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Is posting airplane issues therapeutic?


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I need as much soothing as I can possibly get.  I am not sure if posting my airplane woes is therapeutic but I guess it can't hurt.  So I flew up to Oshkosh for Airventure.  On the way up my #3 cylinder was running hotter than the others and I was unable to get it below 400 degrees when the other 3 (63 C model with an O-360-A1D) were running in the mid 300's.  No other signs of any issues other than it being hotter than the others.  So I flew it home after Airventure and after my fuel stop, on departure the #3 cylinder went above 500 degrees.  I pulled the power back enough to continue a climb and the cylinder immediately cooled off and ran back in the lower 400's as before and stayed there never going any higher than about 410 or 420.  No other issues of note.  So I flew it home since I was about 1:30 away from home base.

I sent my EDM 900 report to Saavy for analysis and we talked about a possible intake leak, low fuel flow, etc...  Well, the mechanic at my home base finally was able to get to my airplane.  I don't normally use this shop however, they did my panel make over and ADS-B out work and since I did not feel comfortable flying the plane I took it to them.  They looked at the number 3 cylinder and they mentioned a really bad exhaust gas leak that even melted the paint on the engine on that side.  They borescoped the cylinder and found that both the intake and exhaust valves looked bad with oil all over the intake valve guide.  So we decided to remove the cylinder for overhaul.  While we were chatting I mentioned that this was the third exhaust leak I have had in about a year and half or so.  I have posted photos of a broken exhaust pipe recently on this forum.  So he started looking around for a cause of vibration issues that could cause multiple exhaust failures.  He found what you see in the photo.  This is the lower right motor mount which is obviously broken.  So off comes the engine and motor mount.  Wow, I feel better already.  Ahhhh….therapy!!! :)

Broken LR motor mount 8-26-19.jpg

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I find the photo soothing since it was taken on the ground in one photo instead of in two.

On your cylinder issue the price between overhaul and factory new isn't very large. I gave up on overhauled after I had 2 I had to remove within 40 hours of install.  Wrestling with the dog house is the polar opposite of soothing for me :)

Hope the rest of your week goes better...

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6 minutes ago, 47U said:

Were SBM 20-175-1 and SBM 20-192A-1 complied with?  Both covered in AD 75-09-08.  Hard to tell from the picture.

Glad you caught it when you did. 

Very good therapy!

tom

SBM20-175-1 Eng Mnt.pdf 1.07 MB · 1 download SBM20-192a-1 Eng Mnt.pdf 1.39 MB · 2 downloads

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

I highly recommend having these SBs complied with, and the AD is then terminated.

LASAR does excellent work and will be very competitive on price.

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Congratulations on discovering and addressing your issues.

Theraputic?  Absolutely!  

Knowing you had some issues, discover the source(s) for such, addressing, then sharing your experience here.....a GREAT way to relieve your stress from all, and a positive outcome eventually!! :D

 

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I find your picture not soothing.   It looks like there is an indention about 1" below the cracked weld.  Is something hitting the mount what caused it to fail?  What was it that hit it that hard to leave a dent.


And sure it is a ground wire, but why is 3 inches of insulation missing from that wire.   Why would someone ground something there?   Did someone really use that wire as a ground strap?   Are the ground straps in good working order?

Time to source some engine mounts also.

 

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2 hours ago, Yetti said:

I find your picture not soothing.   It looks like there is an indention about 1" below the cracked weld.  Is something hitting the mount what caused it to fail?  What was it that hit it that hard to leave a dent.


And sure it is a ground wire, but why is 3 inches of insulation missing from that wire.   Why would someone ground something there?   Did someone really use that wire as a ground strap?   Are the ground straps in good working order?

Time to source some engine mounts also.

 

All very good questions.  Thanks for posting them

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3 hours ago, mike_elliott said:

Sure beats the physical therapy you might have needed if that went unmitigated.

to be fair, I think when an engine dismounts from an airframe physical therapy isn't required.

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@Greg Ellis

As far as vibration goes... did you get the shaking compass to go with that?

My M20C engine broke away from one of the lower bolts holding it to the plane... welds broke...

The resulting change in vibration was not incredibly obvious, or easy to describe...

But the family of bubbles shaking at the top of the compass were kind of memorable...

PP observations, not a mechanic.

Best regards,

-a-

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16 hours ago, carusoam said:

@Greg Ellis

As far as vibration goes... did you get the shaking compass to go with that?

My M20C engine broke away from one of the lower bolts holding it to the plane... welds broke...

The resulting change in vibration was not incredibly obvious, or easy to describe...

But the family of bubbles shaking at the top of the compass were kind of memorable...

PP observations, not a mechanic.

Best regards,

-a-

Did not notice that.  Actually did not notice any vibration at all.  The only evidence that something was amiss was the multiple exhaust leaks and broken exhaust in a very short period of time.  It is a very good lesson to me.  #1, I need to be more vigilant at looking at things when I have the cowl off doing oil changes, and #2 things can go bad rather quickly.  I looked back at my logbooks.  I have a list of all AD's and whether they were complied with throughout my ownership of this airplane for the last 12 years and AD 75-09-08 had been complied with.  But you take it at their word that they did the inspection I suppose.  But I do trust the mechanics that have worked on my airplane.  I have never really had any issues with their work.

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3 hours ago, larryb said:

I would replace the cylinder with new and not overhaul it. I would be afraid of metal fatigue and future cracking after it ran so hot.

Thank you for that advice.  I did not think about that.  I will talk to the shop about it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to keep this thread going.  They removed the engine and here is an updated photo of the engine mount.  It is going to be replaced and it is not as expensive of a part as I thought it would be.  For the price I hope the one they get will be at least made of metal. :)

Broken LR motor mount 8-26-19 full view.jpg

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