joemoriss

I just went through something similar this past summer prior to annual. I had two oil analyses come back with elevated iron and aluminum, with some flecks of metal picked up in the screen (I had the original screen at the time not a filter). With aluminum in the mix, I was pretty sure it was a piston pin plug which is apparently a fairly common issue. I got great advice from the very helpful Lycoming tech support line, and as others have said they did not recommend jumping to replacing parts or pulling a cylinder. I did send the metal for analysis and then discussed the results with Lycoming again, confirming my hypothesis that the aluminum could have come from the piston pin plug. Once in the ship, my mechanic scoped all the cylinders and we found the telltale "skid mark" pattern from a bad He was 50/50 on whether or not we needed to pull the cylinder right away, we agreed in the end to pull it while in annual and send for repair. The pin was visibly worn and the hole was slightly wallowed. The cylinder shop was fortunately able to repair the cylinder and piston for a very reasonable price, which made me happy we did the work now before it got worse. My next oil analysis was much better, with out the dreaded phone call from Blackstone that they do when your results spike. With 2.5 years of Mooney ownership under my belt I'm finally getting into the groove of being a maintenance manager. We also put in a proper oil filter while the plane was down.

I'd take one. The mechanic who did my last 200hr inspection warned me that though I passed this time, it was getting closer to wearing past tolerance.

Any chance you have the adapter that attached from the engine to the oil filter? I'm looking to upgrade my screen to a filter.

Yes, Aeromotos is a little old school but I had my Weldon pump there earlier this year. Cheap and very fast overhaul, pump works great (stopped making strange noises and leaking here and there)

While we are on the subject of oil leaks, does anyone have any tips for getting the rubber oil drain hoses on right? I like to do my own oil changes and my mechanic was nice enough to teach me. Recently I've noticed a small amount of oil dripping out (about a teaspoon or less) but pretty much only after the plane has cooled down. I also found oil seeping out of the rubber drain hoses. My mechanic and I agreed to defer to annual based on the quantity, I never lost an excessive amount in flight. Well, annual came and went, he replaced the hoses, and they still leak! Any tips on how to get this done right? I am going to ask him if he can have another look. And yes I am pretty certain this is where the leak is, I reached in the oil door today, ran my hand along the drain tube and came up with some clean oil. I saw a post where our experimental friends use a different style of clamp, unfortunately I don't think we can do that.

I'm about to relocate to the Cincinnati area as well. Does anyone have any connections with someone with hanger availability? I think I've gotten on lists at all the nearby airports but maybe someone on this forum knows the area better than I do who doesn't live there yet. I have a Mooney M20E and am looking forward to arriving in June!

Thank you for the guidance, I agree but a waas gps is not yet in the budget.

Oh I didn't know that, thanks! That will save me the trouble of a failed steam gauge in the future.

Hello fellow Mooniacs, I'm relatively new to the community having got my beautiful 1965 M20E this summer to do my instrument rating in and to fly fast. It came with an old but certified IFR panel and I was hoping to not spend a huge amount of money right now to upgrade anything as I haven't even gotten to first annual with it yet, which may reveal some expensive surprises. Anyway, I have an old Narco DGO-10 that has a weird issue where sometimes while turning the course needle, the mechanism will "grab" the compass card as well and rotate both together, which is very annoying. I doubt there is any avionics shop these days willing to fix it for cheap, so I figure I have a few options. 1. Buy a used and hopefully good DGO-10 on eBay for $300 and do a direct swap. 2. Dual G5s, quoted $11k all in. Eventually I'll buy an IFR certified GPS but that's not right now. Has anyone found an easy way to "unstick" a sticky HSI?