Jewell Aviation - Kennett MO PIREP

[201Steve]

 

Here is my long awaited report on Jewell Aviation, Kennett MO. It is long, could be longer. Tried to be fair as possible.

 

The Engine Diagnosis:

 

Back in 2020, I started getting consistent ferrous metal returns in the oil filter of the IO360A1B6D in my 77 J Model. I was also seeing the alloys spike in oil analysis. The amount of metal never exceeded the Lycoming recommendations but it was clearly not getting any better.  I spent a lot of time going back and forth on the options, diagnosing, boroscoping, reading, talking to numerous mechanics, sending particles into Avlab for AMS identification of the alloys, I spoke to Lycoming, etc. My engine only had about 500 hours since its’ last major (previous owner), so it was definitely going to be an early retirement. I finally settled on the assumption that there was about a 90% chance I had spalled lifter faces and my cam was getting chewed up.

The engine was otherwise running fine and I wasn’t dead certain about anything at the time, I just had an educated suspicion of what I thought it was. This gave me a bit of control in what my next move would be, since it was still flyable. I really envied the idea that, if I could fly my airplane to a shop that both does general MX and also does engine overhauls, I could simply make life easier on myself, fly the airplane to them, have them pull a couple of jugs. If something was discovered that was fixable, they could simply fix it OR if they discovered what I thought may be the case, the cam shaft was failing, they could promptly remove the engine and get to work on the overhaul. Mixed into the thinking was also, while the engine is off, they can perform an annual inspection on the airframe, and then once the engine was back on, finish it off. After all, the amount of TIME the airplane is down has a huge consequence on this large investment we all know as A/C ownership.

The search begins and the vetting process:

 

I talk to no less than 6 shops, both on the phone and on email. Most of them were only interested in performing an engine overhaul, as that is their bread and butter. I talked to all of the usual suspects. Between Mooneyspace and Beechtalk (quite a bit less albeit) this shop kept getting mentioned, Jewell Aviation. “They are the cheapest engine overhaulers in the business and they do work equal to anyone”. That’s not a direct quote, but that’s the message that’s being advertised. That’s quite an intriguing message. If they are so good, why are they so cheap? HOW are they so cheap? It sort of defied logic in the general business acumen I am accustomed to. And so, I started reaching out to some folks that had used them before or had familiararity with them. One thing that kept coming up is a differentiation between John Jewell Aircraft (Holly Springs, MS) and Jewell Aviation (Kennett, MO). If you say Jewell, many people associated whichever of the two they are familiar with, whether right or wrong. How many Jewells that rebuild engines could there be? There are two and they are related in no way.  Alas, to this day, it remains a point of confusion. A rumor got started on Mooneyspace that Mike Busch sent the engines from his 310 to “Jewell” for overhaul. He may have used JOHN JEWELL AIRCRAFT, but I confirmed this point with Savvy that, Mike Busch did not use Jewell Aviation in Kennett MO for his engines. I didn’t bother to find out if it was the other Jewell or not, I simply confirmed that Mike Busch has never used Jewell Aviation (Kennett, MO). I did find out, however, that a couple of the Mooney shops in Texas had used them at least once. I never spoke to those shops directly, but I did talk to one or two of the clients involved. I spoke to a couple folks who’d used Jewell on the phone and via email. Nice guys, good information. Nobody I spoke to claimed they were the engine whisperers, but just that generally they had done a good job in their experience.  I phoned up Jewell Aviation and talked to Dave Jewell. After a couple of attempts at a conversation, we did end up connecting and he gave me about 15 minutes of his time, which I appreciated, as he seemed quite busy. I asked the usual questions and it was clear he’d probably answered these same questions to the last 4 people that called. Talking about new tolerances, overhaul tolerances, this accessory, that accessory. It became clear that he did not really have a philosophy on the matter, and it seemed that everyone put too much stock in these questions. Basically, we’ll see what it looks like when we get in there and start making decisions. That sounded fair to me, this was my first overhaul I’ve ever been a part of and my engine only had 500 hours on it, the idea of taking it one step at a time seemed reasonable. We also discussed what was a pretty important point to me, A.) Can you inspect the cam before making a decision to pull the engine and if you do pull the engine B.) Can you do the reinstallation and C.) Can you perform an annual inspection while you have it all torn down. Yes, Yes, Yes, no problem that all sounds good.

