tomn

I had the bad resistor Champions that I replaced with these Tempest and the plane is running much better. I used Tempest plugs in my Mooney as well with great results. My next set will be Tempest - I use their oil filters as well.

I just changed my plugs with a new set of Tempest while the plane was down for a prop overhaul. After installing the prop, we dynamically balanced it running the motor for only about five minutes. That run included three 2400 rpm run ups for only 10-15 seconds while the computer was taking its readings. After dynamically balancing the prop, we pulled the top plugs to check the timing and found this bad plug. I immediately contacted Tempest and sent them the plug so they could determine the cause - here's what we learned. What you see in the picture is a thin metal round gasket ring that is inserted between the ceramic insulator and the plug housing during assembly before being pressed together. Somehow two rings had been inserted instead of one and the second apparently popped out during the prop balancing run ups. It is a complete ring that could not be removed by pulling on it since the electrodes were blocking its movement. I have talked with Tempest several times since this occurred and must say that they have been great to deal with. They contacted me immediately very early the next morning after sending them an email the night before with pictures of the plug. They sent me a replacement plug right away and kept me informed about what they found when they looked at the plug. They believe that this was an isolated incident and are looking further into the issue and the assembly process. Its great to have a manufacturer that provides this level of support for their product. I felt it was important to pass this information along. It would be a good idea for anyone installing plugs to look at them carefully for anything that does not look right. I do not know if you can see if there are two ring gaskets installed as happened here, but you can see the one ring down inside the plug if you look carefully. Tom

You guys are fun - I'll still be here!

Its interesting having a brand "B" now since previously thinking the only plane I'd ever own would be a Mooney. They are both great planes and its fun to compare one against the other in a competitive sort of way. They both have their strong points and drawbacks. For what its worth, there are quite a number of non-B brand pilots over on Beechtalk - the MS equivalent for that brand. I'm sure there are more non-Mooney members here than anyone realizes. That's probably a good thing - best for the overall health of GA. I still come here often - I want to keep my finger on the pulse and keep up with you guys. I can easily see myself with another Mooney one day... Tom

Not a bucket of bolts! Just a great bird with a few years under her! I must say it sure is nice to pop two levers to open the entire top cowling. I do it before every flight now.

+1 on plane cover.com. Great service.

Thanks for the replies. It ended up being the pitch servo motor. It has shorted out and is not serviceable. We have one on the way and hopefully it will be back ready to go in a day or so. The KC 192 did not pick up the bad motor during the test mode and everything would come up fine - just would not auto trim or hold ALT even though the light would come and appear to be engaged. The elevator trim uses a separate motor on mine allowing me to trim in flight manually. I bet the new AP's that are out now for experimentals fare better than these units. Maybe one day we'll actually have the option to install better safer hardware in our planes for a fraction of the cost. Still miss my E by the way.... Tom

I spend a lot of time looking under the cowl. When I had my E, I'd pull the side cheek panels all the time and look up inside with a flashlight to try to find anything that did not look right. I have found rocker cover bolts loose, starter bolts/starter loose, frayed wires, exhaust gaskets leaking, torn induction boot, etc.....

Guys, Sorry I did not make it clear - the up/down rocker switch on the AP would not move the trim but the yoke trim switch will. I was able to manually trim the plane and fly no problem - just a little aggravating through 3+ hours of flying. Are there two motors here - one servo for the AP and one for the electric trim? Tom

The altitude hold on my KFC 150 went out yesterday. It had been acting up a little the day before with some intermittent dropping out. Everything else on the AP works fine and the ALT light comes on when I press the button. I can't get any movement on the trim wheel pushing the UP/DOWN rocker switch. Powering the unit down and recycling makes no difference. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas of what the issue may be? Tom

I'm alone about 98% of the time - wife does not fly at all (still working on that but will probably never succeed). Recent passengers were dogs - even they fell asleep !

This was an oil temperature probe for a JPI engine monitor - not the factory probe. You only need to check if you have a JPI or other monitor installed with its own oil temp readout. Look at the bottom of the oil cooler where the vernatherm is located. If you are not familiar with that, just look at the bottom of the oil cooler (behind last cylinder on pilots side) and see if you have a probe with wires coming from it - if it looks like this picture investigate further. Let me know if you have any questions, I can give anyone more details. Tom

Chris, the plane is working out great so far although I do miss the Mooney - find myself looking at them where ever I go... I only have about 20 hours on it so far so I don't have much history with it yet. I just got back from Allentown PA today - flew over your neck of the woods with ATC giving me the scenic tour of the bay due to storms west of DC and Baltimore. I am still playing with it but it looks like I can cruise 10K ft in the 170kt range burning about 13 gph at peak. Faster with more fuel if I want to, at little less speed and around 11.5 to 12 gph LOP but I have not played with that much. This oil temp probe issue is not good. The failure of mine was eminent - most likely sooner than later due to the bend in the probe and the depth on the nick in the end. I can't stress enough that anyone with a IO550 with aftermarket monitor installed check the location of the oil temp probe. Fly Safe, Tom Glad the knob has worked out and is now red!

Its been a little while since I've posted but I wanted to pass along some critical information that might help prevent an engine failure. I have not read anything about this here so sorry if it is old information to some. I've been reading quite a lot after purchasing my Bonanza (no comments please - still missing my Mooney) and ran across an article from 2006. The pilot, who is actually based at my home airport, had an in-flight engine failure because of a broken oil temperature probe that was installed improperly when an engine monitor was added to his plane. His plane had an IO550 and the oil temp probe was installed just above the vernatherm in the oil cooler housing. It was installed in a port using reduction bushing to take the 3/8 NPT hole down to 1/4 NPT to fit the probe. The probe was installed deep enough in the port to be hit by the vernatherm each time it opened. It eventually broke the probe in two and all the oil was pumped out through the wire passage hole. The result was a seized motor - luckily he was able to dead stick it into an abandoned private strip and walked away with nothing more than a hole in his motor where the rod had come through. After reading this, I quickly checked mine expecting it to be fine since the motor had been replaced about 90 hrs before I bought it. The JPI had been installed years earlier. I was surprised to find that the probe was installed in the same location as his. We removed the probe and found a deep nick in the tip and a slight "V" bend in the barrel. There is a crease midway down the length of the probe barrel that is 180 degrees opposite the nick. The vernatherm was obviously pushing it pretty hard - enough to actually bend it against the inside bore of the reduction bushing. There is a 1/4 NPT plug in the front left of the motor just behind the prop that is a much better location for the probe. Mine is in the process of being relocated there with the oil cooler port now plugged and safety wired. Here are two pictures of his broken probe, one showing the damage to mine, and one showing where it was installed on my engine before it was removed. If you have an O with an engine monitor installed and have not heard about this, check to see that the oil temp probe is not installed like the one in the picture on my engine - NOW! Both the IO520 and IO550 have this same configuration so pass this along to anyone else you might know with either of these motors with an engine monitor installed. Tom

Here are a few pictures of the new plane! I don't have any panel shots yet... can add them soon. Tom