KSMooniac

I don't think cowl vibration would have anything to do with loading or climb power. You might remove the top piece and check for cracks...it could be that you now have one and the resulting loss of stiffness is leading to more deflection than you remember. You also might check the condition/engagement of the baffle seals on the cowl before you remove it, too.

I'm another recent convert to Phillips XC + Camguard. Aviation Consumer recommends this combo as well.

As far as I know Custom has a great reputation, and case repairs are indeed quite common. One could/should expect it to be good for another 4000 hours IMO.

On your next contact, please ask them if there will be any price reductions in the US due to the falling Euro. I'm interested in one of these but plan to wait until at least OSH, and later perhaps if the Euro continues to fall.

Excellent! Good luck with the continued work.

I think it was mentioned earlier or on another thread, but I'll repeat it just in case...a big variable portion of a panel re-org or update is related to the wiring and plumbing for all of the instruments. There may or may not be enough "slack" to move things where you might want them, and if not, then you have a significant amount of labor to re-wire or re-plumb as necessary.

The fuel totalizer is independent of a GPS or other nav device, but it will just tell you fuel flow, gallons used/remaining, etc. If you do connect one to a GPS, then it can also tell you fuel required to the next waypoint or perhaps destination, do some extra flight planning, etc. It is definitely nice to have both!

Do you already have an engine monitor? If not, I would say that is much more valuable than a fuel totalizer. Better yet is a combo unit that includes FF. Just a thought in case you don't have a monitor...

that was me above, not Mcstealth...

Gary is correct! In my case, I was looking for exactly the plane you seem to have found (except for the bladders ). I wanted an E or F due to budget, but with a standard 6-pack panel, IFR GPS, speed mods, a functional autopilot, and of course reasonable engine/airframe hours and cosmetics that were at least tolerable. I initially thought I'd be in the 60-80k range, but my J appeared locally at 99k and had all that of course and more...the only downside was leaky tanks and 1400 SMOH engine. I stretched to get it b/c that was an excellent price back in early 2007, and had to get a longer-term loan, but I'm happy I did it in the end. It was hard to find most of the wish-list items on the pre-J planes because the folks that typically put that much into the plane keep them until they go out the door toes-up. If you end up doing the engine to your specs, there is a very good chance you won't have to worry about it during your ownership period unless you keep it for a very long time. You've got all of the expensive mods and you would be effectively buying them at 50 cents on the dollar, vs. getting a cheaper plane and modifying it over time on your nickel, paying full-price of course. You'll also have the hassle of down-time when you could otherwise be actually using the plane! I've concluded it is better to pay more upfront for a very good example than it is to get a fixer-upper at a lower price, unless you really really enjoy the tinkering aspect more than the flying aspect of ownership.

Jason, been busy as usual. I just finished the low-profile gear door mod + brake reversal on my plane and am headed to TX this weekend for fun and then a trip to Maxwell's on Monday to address my twisted ailerons/rigging. After that, back to the paint shop for warranty work, so I may call on you for some ferry help if you're interested! I definitely want to do some formation work in preparation for my first Caravan, so having you around would be most excellent. I want to work through my power settings for the Caravan configuration. I'm composing an email right now for this class and will cc you.

Gary, you forgot potential weight savings too if you can ditch a legacy King HSI system. Even more if you ditch the vacuum system too.

Jason, I could attend 2 Oct but not 16 Oct. I'll spread the word to other Mooney owners & mechanics that I know too. Thanks!

Thinking some more, if your purchase agreement put airworthiness squawks on the seller, then he should be on the hook for R&R of the engine, teardown, repair or replacement of the case, inspection of the rest of the components, esp. crank and cam, and reassembly. That would return the plane to airworthy status with 1400 SMOH as it was before the crack was discovered and presumably ready to sell (again). The seller may or may not want to do that, but the reality is he won't be able to sell as-is unless discounting appropriately. Having said all that, the extra cost to get to a full overhaul status from what I described above is only cylinder overhaul (or replacement), and cam/cranks/accessory renewal as needed or desired. Some of those might not pass inspection either and be subject to being repaired by the seller.

dp

Technically, if the cylinders/pistons still measured within specs when taken apart, I think they can be called overhauled but I'm certainly not an expert. You could browse thru the Lycoming overhaul manual to learn more. Dealing with the engine will ultimately be easier than trying to duplicate mods, especially the 201 w/s, which is a very significant improvement. The WAAS upgrade will cost $3k plus installation today, too, so factor that into the equation. If it were me, I'd rather put that money into the engine work (perhaps split with the seller?) to your specs instead of into the additional mods, WAAS upgrade, etc. and taking the crapshoot with a different engine, especially if you paid more for the plane b/c it had less time on the engine. It's a tough call!