The drop off:

 

Kennett, MO is in the middle of nowhere. I got on Mooneyspace to elicit the help of the field. I ended up flying my airplane 4 hours to MO to drop it off.  A fellow Mooneyspacer agreed to meet me in Kennett and fly me from Kennett to Memphis is in C-Model so that I could hop on a commercial in Memphis, back home. What a cool community to be a part of that we can do stuff like that for each other. While I was there, Dave gave me a short tour of the shop. There were a lot of engines in there, and I walked past a cart that had a Mooney predator engine on it. WOW! That made me feel even better. Dave was courteous and I enjoyed the tour and his time. Customers can be distracting, I know, so I did appreciate him not grabbing the keys from me and saying see you later. I wrote out a typed list of things I wanted done, a list of things I wanted to talk about, and a list of things that – hey, if you have anyone sweeping shop floors when it’s time for pickup, we can maybe try to get to those things. It was pretty much, in order of importance: Diagnose Camshaft-> If Bad, pull engine for immediate overhaul-> Overhaul the engine/discuss correct steps. -> While down, perform the annual inspection and a couple of squawks.

Two weeks in:

 

I never want to be the over-bearing customer. Someone on here once mentioned something about “striving to be the best customer”. In other words, good MX folks are in short supply but in high demand. We as the customer have a responsibility to be a good customer if we intend to keep a good relationship. I like that theory and I have always followed it in business. It pays dividends down the road. Patience, paying on time, working with your people. They are just good habits that form good relationships. I think I waited about 2 weeks before I popped in to check on things…. “it’s me! How’s my camshaft looking!?” I’ve been thinking about it every hour of every day for two weeks, I finally break. I eventually get the bad news. I get pictures of the camshaft from a camera pointed into my crankcase with a circle around a clearly worn out cam lobe. Well, that’s disappointing but I am glad to know all my proactive work pointed me to a correct diagnosis and well, I wasn’t surprised.

The waiting game:

 

This is where things started becoming a bit frustrating. Again, I have a lot of respect for the business and particularly, the workload of a shop. They don’t really have time to answer 1,000 questions a day. But, there is a happy medium there and I tried to strike it. The updates I was getting were along the lines of “we are working on it”, “we are waiting on parts”, “haven’t done that part yet”. They were definitely answers like, don’t waste my time with your questions. I wasn’t particularly offended by it at the time, after all, I had a written list of what I wanted done, etc. I’m sure they’ll call if they have any questions. I was a bit concerned that, due to the specific requests of some of the items, I feared they would be overlooked or forgotten. After a couple of months had passed, I started getting delay notices. To their defense, a friggin ice storm hit the Memphis area. It shut down trucking, parts delivery, and the whole nine for at least a week. It was a nightmare. I’m sure it was a pain in the ass for anyone around. I begin to feel a renewed sense of care, as it seemed like we were right around the corner from getting everything situated. There were still quite a few unanswered questions about the inquiries I had made, and again, figured they would be addressed before it was all said and done. I would get a phone call here, an email there, confirming our plan for this, letting me know this or that was done. And then, I was surprised.

Your Airplane will be ready Friday.

 

It was a Tuesday or Wednesday. Middle of the week. I received a phone call from Dave Jewell that says, “OK your airplane will be ready to go Friday. We are finishing up the installation and my Dad is going to fly it Thursday.” The surprise to me was, what about all of the things we had talked about, but never fully resolved? Now it is ready? My first question was, “uhhhh ok that’s good news, how did the annual go?” To which Dave Jewell responded, “WHAT ANNUAL, I didn’t know you wanted an annual” So in that moment, I knew there would be a litany of things that I had gone unaddressed. I explained to him that yes, we’ve spoken on the phone several times about it, I’ve asked about it many times in our email exchanges, and it’s on the printed list of things I wanted done, so yes, I wanted an annual inspection. No worries, I tell him. Take another week and get the annual done. Then came the excuses about being busy and etc then he said he would be on vacation next week and can’t do it, whatever and so I told him, you know what, I’m not going to beg anyone to work on my airplane. Forget it. He tried to console me about how he would give me a half priced annual if I brough it back at a later date, until I reminded him, I live 800 miles away. It would make no logistical sense to bring it back for an annual later under any circumstances. So then of course I start addressing all of the other things on the list that had yet to be discussed and he had forgotten all about those things too, but again, no further work was going to be done because Dave was going on vacation and needed my airplane out of the shop. Now I am just hoping for the best.

The Pickup:

 

I made arrangements for a local Mooney driver to chase me from St Simons GA to Kennett on the Friday it was ready to go. The day before the trip, I call David just to make sure everything was good, the test flight was a success, and let him know we were all systems go for pickup. He tells me some “good news”. As it turns out, Dave says, “we did do your annual and everything was great. No squawks. Just send me your most recent AD list, I’ll sign everything off as completed, and you’ll be good to go.” I of course became highly suspect of this and started asking questions like, “How did you do an annual and not know about it?” Well, he says “the mechanic that I hired to install your engine, well, we fired him yesterday but before we did, it turns out he had in fact completed your engine installation and the annual inspection.” HOLY $&^%$. The guy who he claims finished everything up for me was now fired. Great. But, I was reassured that Sam Jewell had gone over it with a fine tooth comb and flew it yesterday, and everything was great. Oh by the way, Dave said, “I won’t be here when you pick up your airplane tomorrow, but everything will be ready to go.” I am already nervous. More nervous now. And I will say to anyone reading this, if the guy in charge, or who you’ve been dealing with isn’t going to be there to answer any questions after major work- WAIT until they are. Finally, I asked him to please leave it de-cowled so I can go over everything before I just pop in and fly it away. I wanted to do a good thorough pre-flight and see what the work looked like.

