dtoelke

Jim those are some excellent points. I would also highly recommend that you invest in an engine management system. I purchased my 231 a couple months back, installed one immediately and frankly wouldn't fly without it. Despite my low time I would consider myself a very proficient pilot from an engine management perspective. My background is in engineering and that stuff just makes sense to me. However, you will inevitablely find yourself in unexpected situations (especially in the first 20-30 hrs) where you WILL forget something on your checklist and the EMS is there to let you know something isn't right before it becomes detrimental to your engine. Just a few examples from my brief time as an M20K owner: Level off in cruise, CHT cooling rate exceeds 30 deg/min... realize I forgot to close the cowl flaps Switching from cruise to climb, CHTs start edging over 380... look down and realized cowl flaps are still closed Running LOP, CHT's start edging over 380... lean mixture further CHT on #4 a couple weeks back started rising uncontrollably on the ground. Shut off engine before it got too hot, pulled injector and found a partially blocked nozzle. The list goes on and on... A couple other things: 1) Get a model with speedbrakes. People harp on this all the time but it can't be said enough. I try not to use them by properly planning descents but boy will you be happy to have them when you need them. I think you will find the Mooney descent is quite different from the Cessna (in a very good way!) but it can catch you offguard the 1st, 2nd, or 30th time when you realize you're way to high! At this point speed brakes allow you to avoid making the decision between circling (which most of us prefer to avoid) and nosing down with power reduction. 2) If you practice the technique and are proficient I would NOT recommend enriching on final. Dumping a bunch of fuel into the cylinders with low power settings causes them to cool very rapidly (the very thing you were trying to avoid through that 30 minute descent). The argument against this technique (which is a very legitamate point I might add) is that people forget to push the mixture in when excecuting a go-around. It is an individual choice and all depends on what you are comfortable with, but there's no question which is better for your engine. 3) As for the turbo/non-turbo debate, the fact is you live in a part of the country with a lot of geography and at some point you will want to fly over it. I live in Bakersfield and debated for some time between the K and J models. After flying the K for a couple months I can't believe I even considered the J. Unless you're planning to stick to the coast or budget dictates, the turbo is a no brainer (in California). Flying over much of the Sierras in a J would be a hair raising event not to mention a long, long climb to reach even moderately safe altitudes. Like the others have said, these are great airplanes and a blast to fly. There aren't many birds out there that can muster 180 kts on 9 gph.

Ok that makes sense. So if that's the case then all I need to do is flip the switch upside down and hopefully the cover plate can also be flipped.

I checked the switch today and it is installed correctly. It's a two lead style, and flipping the switch up closes the circuit, yet shuts the power off. I would think the relay must wired incorrectly (thoughts?). Does anybody happen to know where the relay is located and/or how to get to it? Thanks guys.

This is nothing major but it's an annoying quirk on my plane that I'd like to correct if possible. To turn on the avionics, the avionics master switch has to be thrown down instead of up like the master and the fuel pumps next door. It's not a backwards switch because the throw itself indicates that "up" should be the correct direction and the text is right side up. Could this be an issue with the relay wiring (such that it is on with an open switch circuit and off when the circuit is closed). Any other thoughts?

Thanks Clarence!

I was hoping I wouldn't have to post in this thread again but... Before I replaced the gasket today I called up a MSC down in LA to double check the bolt torque specs. We'd been using 70 in-lbs because that's what the A&P who originally repaired up in Nevada had looked up. Well it turns out he was way off which is probably the main reason it wasn't sealing correctly. TCM was showing 100-110 in-lbs. Anyways, I replaced the gasket and used the CRC copper coat on both sides and went to tighten the bolts... all of them went nice and tight except the lower right corner, which I couldn't get past 80 in-lbs without feeling the threads begin to strip. Has anyone here dealt with stripped (or nearly so) aluminum threading on the block? What kinds of strategies do you employ to avoid having to retap? As I mentioned before it's not completely stripped since I can get it to 80 in-lbs which is still fairly tight. I'm going to speak with a couple other local A&P's but I was hoping somebody here might have a good suggestion. Thanks in advance!

If you go JPI I'd highly recommend the 830. The price difference is very marginal (it's actually cheaper if you plan to get the FF option for the 730 believe it or not!) but the GUI is far superior. As an engineer, I really cannot understand how anybody can feel confident flying a plane without an engine monitor. I realize part of this is cost-related, but in a lot of cases these systems end up saving pilots a HUGE amount of money in the not so long run. Only a couple weeks after I'd had my 231 I was able to detect and quickly fix a plugged injector on #4. Without the engine monitor I would have been ignorant of the issue and probably burned up the cylinder. Saving 3 GPH running LOP I'm going to save almost $2,000/yr for every 100 hrs flown. Depending on how much you fly this pays off in 1-2 years. On top of that factor in pilot/passenger safety and an engine monitor becomes more of a necessity than an option.

Ok, thanks guys!

