GTH wrote:
When

the washer fails, the rod gets hot enough to severely distort it and
lock the engine. .... There is no
indication of a lubrication failure either (all the engines are oil
injected).


Overheating big end, hmm ?
What makes you think this is NOT a lubrication issue ?

Regards,
Gilles Thesee
Grenoble, France
http://contrails.free.fr

Because there is no indication of friction burns on the cylinder walls
or piston skirts. Also, you can still feel the oil film on the cylinder
walls when breaking down the engine for inspection.

It's possible that the cylinders are getting lubrication, but not the
crank. If so, it's a design problem with the 582.

From what I've gathered (off the record) from some of the rotax
service centers is that the 582 crank is having problems when used in a
training environment such as ours. It seems the high number of landing /
take off cycles at high throttle settings may be causing the premature
crank failures. Rotax claims the crank is rated for 300 hours. The
longest we've had one last is 236 hours.

Incidently, you might be able to spot this problem before it goes
catastrophic by examining the pulse line hose (assuming you are using a
clear urethane hose). The hot air produced by the failure turns the
first couple of inches of the pulse line black.