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I've been watching with alarm a significant increase in oil consumption (and tons of oil on the belly of my plane) over the past year or so. I'm up to about 1 quart per every 2.5 hours. My mechanic has been recommending a top overhaul based on the symptoms and oily spark plugs. Yesterday, I took the plane to another shop to adjust my mag timing and to get a second opinion on the cylinders (including identifying which of the cylinders was causing the problem, since I disagreed with my regular mechanic about replacing all 4 instead of just those that are problematic). The new shop showed me that all 4 cylinders were glazed and that I do, in fact, need a full Top Overhaul (quoted me btwn $5K and $8K to overhaul my existing cylinders - I think that the higher end of the range would be for replacing the pistons, if necessary). I currently have 1950 hours on the engine - so I'm inclined to overhaul they cylinders rather than replace them with new ones. I'd be grateful for any thoughts from the group here - particularly on the following questions: 1. I'm have a flight planned from Chicago to the east coast next week. My understanding is that this condition isn't really a safety issue as long as I can ensure that I maintain enough oil in the engine - so I'm inclined to take this flight (the cylinder repair will probably be late Sept or early October) - but I'd like to pressure-test this notion with the group. 2. My engine is high-time (over 1900 hours) and so I'm inclined to overhaul my existing cylinders (quoted btwn $5,200 and $8K depending on whether or not I need new pistons), rather than buy factory new cylinders. Again - I'd be grateful for any thoughts on that decision. Thanks in advance for all responses! -Howard

So I have a 1979 M20K, 75 hours into a new top end overhaul, the number 3 cylinder vibrates and broke 2 of the bolts holding it to the engine. After proper break-in procedure based at KSNA. I have done some research and from what I can find, it could of happened if the seal wasn’t prefect and over time the vibration cause the suds to break. The mechanic that did the top end doesn’t want to take any responsible and claims it’s because of the way I flew the plane LOP. He thinks all the cylinder could have been burnt up. He recommends doing an overhaul exchange at 1,000 hours it’s only $35,000. I feel like he just wants to wash his hands with everything, and cover his tracks.. Has anyone ran into similar problems? This is my first plane, and I really don’t know how to proceed....

I have a quick question: I decided to just go ahead and do a top overhaul on my 2000 M20R, which was converted to 310HP and 3-bladed via the standard STC. My question is: Do I buy IO550G cylinders, or IO550N cylinders, and does it matter? It seems there is ambiguous info on this out here? When the engine was converted, I did NOT get new cylinders, so that was an IO550G. Further, is the Nickel Cylinder add-on price worth it? It seems at current prices they run about 300$ extra. Please let me know if someone has the definitive answer on this. I want to order the cylinders ASAP as they might be back-ordered (new Continental), and prices are bound to go up again!!! Thanks!

This is my first post I have a 1994 M20M that I have had for 4 to 5 years. I rebuilt the engine two years ago and did a fire wall forward rebuild. Everything was fine with the motor and Lycoming called and said they was a recall on the cylinders and I had so many hours or till next annual to replace them but they would cover the cost. I took it back to Gann Aviation who rebuilt the motor to start with and I was happy with. They took 50 hour at 70 per hour to do the job and now Lycoming has come back and said they will only pay 20 hours at posted shop rate. 20 sounds way low to me. So my question is has anyone had a top overhaul done and if so what was the time charged to swap the 6 cylinder and put everything back to gather? I called one other Mooney service center and they estimated 50 to 55 hours to do the job. Thanks Ricky