Crawfish

I'd double this take. I don't see any reason to tear an engine down due to oil consumption within parameters or even replacing the cylinders (assuming the blow by isn't causing excessive crank case pressure.) Now running low oil pressure gives me pause like it seems to have to you. 50PSI I wouldn't think would be low enough to cause spun bearings but I'd reach out to savvy for their advice. TCM engines min oil pressure is well below that number. I haven't flown behind a Lycoming in 10 years so my memory on the numbers for it are failing me. Here's a good video reviewing oil consumption.

@NickM20F Just as a starting point when LOP % power is determined by fuel flow. I believe for your engine the calculation is GPH*14.8= horsepower. While LOP you throw out the book Book calculations based off of MP/RPM. So for your flights 8.5*14.8=125.8 HP or 63% power. 10*14.8= 148HP or 74% power that would explain your difference in TAS. As long as your CHT + oil temp are in an acceptable range either one of these power settings is fine. Although at the 74% power you might want to be a little further lean of then 5 degrees. an often talked about operating procedure for LOP is WOTLOP, meaning Wide open throttle Lean of peak. How to do this is get to your TOC leave the throttle full forward. Set RPM where you want it and pull the mixture back to your desired power. (Quick caveat, Your MP has to be above what would give you the desired LOP power setting meaning if the book says you need 25"MP at 2400RPM to achieve 74% power and you are only making 24"MP & 2400RPM pulling the mixture back to 10GPH will have you slightly ROP) I've attached a video that explains this pretty well. There are more indepth videos done by Mike Busch but this is a great starting point.

We wired up their light, MX said it was an easy install. Our battery was in need of replacing so honestly it was an very affordable upgrade. I don’t know a cheaper way to gain 25# of useful load.

It was right at 4 hours all in. Pretty efficient work.

Just finished up installing our EarthX battery, so far I've seen charge rates after start in the range of 7-10 amps. With the 10 amps being after the 10 amps being after a hot start. From what I've seen so far I have no concerns about it destroying my charging system.

We just got past TBO on our 231; 1840 now, I've had it the last 400 hours before our ownership it was a completely stock LB1 with stock gauges to boot. I spoke with the previous owner about his operation of the plane, it didn't sound as he took particular care of the engine. Middle to mid-upper range of the stock CHT gauge and oil temp in the middle were his parameters but flew it about 250-300 hours a year in his ownership. Since we've owned it added an EIS, an intercooler, and gami's to make operations much easier. (below 380 CHT oil below 190.) With that being said the engine is running strong. A cylinder did need replaced due to blow by, (this was identified during prebuy) but that's been all it needed. I think that it will continue to provide us with service for years to come based monitoring the engine closely with Borescope, Oil analysis, cutting the filter open etc.

Okay! I haven’t had any issues with my autopilot so I am of no help there sorry! If I remember correctly outside of the upgrade GI275 fixing all the gremlins was roughly 10K. A good chunk of that was I knew CDI with GS the backup was in repairable. Had the same issue with our EIS 275 not showing fuel to destination. We have a GMA 24 and they only have some many inputs available for external information. So if you already used them all that could be why you don’t have OAT, GPS, fuel level, battery volts or amps. Etc. but I doubt it because with that many things missing I don’t know what all would be filling the available slots. I imagine to get all those things set up it would be 15 hours of labor at whatever your local avionics shop rate would be. The garmin OAT probe is on the expensive side of the OAT probes on the market. Having said that getting everything working has been great I love the GI 275. Not having DME on the GNS430 I think is fairly standard as it uses GPS distance instead of slant range like a DME would.

That’s was the exact situation I found myself in with our 231. I’ll tell you what my thought process was. Got quotes for small upgrades (dual GI 275’s and fixing some issues we had with screens dying, secondary nav dead) vs full panel upgrades. Primarily I wanted everything talking with each other, for ease of use and increased reliability. Secondary my plane was weighed 5 years ago, the plane weighed about 70# more the calculated W&B. And hopefully in removing everything that’s been left in it over the years plus the new avionics, removal of vacuum system, and new autopilot. Will help us steal some of that back. Those were the main reasons We decided to go with the full avionics update. There was a large price difference between the two options think in the neighborhood of 35K.

Last time I bought rotocoils it was fairly inexpensive if I’m remembering correctly in the range of 35$.

