight with no movement. On my failed HLA there was 1/16" movement. I don't think the works for the exhaust rockers work with this test because it is one piece with two HLAs. The other test is to remove the HLAs ( this is actually quite easy ) place them in a cup of clean oil and try to compress them with your fingers. If you can not compress them with your fingers they are probably good. If they do compress you can try 'pumping them up' with oil. Proceedures on how to do this are on the www.PRAChapter34.com web site under downloads. This web site will be down for about a week as I am doing maintaince. If you want the docs for the proceedures you can email me and I will gladly send them to anyone who wants them.

[KenSandyEggo]

What trhe "hella" is an HLA? Am I assuming this applies only to the SOOb injection/ignition syetm?

[KenSandyEggo]

What the "hella" is an HLA? Am I assuming this applies only to the SOOB ignition/FI system?

[barnstorm2]

Ken,

Hydraulic Lash Adjusters.

They go between the rocker arm and the valve stem. Work like Hydraulic Valve Adjusters.

[mceagle]

I have seen only one problem with an EJ 22 hydraulic lifter. This was on an engine that had spent 5 hours laying on its side. Air was introduced into the lifter oiling system and that lifter made a fair racket. The lifter did finally "bleed" itself after about 20 mins. including many starts and stops. The lifters operate horizontally instead of the vertically and for this reason are hard to bleed in situ. The starts and stops seem to help by cycling the oil pressure and rotating the lifter so that the oil hole is at the highest position.
As explained by Tim above, dry lifters should be pumped up under oil before installation.
Incidentally, air can be introduced into the lifter oiling system through a sideways "G" manouver with low oil level, or by using higher RPM's immediately after a cold start with low oil.

[barnstorm2]

Here is a picture of one of my spare EJ-22s.

The HLA on the left is 'not pumped up'.

After putting it in a jar of oil I pumped it up. After a few trys it did start holding oil but if this was on an engine I was planning to fly I would replace it.

Granted so long as it does pump up it should work fine, but since I have spares I feel better having one that likes to stay pumped.