Buying engine parts in lieu of saving $?

[N201MKTurbo]

13 minutes ago, mooniac15u said:

Warranties in airplane engines are certainly nothing to write home about.  However, the strawman presented was to overhaul an engine and sell it more or less immediately in an M20 airframe.  Two or three years of warranty sounds a lot better than no warranty.

Would you buy the airplane with the owner overhaul rather than a comparable airframe with a runout engine where you control the overhaul process? I'm just not sure you can find a buyer that will pay enough for the one-off field overhaul to make it worth your while versus just selling it as a runout engine. Doing your own overhaul on a plane you plan to fly so you can save money and feel good about your engine is an entirely different value proposition.

I don't know. I did all the maintenance on my old plane including all the engine work. I wasn't an A&P at the time. I was up front with the buyer about it. It didn't seem to affect the price I got for it.

I still see it flying all the time on Flight Aware.

[Yetti]

5 hours ago, mooniac15u said:

Are these the same careful owners who are making homemade jacks from wooden tabletops, conduit, and hose clamps?

 

Well played sir.  I am not going to defend that kind of work practices and have noted it.   Interesting enough I heard about a really well known shop that most likely forgot to tighten the bottom spark plugs and had one blow out during take off.  So just like landing with the gear up for pilots experienced mechanics have to pay attention also.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Yetti

[Yetti]

5 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

The hardest part was getting the correct push rods. When you rework the cases the distance from the lifters to the rockers changes. They must be within 0.020 to 0.080 of valve lash with dry lifters. Measuring the length and procuring the correct length was a PITA!

 

This was entertaining to me when we field overhauled 2 cylinders.   We ran to the two shops on the field to see what they had.   Nothing.  We ended up swapping rods around with the other two cylinders and everything came up to spec.

[N201MKTurbo]

19 minutes ago, Yetti said:

This was entertaining to me when we field overhauled 2 cylinders.   We ran to the two shops on the field to see what they had.   Nothing.  We ended up swapping rods around with the other two cylinders and everything came up to spec.

There was a salvage yard at Stapleton Airport in Denver. J. W. Duff. Well Mr. Duff was a cantankerous old guy who made most people feel like he was doing them a favor to sell them parts. For some reason he like me. I was one of the few if not only people he would let roam around in his warehouse. My quest for push rods took me to his place. I asked him if he has any Lycoming push rods. He reached into his pocket and handed me his key ring with about 50 keys on it, selected a certain key, walked out side and pointed me to a building about 1/2 a mile away.

When I got to this building and opened the door it was like Indiana Jones opening the lost tomb! Inside I found enough Lycoming engine parts to build probably 500 engines! OMG. I found shelves with boxes and boxes of push rod. It didn't take long to find the right one. When I got back I thanked him for helping me out and asked him what I owed him? He said $5. What a deal!