Yes the surface looks fine. Byron, is that the "Permatex Form-A-Gasket Aviation No. 3 Sealant Liquid"? I also found the Permatex Indian Head Gasket Shellac at Autozone. Which do you recommend? I see TCM recommends CRC 401504 Copper-Coat Liquid.

I replaced the cooler with a new one. Sorry for the confusion. The new leak I'm talking about is around the mating area. Somehow the gasket is not completely sealing.

Anybody else ever had trouble getting a cooler sealed properly? My oil cooler developed a crack in the core a couple weeks ago during a cross country so I replaced it with an A&P in northern Nevada. When I returned I noticed there was oil dripping (slowly) out of the cowling so I pulled it off to investigate. Washed clean and traced the leak to the lower right bolt on the new cooler. No leaks were coming through the outer sealing surface. After trying to plug the leak with gasket maker injected before rebolting (didn't work), we decided to pull the cooler off again and regasket (with new paper of course). I made damn sure we had a healthy coating of sealant on all surfaces before we put it back on but low and behold it is still leaking (albeit much slower than before) and also very slightly from the bolt above that as well. Could anybody share tips on getting a good seal on the gasket? The oil cooler is particularly tough since it's position makes it difficult to avoid accidentally dabbing the sealant by bumping the cooler around during install. We used high temp silicon as the sealant (any other recommendations).

Started to leak a week ago and I ended up replacing with a Weldon. Needs an OH on the seals but otherwise works fine. $100 plus shipping. PM me if interested.

Update: Based on logbook entries it appears to be the 4140-00-19A. What are the pros/cons of sticking with the Dukes setup or swapping out for a Weldon 18020-A?

So I went to grab the part number from the bad pump so I could order another and found that the number is located on the top side (unviewable without taking it out). Could somebody identify this pump? It's a '79 M20K. http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/36485-img-0303/ Thanks so much. Edit: I should add that I would assume based on comparisons with online pictures it's either the Dukes 4140-00-19A or 1499-00-19, not sure which one (based on my research. Plane's S/N is 25-0142). What about replacing with a Weldon?

Found a small piece of gasket partially blocking the injector inflow. No idea where it came from though. Cylinder still runs fairly hot but now it's responding to changes in throttle/mixture like it should. Should be fine once the cowling is back in place. How would you recommend checking for an exhaust leak?

I ran it up a couple other times earlier in the week without the cowling on. No problems then. M20Kid, I didn't explain that very well. The cylinder never stabilized it kept climbing, so I had to stop the runup. I did lean just to see what happened and it kept climbing.

I went to run up my 231 today after fixing a small oil leak in one of the oil cooler bolts (cowling off). After a couple minutes at 2000 rpm, I notice cylinder 4 is getting unusually hot (coming up on 380 which is my personal threshold) and I'm at full rich. All of the other cylinders are stabilized between 300-330 (normal). I pull the throttle back until the engine is at 1200 rpm, and while all of the other cylinders start cooling down number 4 continues to climb. It wouldn't start cooling until I had the engine below 1000 rpm. I ran it up three days ago to find the leak for about 10 minutes with no issues whatsoever. Here are a couple of other observations: 1) The cylinder was replaced 30 hrs ago 2) I performed a mag check and EGT's rose in both cases (mags good) 3) EGT's overall seemed a little higher on cylinder 4 but I'm usually in normalized mode for the runup and don't often look at absolutes so I'm not sure if that's an anomoly 4) I switched the probes for 2 and 4 and confirmed it's not the sensor (still saw the overheating on the probe in #4) 5) I noticed the edge of the outermost cooling fin on the cylinder is broken off (pic below) and the fins behind it are bent inward as if something hit them. I'm not sure how that happened (seriously I can't figure out how unless somebody hit it with a screwdriver or something. it's protected by the exhaust manifold. The cylinder is only a month old, but perhaps it happened some other time and I hadn't noticed it until today. However, I don't think this should have a significant impact on cooling or the prob readings. http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/36483-/ All of the evidence at this point suggests a plugged injector, but I just had GAMI's installed about 30 hrs ago and I've flown a couple times a week since. Tomorrow I'm going to pull the injector with my mechanic and check it out, but I'm wondering if anybody has any other thoughts before we start. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

That's great advice. Does it matter what position the throttle is in? Also, in what other circumstances would you normally use the boost pumps? I thought they were typically only used in emergency situations (main pump out, after switching tanks following accidental exhaustion, etc.).

Nvm spoke with the service center down in LA and they recommended an overhauled unit + core.

Thanks! Do you know if the seals can be overhauled or if an entirely new pump is necessary?

I use the low boost pump before hot starts to force out evaporated fuel in the lines. Yesterday I had a mechanic standing outside and he noticed when the low boost pump was turned on fuel started coming out of a drain located a couple inches fore of the gascolator drain. He told me he thought it was the boost pump drain and indicated the pump was going bad. Can anybody confirm this statement? Repair is $1000 plus labor so I want to make sure this is the issue. Thanks in advance!