Bite the bullet - Top overhaul on M20R

[jetdriven]

On 4/8/2016 at 5:13 PM, PMcClure said:

Update for anyone interested. Back in the air with about 20 hours and a few XC trips on the new cylinders. Went with factory new. Oil consumption is almost nil (once it got to 6 quarts). Picked up about 5 knots TAS as far as I can tell but burning a little more fuel (75% power, 14.2gph at 20 LOP instead of 13.7). All in labor was $6500 which included annual, top, new main gear pucks, exhaust repair and misc odds and ends related to annual and minor squawks. Overall very happy with the outcome. Glad to be back flying regularly. 

The rule with factory new Continental cylinders is the valves start to shift around on the seats and by 800 hours they all have to come off. They can't machine the valve guide and seat concentrically, instead of using a 1-piece cutter they use several tools which add slop the machining process.