dzeleski

Nonsense. We have valve spring testers for this exact reason. Springs that are not healthy will absolutely show their signs. Bad springs will show up as an out of family curve. https://www.performancetrends.com/Valve_Spring_Tester.htm One common cause of broken valves in engines that run methanol and collect water in the oil. If the engine isn’t flushed or ran up to temp with pump gas rust can start to form on the springs and that little bit of rust can cause a fracture point for a crack to form. This is really common in drag racing applications. For an engine shop to say there is no way to NDT a valve is insane. So they are just slapping used or even new valves into an engine and hoping the seat pressures and heights are correct? That’s a great way to get valve float, piston to valve contact, valve seat recession, valve failure, or valve spring failure.

https://www.boldmethod.com/blog/2013/11/aircraft-oil-mineral-ashless-dispersant-synthetic/ Shell Oil tested all-synthetic oils in aircraft engines, and what they found wasn't good. At 600 to 900 hours, the engines began to burn more oil and lost compression. "When the engines were disassembled, we found that the piston rings were covered with a gray tacky substance that was primarily made up of the lead by-products of combustion." https://generalaviationnews.com/2005/03/11/synthetic-oil-is-it-right-for-your-plane/ Back in the 1960s, Shell ran several flight evaluations of oil formulated with all-PAO base oil. The oil performed very well except in large engines, (turbocharged 520s and 540s). In some of these engines, the oil failed to absorb the lead salts from the combustion process. This resulted in gray sludge buildup in the ring belt and props. Shell then changed to a semi-synthetic containing only 50% synthetic base oil and the rest normal mineral oil to alleviate the problem. There are plenty of synthetic oils but most companies are using blends today. Amsoil, redline, motul are all using group 4 or group 5 oils. Our airplane oils are clogged up with lead by products which is the primary reason we need to replace it so often.

I've refrained from commenting up until this point... The fact that this company thinks "testing" painted services by throwing a few panels into aluminum pans as a sufficient test and then even worse declares that there are no adverse effects to the paint from that test is pretty alarming to me. The complete lack of ownership of the problem is even more concerning. The second part of the testing video done by mluvara is enough for me to never put this fuel into my airplane under any circumstances. There is a clear chemistry issue here and the responses from said company are not positive. The fact that these orings are swelling so bad that you cannot re assemble these components is a real issue. We know that many of same solvents that attack paint also attack our fuel sealant. When this fuel sloshes around in our tank it is very possible that it is leaving behind whatever the same compound is that is attacking these painted surfaces. Seeing that reddit post with the push rod is seriously worrying. I would love to see someone test samples of CS3204, CS3600, and CS3330, both submerged and with splashes of fuel since that is the conditions our tanks regularly see. If I had easy access to the fuel I would try it myself considering I have left over of all 3 sitting in my hangar about to expire. I very much want an unleaded fuel, lead is not good for us and its terrible for our engines. I would love to be able to use synthetic oil and extend our change intervals as well as have an engine that runs cleaner. But the results of what is happening in the wild with this fuel is not acceptable. Hopefully this is a chemistry problem that can be resolved, but that requires ownership and acknowledgement of the problem to begin with. Im looking forward to what VP and Swift come up with, more specifically VP considering I have ran hundreds of gallons of their various race fuels over the years. Thats my .02 on this situation. TL;DR: This fuel will never go inside my airplane as its chemistry presently sits.

You could've tagged me That photo is of my airplane unfortunately and the leak it caused actually caused me to declare an emergency over the North Shore of Long Island headed to CT, the fuel leak puddled in the belly pan and caused a fuel smell that was quite alarming. I got the fire truck parade and a date with the FAA. Going through my logs there have been at least 5 or 6 different shops that have "fixed" leaks. Its clearly quite critical that you have someone that knows how to do this properly. Byron did a great job fixing the mess that was there. I am impatiently waiting for my reseal appointment.

The waitlist is well over a year now. Almost 2 years. I have an appointment for Jan of 2026, I called February of 2024. I was also told it would cost $9,000 for a 64 gallon J.

They are really easy to not install correctly and pinch them causing an induction leak. If the engine runs well at higher power settings but idle is bad I would inspect those gaskets.

Could also very well be the intake gaskets leaking. Does it pop and bang during landing as well? Since it’s so cold those gaskets on the head or the intake could just be super brittle, mine were falling apart. Heres what my IO360 sounded like when the gaskets were shot: Check page six here for the induction leak test: https://www.savvyaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/articles_eaa/EAA_2012-01_flight-test-profiles.pdf

There are a few chats about this but this was a popular one. This one is also good

At this point nearly every Mooney produced has had either bladders installed or a reseal. You do not want to search for M20Ks that have never been resealed as thats not actually a good thing. I believe the last K was made in 1998, even that sealant is +20 years old at this point. Mooneys leaking is considered a part of ownership the service manual spells out to what degree its ok or not. Patches are common as well. https://www.weepnomorellc.com/faq.html

As said already this is a fairly urgent situation. I would be flying to a shop that is willing to ream the valve guide without pulling a cylinder (using the rope trick) ASAP. The more you fly it the higher the risk goes. An EGT spike on a single magneto is also completely normal and something those of us with an engine monitor actually look for as it means you have a healthy check. I have also had cases after a long hot XC that a fuel line out of the spider is vapor locked more then the others and that cylinder takes a second to get fuel compared to the others. This feels different however because its only on initial start and then the cylinder comes online and stays online. In the case of a stuck valve it will come and go as the dissimilar metals expand at different rates and interfere randomly. Edit: AirMods is near by to you (N87). That's who does my work and who did my valve guide reaming. Dave knows how to do the rope trick to keep this repair as non invasive as possible. Here are a couple videos of my stuck valves that have occurred:

Depending on access.... I have had a lot of luck using a torch or heat gun depending on the surface sensitivity, and then ice or dry ice on the fitting itself. If the fitting is pointed down you can super cool some water by filling a cup with ice, put a tablespoon of salt in and then fill the rest with water and stir it up. Then just put the cup on the fitting. Keep heating the outside surface while you keep the fitting cold and then quickly try and remove the fitting with a good tool that has a good grip on the fitting. Dry ice is easier to get into strange places though because its not constantly making everything wet.

If you use the disconnect button it also disables the Yaw damp. If you press the AP button then it stays engaged. It also remembers the way it was configured last so I actually never touch the YD button, it’s always on if the AP is engaged. Personally I wouldn’t go without it. In turbulence it makes a big difference for passenger comfort.

SIM20-43 (https://mooney.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/SIM20-43.pdf) was not followed for that install just as an FYI. The T should be higher up, that should help prevent water going down the actual static line and collecting in the belly.

I actually have a lot of issues with water getting in my static line. My airplane is in a hangar but I fly in weather fairly often. The lines are all ran correctly including the SB the adds the hoop up high. I first notice problems with my AP, it will start to hunt ever so slightly in ALT mode, once that starts to happen I know I need to drain the static lines. But its fairly random on how or when it needs to be done. At this point me and my mechanic think it has something to do with hot and cold cycles forming condensation that eventually builds up. What I do to drain the system is use a small jack and a piece of wood with a paper towel in between the wood and the button for the drain. I very gently jack until the button is pressed and I leave it like that for 20-30 minutes (do not get in the airplane when its like this, so you dont put extra pressure on the button). The paper towel seems to help wick the water out faster then without it and I dont need to sit there holding the button for ages.

Sigh, I have a 0 time engine that was delivered 1/23/2014. I don’t have any of the matching part numbers but I might have to give Triad a call. I always cut the filter open and send out the oil for testing. It’s never reported any brass.