M20M Cylinder Service Advisory

[DVA]

Thanks to RSHERRELL who posted a thread about an issue he was having with a Top End Overhaul.

What was discovered is that Lycoming issued a Mandatory Service Advisory last year that called out a factory specific cylinder kit recall under warranty for the TIO-540-AF1B engines. Ricky (RSHERRELL) was affected by this very recently, so there may be others that could use this information. I was surprised that I had not seen this until now so I thought I would pass it along.

To summarize on the AF1B portion of the bulletins, Lycoming discovered a potential casting flaw that possibly could cause a porosity issue with some factory-made cylinders that shipped with 8130 forms dated between the period of September 18, 2013 and May 28, 2015. I spoke with Frank at Lycoming this evening and as always, he and they were exceptional at proving information and guidance on this subject. Frank stressed that Lycoming’s quality assurance process identified a possible safety issue, with no confirmed failures reported, in certain cylinders when they are fitted to the very high performance engines such as the AF1B. “Out of an abundance of caution”, Frank explained that Lycoming would like to replace these cylinders under warranty. (The thread will enlighten people as to what to watch out for in terms of warranty coverage)

Mooney M20M owners should come familiar with the following two Service Advisories:

SA-149 SA149 Cylinder Replacement (1).pdf lists only two (2) Lycoming Factory engine serial numbers that are affected

RL-9239-61A
RL-9344-61A

These two AF1B engines were built at the factory and shipped to be used in Mooney M20M models. If you own either of these engines, you should contact your favorite A&P and assess the SA’s recommendations as all 6 cylinders are affected.

SA-150 SA150 Cylinder Replacement(2).pdf is more far reaching. It lists the part number of a factory cylinder kit (one cylinder per kit) 05K22177 that contains the affected assembly if it falls into the proper date range and has the identified casting stamps.

If you purchased one or more cylinder kits for your M20M and those were factory kits from Lycoming during or around the date period shown in the SA, you should also seek the advise of an A&P so that you can identify whether or not one or more cylinders on your engine are affected.

I asked if Frank knew how many of the affected assemblies were shipped to the field, and he did not immediately have that answer. I also got the impression that this recall was very much precautionary at the time and not imminently posing a critical problem.

If you would like further information, the SA lists the phone number for Lycoming Field Service.

For the purpose of MooneySpace, I would be interested in hearing from anyone that finds an affected assembly installed on their aircraft based on this post. And also from anyone who has already replaced a cylinder under this SA.

Best regards
DVA

 

 

[carusoam]

DVA,

Great piece of knowledge you have supplied here.

It is great to have factory direct information brought to and shared on MS.

Best regards,

-a-

[moxfox]

Thanks for the information DVA !