garytex

Wanted to check in with u and see how things were going. Annual ok? A couple things occurred to me as I read the thread. U might consider spraying ( corrosion proofing ) the plane to exorcise any salt that might be lurking. Lots of ways to remember the gear, my main one is use airspeed. I try to be down to gear speed about downwind, and as soon as I get there, I throw out the gear. I sometimes will do a little climb, maybe throw in a little slip to dump speed. Then gumps at your usual spot , then make a final gear check part of your on final habit. Another check is if the plane is even harder to slow down than normal. Especially if you have old steam gauge instruments, get really familiar with your plane before starting IFR. New pilots need to be through their first scare. And the first scare is usually weather. Life has gotten pretty good, new plane, nice dog. Too good to piss away on the weather. :-) Pm me if you want to chat, I have an F and really like it Gary

Junkyard?

Lood knows how to turn a phrase. I have always enjoyed felt runout price on planes with high time engines wasn't low enough to pay for overhaul, so I would price as runout and see. Sorry your engine has bit you.

That's really interesting, and for me kind of counterintuitive. I don't think I want to run 2700, just because I don't want the tach clicking over that fast. But it's sure food for thought. And 7 kn is absolutely not chicken feed

I'm waiting for your results with bated breath :-)

Search the site a bit, there were descriptions of alt source LED lights in a post about a year ago

Yes baggage door is where I've seen them cut before.

May have been that the airplane was that a location without a mechanic and needed an overhaul, or maybe just moved. You can drill out the rivets at that line, turn it sideways on a flatbed trailer.

Man, they got away cheap!

There are some real benefits to buying local.

I have used the 3-M on some really old dried up adhesive, and it worked better than some other things I had tried, Laquer thinner, acetone, 100LL, Mineral spirits. It smelled like it might have some pretty rough solvents, and I was a little nervous of it but it worked fine and didn't lift an automotive enamel finish. That bit about "test an inconspicuous location first", I never do that, but after a whiff of that stuff, I did test first.

I think it's great that you are going to undertake this project.

A super handy tool that I try to have in every vehicle beyond multi screwdriver and pliers is the small sized vice-grip. In a pinch it will supplant for many wrenches, is small light and cheap, and has saved my bacon several times.

"If you are shredding bearings there is going to be heaps of metal in the oil filter. " You know there wasn't anything that we could see when we had the jugs off. Additionally, as mentioned there wasn't much in the filter after the first 6 hrs on the jugs. I haven't had the filter open since. The engine didn't seem to get tight till the last 2 of the 6 hrs, and hasn't been run 30 min since then. It seems to be losing endplay with time. I do not have a good explanation/understanding of what's going on. Byron, the only way to get rollers is to buy a new 390, right? Either that or get really creative at the National Airplane Parts Association store, and put a big X on your data plate. I don't see that as in the cards. But I'm still wondering what to do about the cam.

Yes, KS, the Centrilube might be a pretty good idea. I knew about that but forgot about it which is of course shows the benefits of having multiple memories floating around to tap into. I think the jury is still out as to the true proximate cause of cam failure, and I'm not sure additional lubrication when running would help if the true proximate cause is corrosion or bad metallurgy. Ultimately it's probably a combination of factors. I'll take a look at the centrilube guys stuff and prices. Thanks.