Prior to our ownership 2 cylinders were replaced due to low compression. Logs didn’t have specifics on why they had low compression. The one we replaced was low compression more specifically past the rings we tried using Mike Busch’s ring flush procedure but it didn’t help. The amount of blow by was outside the tolerances allowed by what the continental crank case pressure test said was acceptable. So we replaced the cylinder with an overhauled one. (We had purchased an extra cylinder when we bought the plane. Still coming down off covid parts delay at the time, there were several months lead time and we figured we would need one eventually and figured it was a cheap way to insure against long periods of downtime.)

Did they offer how much the buisness is selling for

Thank you very much. We’re on effectively the same program plus borescopes at oil changes.

Negative, just went through annual and had them inspect it they said it looked good.

In the time I’ve owned it 400ish hours. We’ve replaced one cylinder (the #4) before I owned it logs show #3 and #5 have been replaced. I don’t mind replacing cylinders, in my mind they’re a replaceable part on our engines.

Curious what the longest someone has taken their TSIO 360 too. Currently mine has 1835 hours, with no plans of overhaul until the engine tells us we need it. Part of that comes with lots of oil analysis, borescopes, full engine monitor to monitor temperatures, properly preheating the engine etc. I’m wondering why others got to when venturing beyond TBO and what eventually brought them to overhaul? Thanks all! Austin

In terms of redundancy from my experience, when I’ve had a GPS fail it’s either been jamming or both GPS have failed (or their controlling subsystem.) So in my personal plane I don’t feel the need for a second GPS. But a second ground based nav is nice in that case. VOR to VOR navigation (which I’ve had to do in the aforementioned FMS failure in a jet) is a requirement in my mind for when you have to switch nav sources halfway through a victor airway. Or think VOR to an ILS (an arc then the approach which doesn’t happen super often but DOES happen) which if you’re experiencing equipment failure you could probably get out of having to do…. But not a guarantee dual ground based nav is required IMO. Another thing to think of is if your nav based is controlled through the GPS controller (think garmin 430/530 + 650/750) if the controller itself fails you’re losing two sources of nav at once.

The older PA46 has the best useful loads outta the lineup. Which is twofold benefit they have continentals that are easier to run LOP so you need less fuel for the mission and you already started with a better useful load.

I'd tend to agree I believe during training use of autopilot should be very limited. I often tell my students it is "inop" as when SHTF I expect my students to be able to fly the plane, not have the plane fly them. It's use in primary training I find to be a crutch and not a tool to propel them forward. That being said I find it to be a great tool once you are proficient at instrument flying. In terms of actual instruments learning on a six pack is great, it will only make you better once you have glass. I would recommend a solid GPS for now. (430 is fine for that you can practice ILS for precision approaches.) A key upgrade for efficiency would be a Flight stream 210 if you are going to keep it to me. Makes inputting flight plans and changes 10X faster. Once you're out actually flying you'll have enough time to know what you actually want. I fly my plane in pretty bad weather so for me personally that means WAAS, and multiple ILS for redundancy. I've put 400ish hours on my mooney with standard 6 pack, extra CDI with Glideslope, GTN650 and KFC200. With that I've flown to mins several times and find it very capable. We are moving to glass this year but that is very much a luxury and not a necessity. That being said I also fly for a living so I get to stay proficient by virtue of how often I fly in weather.

This is who I've used before, https://www.aircraftmagnetoservice.net/ good experience all around. Believe its in Montana, but if you're shipping it either way location wouldn't be a driving force to me.

I think we all really appreciate the time, effort, and money everyone at EarthX has put in to bring new technology to our aging fleet. And the time you've take to help improve our understanding through this forum. Not many companies take the time to help the consumer in that way. Thanks!

Im going for the one two combo of EarthX and full new avionics. Hoping to get useful load into the mid 900# range on my M20K. (roughly a 50# increase)

Thanks!

@EarthX Inc Is there a way to legally install two batteries in parallel? just bought the battery STC kit for my M20K and so excited for the increase in useful load.

I was looking at controller and noticed this 231 (rocket) has an extended baggage section. Does anyone know how this was done. Or what STC was used to accomplish this? thank you all and merry Christmas!

Same, I very rarely do a flight less than 200NM. there have been quite a few flights now that I’ve taken my M20K on a 5 hour leg. What an amazing traveling machine.