dzeleski

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.

I don’t have any specifics for airplane engines but I can give some for autos. 10 degrees of IAT generally equals about 1% of HP. This isn’t a perfect scale but it’s generally close enough. Engines running a turbo and no intercooler I’ve typically seen run well over 200 degrees and some even more then 300, while that same setup with an intercooler should be around 100 degrees under the same conditions. Most ECUs/tunes will pull timing above 130 or so unless a record is trying to be broken. I don’t know what the charge temps look like on these engines but considering they run at fairly high power settings I’m going to guess that an intercooler is going to make a fairly decent impact in power.

Completely understand. If an owner told me "I self insure, it flies regularly" its no problem. If an owner told me "I stopping flying the airplane and let the insurance lapse, or I ran out of money so I stopped insuring it" I would start to have significant concerns about buying a project rather then a flying airplane. The fact that buying discussions got this far before the owner just casually says "oh btw its not insured" is alarming, to me at least. What else isnt being disclosed? At this point it might be easier just to have an A&P inspect on site and then make a buying decision from that, get insurance for the full year, get a ferry permit, and fly it away if its even in a state where it can fly away.

Parker is 100% the person to ask but I would be asking many questions around why the airplane is not insured. To me thats quite a large red flag.