Oil Analysis on M20K during purchase

[kortopates]

++1 to what@Lancecasper said above - time to move on...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MooneyAcolyte]

On 11/12/2020 at 2:58 PM, LANCECASPER said:

 

If the seller is crazy enough to put up will all of this nonsense he would be highly suspect. It's not hard to sell an airplane in today's market.  If it's still available after a period of weeks or months it has nothing to do with oil analysis.

A pre-buy at a legitimate shop would never put a seller through all of this. A proper contract signed before a pre-buy, with a non-refundable deposit, would let the Seller know that after the pre-buy that if he wants to continue, he would be responsible for any airworthy items - things that would ground the airplane at annual. If he doesn't want to do that then the deposit is refundable. Waiting for that first oil analysis to come back is not part of a pre-buy. If he's done regular oil analysis in the past and wants to show you, great, but not necessary. Making a person who wants to sell their airplane fly it another 10 hours to provide a completely meaningless oil sample, since there is no trend line, borders on insanity. You should consider analysis of a different kind, but it has nothing to do with your oil. 

Hmm, this sounds like putting all the risk on the buyer, which is in this case myself. From experience is much higher-stake business I can tell you that no buyer is eager to engage in unknown unknowns. I am perfectly find with buying a 40-year old aircraft with known issues for the right price. You will find very few buyers (professionals or otherwise) who are fine in transferring the money with a lets-see-what-happens approach. BTW, I had agreed with the seller on a dedicated pre-buy, in the frame of which the high metal in the oil came up. So, these are post-pre-buy considerations. In any case: thanks for your thoughts on this - they give me a different perspective.

[LANCECASPER]

2 hours ago, wannabeMooniac said:

Hmm, this sounds like putting all the risk on the buyer, which is in this case myself. From experience is much higher-stake business I can tell you that no buyer is eager to engage in unknown unknowns. I am perfectly find with buying a 40-year old aircraft with known issues for the right price. You will find very few buyers (professionals or otherwise) who are fine in transferring the money with a lets-see-what-happens approach. BTW, I had agreed with the seller on a dedicated pre-buy, in the frame of which the high metal in the oil came up. So, these are post-pre-buy considerations. In any case: thanks for your thoughts on this - they give me a different perspective.

Buying an airplane is a managed risk proposition. A good pre-buy from a good shop can be done in a full day. It will never eliminate your risk and will always miss some things. That being said, many people feel that the $1000-$2000 spent on a good pre-buy mitigates their risk enough to easily justify the expense. With the twelve airplanes I've bought over 35 years, I've never had the buying process take longer than a week, including times that I've had a pre-buy done.

[carusoam]

Too many unknown unknowns....

Move to the next plane...

Somebody else will buy the plane you are not comfortable with...

There will be many planes that have endless oil analysis...

There will be some planes that never get that done...

It is only one detail for a very large object...

Pick the details that are important to you.

If you are looking for a cam that has gone bad... find the test that measures in grams, not ppms...

Cams are the victim... the actual killer is the cam follower.  Inspecting them really tells the tale...

Unfortunately inspecting all of them, is akin to doing a top OH...

Doing a top OH on somebody else’s plane is highly unlikely...

Planes are selling quickly around here lately.

If the plane is any good, it won’t hang around very long, unless it’s price is too high...

So... if you can’t get the oil analysis done for this plane... start looking for the next one...

What else can you do..?

Best regards,

-a-