I think Lycoming is running a special for a reman at an overhaul price, but I'm sure it will still be more than a quality field overhaul. But, you should get the new roller tappet improvements, which is likely a good thing if you're willing to spend the money. Air Power (Van Bortel) used to have the best prices on Lycoming factory engines but I don't know if that is still true since I haven't been in the market. <knocking on wood> I'm not sold on the "big name" shops for overhauls, but they're probably not any worse than a local shop with a good reputation that you can find by asking around and likely save some serious money. These engines aren't super-mysterious, and I think many places can do a quality overhaul and even go the extra mile like paying special attention to the balancing of components or getting everything back to new limits. I'd value proximity to my home base (in case of problems) and reputation over a big name. You could also check with Zephyr engines from the AOPA forum...he seems quite helpful.

I think you've already talked yourself into it! Seriously though, the cost of a new indicator and GPSS module are non-trivial, and today those funds are probably better applied to an Aspen instead. GPSS + 430W + STEC30 is a great combo for single-pilot IFR. If budget is big, I'd opt for the 430W, Aspen, SL30 in that order of priority. You could also consider adding an electric+battery AI as a backup, and ditch the vacuum system entirely if you go with an Aspen. That will avoid future expenses replacing vacuum pumps and overhauling vacuum gyros as well as virtually eliminating concerns with AI failure. Perhaps skip the SL30 and keep the KX155 and spend that money on the electric AI? Dual GPS is nice (I have 530W/430W) but realistically overkill IMO if you have a battery powered portable backup. I'd rather have a 530W over a 430W so that I can see more data, but if you have a portable harnessed to the 430W you can configure the display pretty well to get all of the important data. It sounds like you realize you won't get 100% value out of the upgrades, but if your ownership horizon is pretty long, then you simply enjoy the extra utility and reliability. A 430W makes instrument flying much, much easier and thus safer IMO.

Oh yeah, great story about Parker! Not surprising at all, too.

Dave, while that is a big squawk, I wouldn't necessarily call it a show stopper. Engine cases crack through no fault of the owner/operator, unfortunately. That is just the nature of castings sometimes. The rest of the plane does sound very, very nice (except for the bladders ) with lots of mods that would cost a fortune to duplicate. A cracked case isn't really airframe damage. They can be repaired successfully (look up Divco in Tulsa) or the case can be replaced without spending a ton of money on a reman. Pending how many hours are on the engine and who did the rebuild/reman, I would explore a case repair or replacement. I do not put a premium on a factory-anything anymore in light of all the modern cost-savings steps that have led to one AD after another. If the rest of the components have a good history and pass inspection, then I would be very inclined to keep using them. If the engine is say 1600+ SMOH, then a full overhaul or swap might be in order. There aren't a lot of pre-J planes on the market loaded with the panel and mods you describe, so think hard! An engine is perhaps the easiest of the "major" cost items to deal with, so if the rest of the plane checks out I would find a way to make it work.

Alan and other K owners....you might consider the latest MT prop, especially if you have a metal 3-blade installed currently. The complete kit with spinner weighs in around 46 lbs, vs 49 + spinner for 2-blade McCauleys like mine, or ~75 for the 3-bladers. Losing all that weight on the nose will help tremendously with forward CG limits and useful load since you can also remove some of the aft ballast.

Good luck! Enjoy the process/learning, and try not to get emotionally involved just yet.

1020 lbs on my '77 M20J with a 2740 gross weight. I sure wish I was eligible for the 2900 lb gross!

Parker, you're gonna love that treatment! AeroComfort did mine last year, and made some sheepskin covers for my front seats too...both are tremendous improvements. I've been thinking about replacing my seat rollers too to "firm up" my seat connections, so please share your experience with that work when it is done.

Jolie, touch and goes in a Mooney are more of a handful than many other planes because of the relatively large trim changes between the landing attitude and takeoff attitude. If one has electric trim (I don't) and gets on it right after touchdown, then it isn't as huge of a deal as it is with manual trim. If one forgets to re-trim before taking off again, well, then you have a huge problem to address in a high workload situation. I've only done a handful of touch and goes in my plane, and only on long runways where I have time to roll and re-trim before powering up.