Received a low one ...

[Lood]

Well, I've been dealt a low one - again. I've just spent R10k on getting my cylinders rehoned and fitted new rings all round. I'm actually still in the process of breaking the engine in and after about 14 odd hours, the oil consumption is still around 1 qrt every 3 hours. So I'm having my doubts on whether the exercise was successful or not.

Anyhow, on Friday I flew to my AME to have a new voltage regulator fitted adn to have them attend to a minor starter problem. Unfortunately, they discovered two crack in my crankcase. These are situated below the #2 cylinder, are fairly close to each other and there's oil seeping through.

The engine has around 3740hrs TT and 740hrs since major. The cylinders, although in acceptable condition, has allready be rebored to to plus 10 and after the recent re-honing, are just about on the limits. We also detected that the crankcase has been welded on two different places in the past.

I kind of had now and I am extremely fed up with the whole situation. No matter which route I take, it's going cost me some serious money, so while spending it, I certainly not going to take the shortest route that will only result in on-going snags calling for re-occuring maintenance and downtime.

For starters, I'm throwing away the crankcase!!! The option left are then to either bite the bullet and replace the engine with a factory reman. This is probably the easiest and quickest option, but also the most expensive. Otherwise, I must get a "new used" crankcase in bolt my current cylinders on it and carry on. Doing the latter, it would probably make more sense to install fresh cylinders while at it. However, I've heard a few horror stories about reconditioned crankcases...

I would appreciate your opinions and advice. My Mooney is grounded, so I have to do something and I want to do it right this time.

[Toflyordie]

I'm a Newb, but could you get a "core" reduced price if you gave the factory your motor?

[Lood]

I'm not sure, but will find out everything during the next week. I paged through the September '11 copy of Trade-a-Plane and was amazed at the large amount of engine facilities that have overhauled engines up for sale. However, I'm very wary here, because although everybody will probably honor their waranty should such an engine have snags, the shipping costs to get an engine half way around the world and back creates a problem and hangs a substantial amount of risk around this one's neck.

I would also like to know what the situation would be with regards to my enigne in terms of value and whether it could be exchanged or traded in.

[Awful_Charlie]

Oh dear - that's rotten news, you have my sympathies.

Depending on what stock you or your shop have lying around, might it be worth sending back the old core with a different set of cylinders?  In the big scheme of things, it's unfortunately not going to save you loads (having a set of good ones on the shelf for use at some point in the future), but it will probably make you feel better!

No idea what your regulatory requirements are in SA, do you need an engine shop to tear down & re-build?  Even if not, you probably want someone who has done this before, as removing and re-installing the engine is not something you want to be doing too often.  The other costs you are going to incur anyway will be similar be it new/overhaul/exchange/repair in the engine mounts/hoses/baffles and the labour, so it might be time to bite the bullet and get the whole lot done.

Good luck in whichever route you take

Ben

[rbridges]

I am so sorry to hear about your problems.  I hope you get it resolved quickly, but I can't imagine your level of frustration right now.

[N601RX]

Sorry to hear about your problem. I'm in the middle of an overhaul myself.  Is your engine a IO360-A1A?  If so I believe this is the correct case.  These are new, not reconditioned.  You mentioned that your cylinders were aleady .010 oversized.  You might want to look back through the logs and see if the crank has already been ground undersized.  It can be undersized to .003, .006, and .010.  After that it has to be replaced.  The crank is expensive also.  That might help with the decision on to buy a new case or go with a factory engine.  I would want to know the crank was ok before buying a new case.

http://www.eci.aero/pages/adv_search.aspx?m=oem&s=11B20061-1SL

 

[thinwing]

Unfortunately once you have to split the case its probably best to consider a Reman...the problem is with your core...with cracked cases you donot have a servicable core...that means you will get docked for that as well....maybe best if you could find a decent engine from a wrecking yard from a storm damaged aircraft...its gonna be bucks whatever route you go...sorry,,..kpc

[jetdriven]

DIVCO will weld up cases and yellow tag them including dowels, then you could have your engineer do an overhaul with that case, your old crank, and your fresh cylinders.  I would not reuse a cam or lifters though.  this is 5-7K USD instead of 20K.

 

http://www.divcoinc.com/faq.asp

[Lood]

I ended up buying a brand new crankcase with its bolts and other goodies - almost $5k! Anyhow, seeing that my cylinders had just been checked out and re-honed, I've decided to use them again. The engine shop will let me know what their condition is after being flown for 14 hours. If the break in was not satisfactory, they'll re-hone again and also replace the rings with new ones.

This time, however, the airplane sits down at the coast and the next breaking in flight will be carried out at sea level vs 5300ft the previous time. Should make a huge difference towards the better. If the any of the cylinders go bad or do fail in the near future, I'll replace with new ones then.

If all goes well, I should be in the air in about 3 weeks time. My Mooney is getting it's annual done in the mean time and the new crankcase also requires new big end bearings, gasket set, etc. Apart from the bill, that won't be under $12k, I'm looking forward to getting my engine back in servicable condition and to fly again. Will keep you posted.

Oh, BTW Mike, thanks for your lead - their price gave me a lot of ammo to negotiate with and it cut the price of th case with almost $1k in the end.