1975 Mooney E with IO-360 A1A will need overhaul soon 2200 hours on engine

[gsxrpilot]

Whatever you do @Vance Harral don't pull that engine until I get mine back. We can't be completely without a Mooney around here. 

[MBDiagMan]

Whether an engine is mid time,TBO or past TBO, it’s a matter of watching its vital signs and caring for it properly.  The engine condition is more important than how much time it has been run, although engine time is one piece of important data to include in the formula.

[Vance Harral]

4 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

Whatever you do @Vance Harral don't pull that engine until I get mine back. We can't be completely without a Mooney around here. 

We can't afford an engine overhaul!  Too busy wasting money on foolish panel toys...

[201Steve]

Stupid question, but what’s so invasive about changing pan gasket? 4 hours labor? Drop exhaust in 8 bolts, drop pan in X bolts. A handful of gaskets. Maybe you have to pull the fuel injection servo off I suppose, maybe not?

[Vance Harral]

19 minutes ago, 201Steve said:

Stupid question, but what’s so invasive about changing pan gasket?  4 hours labor?

4 hours to completely change the pan gasket?  Heck, it took me and my ham-fisted meat hooks about that long just to remove the lower cowl bowl last time we changed an alternator!

OK, not really quite that long just for the lower cowl.  But let's think about this, and I'm just going off the top of my head: all the intake tubes have to come off because they connect to the manifold that passes through the pan.  The entire exhaust has to come off because it runs underneath the area where the pan would come off.  That means disconnecting all the EGT probes in addition to the exhaust itself.  You absolutely have to remove the lower cowl to do this job, which requires disconnecting the oil cooler, the air intake boot, the ram air door cable, the cowl flap linkages, and the landing light connection.  I think you're probably correct that the fuel injection servo has to come off, my recollection is that's one of the things that gets in the way of tightening some of the bolts.  Did I forget to mention that the throttle and mixture control cables pass through a bracket that's hung off the pan?  Gotta deal with that too.  All that is just the stuff I can remember, I'm sure there are other complications.

If I were doing all the work myself, I'd bank on at least a week, if I didn't screw anything up.  A pro with experience could do it much faster, of course, but I think it's a big job no matter who's holding the wrenches. 

[M20F]

37 minutes ago, 201Steve said:

 Drop exhaust in 8 bolts

Snap exhaust stud, cry, get drunk, pass out, wake up, and there are your many hours. 

[MikeOH]

On 2/3/2021 at 6:56 PM, M20F said:

Snap exhaust stud, bust your knuckles, cry, get drunk, pass out, wake up, mop up blood, and there are your many hours. 

FTFY