If you want you can skip the mental torture description below and cut straight to the chase, I'm looking for advise on what to do about my cam and lifters during an upcoming overhaul. IO 360 A1A. How about it fellows, what do you think would be best, and why? I have had good luck with AEA in Dallas before on ferrous, and that is my first inclination, just OH the existing cam and lifters, but I'm wondering. This is one of those tales about what happens when your engine talks. Mine was burning 1 qt in 4 hrs, not bad, but had been burning 2 then later 3 in 50. The quickening burn rate had kind of snuck up on me over the summer. I had been doing long WOT 2700 rpm target EGT climbs to cooler altitude, and thought that might be where the extra oil had been going. I also noticed one little transient change in vibration for maybe 3 seconds in cruise, not much, barely noticeable. My mechanic checked compression, borescoped, found nothing. Last few oil analysis from Blackstone showed slightly high iron, aluminum, nickel. I flew it some more, still burning oil. Two of the cylinders remained from a field limits overhaul about 10 years previously (overhauled jugs) and had 1400 hrs on them. Two are recent (400 hrs) overhauled jugs from Custom Airmotive, nickeled at that chromer in Tulsa to replace one that had cracked, one with a burned valve almost immediately after I had bought the airplane. I flew a few more hours, and something wasn't right. Still burning 1 qt in 4. I had been wanting to do the wobble test (valve stem to valve guide clearance) for a while, so my mechanic did that. One of the old jugs had 40 thousandths, the other 25. The two new ones were fine. With the spring off you could feel the slop in the valve. So, ordered two new Lycoming cylinder kits from J and J airparts, a cylinder overhauler in Pleasanton, TX thats been around forever. There was a little delay as we got the right wrist pins that matched the other side, but all good. Now for the break in. On take off, engine only turned up to 2500, but I hadn't done a very long warm up-run up, and sometimes with cold oil she only turns 2600, so no big deal. I circled up to 5000 above the field, WOT, full rich, now up to 2600. The replaced Cyls. were 2 and 4, 2 is the front, 4 the back both on the left (pilot) side. 2 was running hot, 435df, but 4, the rear cyl. was cool at about 375, and cyl temp on it fell about 25 df in the first 10 minutes. I went about my business and flew another 3 hours. 4-5000 feet, wot, full rich, 2600 rpm. Man, #2 just didn't want to break in, hot hot hot. Always over 420, the rest of the cyls. 350-375. I noticed that the engine seemed tight after shutdown. The prop would stop quickly on shutdown. Pulling the prop through took more effort than normal. But I had overhauled engines before, and they were all a little tight at first. I flew another two 1.5 hr legs, and on the last part of the last leg, I climbed to 8500, then descended at 20", and about 250 fpm and finally got the #2 cut down to 395df. The other jugs were all around 300-320. Something wasn't right. Shut down, got gas, and the starter (a newish NL starter with almost new Concord glass mat battery) barely got the 6 or so blades that my hot start always takes. After shutdown at parking, I tried the prop. With 3 fingertips on the backside of the prop, I could barely turn the prop. With almost nothing to gauge it by I estimated more than 15 lbs of pressure, less than 25 to move the prop with the engine hot. This required some puzzling. Next morning, cold engine, engined pulled through with normal pressure, however it took almost all my effort fore and aft on the prop to feel the clunk of the prop hitting the end of the crank endplay. The obvious smoking gun was a cylinder, but I've been around the block a time or two with recalcitrant motors, trapped offshore, trapped out in the middle of the ranch, and was suspicious. The painful lesson has been: If you are really hosed, there is usually more than one thing wrong, and you are sometimes wrong about or unaware of what the second (or even first) problems is. The obverse of that is, in the specific case: I can probably get the 30 miles to the mechanic if it's just the jug, but if a thrust bearing is stressed, or one of the main bearings has spun a bit due to loss of bearing preload while the jug was off, I'm going to be hosed. So I got out my trusty Hawkeye borescope (meant to inspect the inside of rifle barrels) and looked. Nothing definite, maybe come scratching, maybe not. Turns out the hot jug was 6 thousands out of round, and had 15 thousands choke, as reported in another post. We put a replacement new jug on, it didn't run hot, but the engine still tight. Then put two overhauled jugs on, that didn't have too much choke, engine still very tight when hot. Also there is zero crank endplay now, I mean none. I've checked with enough engine overhaulers (smart old guys, and one old test cell guy) that have told me the same thing, which is that the engine is just about to seize, that I'm going to crack the case, but two more new jugs and major the engine. Probably use Divco or ECI for the case.

That was my first thought, to check that the prop is clocked properly. I have bought 3 A?C in my life, all 3 were clocked wrong, and my mechanic continues to tell me about improperly clocked props that come in to his shop pretty regularly.

If you leave a yeti tumbler with ice in it, and with the lid on it,at room temp. it will have ice in it 24 hours later. They are astounding.

Need straight ailerons (flat bottom) and elevator for 67F

I'm at 3r9 with a modded F that I'm either going to have to shoot in the head and buy a new plane or paint and overhaul. I haven't decided yet. I fly for work and a weekend flyer would make the best match. Pm me and we'll chat, it is fun to gossip about the possibilities. Gary

I have found several times that it isn't wise to leave them unattended for more than 500 hours. And here is another datapoint. A good mag overhaul shop is plenty good enough. But find out who is good in your area. Ask about pressuriZed mags if appropriate for your plane. Gary

Cabe was Moony Factory transition pilot, is great.

I also think Byron also has it right that the Bendix mags are more robust. btw, I may end up in a 201, are the single drive mags as scary as the crowd running away from them would indicate?

Mags need to be inspected at 500 hrs max. They are delicate, and bite

Unspoken in all this is that everybody's cost benefit ratio's are different. I've been without my airplane for the last month or so, and not having it costs me up to additional 20 hours a week having to drive . So I can get my normal 50 hr week in and then additionally have to drive anywhere from 800 to 1500 miles which bumps that week 12 to 20 hours, ( and kicks my ass), or I can spend 12 to 20 hours a week less in front of customers. I'm a commissioned sales person and the most important thing that I do is stand in front of customers. So for me it's a no-brainer, it's 20-30 gees a year to fly, that time makes me multiples of that amount of money. And then I've got some energy to be a family man and go do things that I enjoy rather than laying on the couch unable to move all day Sunday cause I can't even wiggle. Back in the day when I had no money, I had time. I bought a 1947 Cessna 170 and turned the wrenches and ran the painter and scrounged the junkyards, did reupholstery and overhauled the engine, filled it with $.79 a gallon alcohol free car gas, learn to fly in it, and spent really very little on the airplane. But it was just a toy and after a few years I was only flying 30 or 40 hours a year and really couldn't justify it as a toy. The cost-benefit ratio just wasn't there, and I sold it. My situation later changed and I bought another couple airplanes and they have been great work tools for me. No big moral to the story here, maybe just another way to look at your decision.