N6758N

Craig- If you can find a mount for the fire extinguisher you have, you can attach it to the sheetmetal underneath the pilots seat, right under your legs for easy access.

It is NOT mandatory to tear the engine down after a prop strike on a Lycoming. There is a SB and and AD that have to be complied with. You have to repair/replace the prop, dial the crankshaft flange, and replace/inspect the crankshaft gear at the back of the engine and install a new bolt as well. That's it.

The only way you can really harm one of these engine is to run them extremely lean. The NA Lycomings are designed to run at 100% power all the way to TBO. Highly unlikely you did anything to cause the failure @chrixxer

I'm guessing just a new prop, and maybeeee a logbook entry-but that may be a stretch knowing the sellers history.

Didn't this one go in as well Byron?

Every time I read that report I just shake my head.

The interesting thing about both the wet wing and the bladders is the vent is in the forward, outboard portion of the tank. So you would think at some point it would start to drain fuel from there if you tried filling it in a nose low attitude.

I think he has the 64 gallon bladder system Chris.

I agree with Rich. They might not be as reliable as a modern automobile engine, but they very rarely quit without giving some sign of distress. Paying careful attention to oil filters, an engine monitor, and any unusual sounds, smells, etc... can go a long way to prevent a failure. However, sometimes you can't know an engines complete history without tearing it down and sending out the pieces. I suspect that in the case of the recent E that crashed in Burbank, they will find something the previous owner did/didn't do that caused the failure. At least given their history in the past of putting airplanes back together. I think this is the 3rd one this individual has 'fixed' and sold that has crashed now...

Not necessarily. The Zero fuel calibration point is most important. By not adding unusable fuel before they started the calibration, they screwed up not just the first, but all of the readings. That could easily account for the 6 gallons. Check for good grounds, and then start over by draining all fuel, adding unuseable, then start your calibration. Seeing how rock solid and smooth the CiES senders are once installed, I'm thinking it is more than likely the methods that your mechanics used, not the equipment.

Just curious. As much as I would love to do this mod, its not in the budget right now. I would love to see if David would work with me in the future and allow me to do the mod myself. I don't have nearly the sheetmetal experience he does, but I have done a lot of projects in the past.

Hey Bob, Are you up next for the mod?

Not right now, I need to take a break from mods/upgrades for a while. Being a homeowner means no more money for airplane stuff. I got the fuel caps on this weekend. Senders are wired up and connected to the JPI. Thanks to @Marauder for supplying the awesome connectors we used. The new fuel caps are really nice, and they look fantastic. In fact, they look like they don't even belong on a 50 year old airplane. I'll surely have to repaint after this to match. I am waiting on bolts and spring washers for the close out panels, then its time to add fuel, calibrate the JPI, and check for leaks. OH, and then I have to tear the rest of the plane apart to do the annual...

I'll try and explain for Hank- basically you can compare your GPS groundspeed (in knots) to your ASI inner ring, if you know what your actual TAS is, or if you are low enough to not make a difference, comparing the two will give you a rough idea of winds aloft. For example, your ASI says 120 knots, but your groundspeed is 140 kts. You can then approximate that you've got roughly 20kt tailwinds pushing you.

Now the whole world has seen my awful penmanship.

I just ordered two of the bottle jacks. I will be getting some scrap metal and firing up the welder soon enough!

Curious to find this out as well. Or at least the length of the jack, I'll probably get mine from northern tool. I'm tired of borrowing jacks from friends every time I need to jack a plane!

I don't think @chrixxer will be needing a cover anytime soon Jerry...

Are those mounted to the plastic/royalite?

Lets see here... @Marauders plane is done. I think he has only flown it 2-3 times so far though so stay tuned for an update. Once we ran the new harness provided by JPI, things went relatively smooth form there, save for the fact that they rewired his JPI backwards so we had to swap out two plugs to make the system work, Oh and we had to reprogram the JPI to acknowledge we were using frequency type senders. The calibration went pretty smoothly after that (lots of trips to the fuel farm with gas cans since N57 doesn't have a truck. I put my senders in last week, and wired them this weekend, once my bladders are complete I will turn everything on and do the calibration. Lets just say we have all learned a lot getting through this process, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. All in all I still think the technology in these senders is fantastic and will provide years of trouble free and reliable fuel readings. That being said though, Scott, @fuellevel I would recommend changing the install manual or at least mentioning it on the aircraft specific models page of your webpage, a few things: 1. This setup does not work with frequency type without a new JPI harness and sending the unit back to JPI at a cost of $350. 2. There was no mention when we purchased these that there were different types of senders, would have been nice to know this before we blindly purchased something and wound up having to do more work and spend more money to make everything work together. 3. Your installation manual leaves a lot to be desired, more details and diagrams would save others some of the same headache we have gone through here. Remember, we aren't all installing these in a Cirrus.

Talk about getting back on the horse, great job Chris! Happy to hear you guys are okay and you're already back in the air. Can you provide us any insight on what was going on with the engine when it quit?

He doesn't have the plane power regulator, just the Alternator. I think he has an old interav regulator.

All the gear ups I have heard of have been from people being distracted in the pattern or on the approach for some reason, not touch and goes. But I don't have any statistics to back that up either...

Keep dreaming Scott, I don't see these selling for less than 4 AMUs plus installation and paint. Sure hope I am wrong though...

I agree Erik, if it had 4 seats it could be a real competitor to the Cirrus, at least it would if they knew how to market...