We arrive as scheduled in Kennett around 11:30am. I walk into the shop and there’s some lady sitting in there and maybe one shop guy. I get someone’s attention and tell them who I am and what I’m doing. Crickets. Nobody knows what’s going on or where my airplane is. Finally after a phone call, the lady starts rustling some papers around, hands me ONE piece of paper and the keys and says, “here you go!” I literally stared at her in confusion until I finally said, “Umm, what is this?”. “That’s your receipt”, she replied. I have to explain to her that I had a large balance due, she said “nope, your good!” I insisted that was not correct. I owed her more money, and where is the rest of the paperwork? She got back on the phone, and re-printed my receipt with the remaining balance now showing at the bottom of the paper. I wrote the check, was expecting her to also find more paperwork (think yellow tags, 8130’s, etc.) At this point I kind of halted the show and said, look, I need logbook entries, the rest of the paperwork, and you know, some explanation or instructions about the airplane that I’m about to fly back 800 miles just after major surgery. She says well, nobody is here, Mr. Sam has all the guys at his house doing yard work today. So I said look, I need someone to talk to. Can you call Mr. Sam and get him to come down here. “Uhhh I guess so”, she relents. So during this time, the FBO drags my airplane around from another location, not Jewell’s shop, I don’t have a clue where it was. And then about 45 minutes later, Sam Jewell shows up as I am de-cowling the airplane in front of the FBO, by myself, because even those instructions had not been listened to. He stands there and watches me taking my cowling off and mumbles “what can I help you with sir” in such a way that he was confused why I had called him out there. Well, I explain, “ I just had a major overhaul performed and I’m about to fly it home, at minimum you can tell me how to break it in and what to look for”. By this time, I had the cowling completely off and started noticing things immediately.

The first thing I noticed was the smashed foot wells common with Mooney engine mount bolts. I pointed at it to Sam Jewell and he said “that’s normal, that aluminum will push right back into place, just press it in from inside the cabin.” Sure… Just fix it yourself, I thought. Then I pointed to the silicone flexible baffling, that had been SPRAY PAINTED. With Rust-O-Leum gloss black flaking off in my fingers as I touched it, I pointed out that my silicone was now ruined and that it was only 1 year old or less. I asked why they would spray paint that and he said, “Well it must have just been overspray from painting the aluminum baffling”. Oh good… another “no big deal” deal answer, I thought. I then pointed to a loose wire hanging in free fall. It was the factory CHT probe wire. “Oh looks like they missed this one,” he says.  I start to level with the guy and I’m like, look, I don’t know what you guys have going on around here, but I came from a long way away, you seem confused about everything I’m asking you about, you seem annoyed to be here, and this is my first time doing this so I’m just trying to make sure everything is safe and well done and I’m not feeling particularly warm and fuzzy up to this point. Then he starts telling me about what a great flying airplane I have, he flew it for 3 hours, everything is great with it, everything is fine. Then the real talk starts and I feel like I am in the middle of family counseling. He goes on, “Yeah, I just wasn’t really aware of everything going on with your airplane and I’m sorry. I’ve been trying to get out of this business, but David has got me working more than I ever have.” And I find myself listening to a father-son transition that he’s disgruntled about or otherwise disappointed with him, clearly isn’t happy about the way it’s happening, and then another 15 minutes about David’s divorce and oh boy it’s been rough and oh boy I wish I wouldn’t have to be here as much as I am, and oh boy oh boy.” By this time, I’ve heard about enough of it, but he sort of sends me on our way and explains a couple of things to do for break in, etc. “I’m sure David has all the paperwork you need, just get with him when he gets back and we’ll get you taken care of.”  I take off, keeping in mind the tips he gave me, and flew home the 3.5 hour leg, low altitude, full power, in the bumps, adjusting MP periodically, without incident.

The Aftermath

 

I think I flew it around the patch 2 or 3 more times, just running it hard, trying to get some break in hours knocked out. I started thinking well, gee it seems to be running pretty good. Maybe they just had a bad go of it with this mechanic that they fired. The engine seems to be running good, so maybe they are just much better engine builders than they are engine installers.  It was around the 10 hour mark and I discover a large bolt sitting at the bottom of my cowling, caught by the lip just above the nose gear. “That looks important”, I thought. Yeah, pretty important, it was a hold down bolt for my alternator that had come loose. They didn’t use cotter pins on the castellated nuts that hold them on. The second one was only a matter of time before it broke loose and came off, too. Of course, I opened up the cowling and really got eyes on it, in my hangar. I had three different IA’s come look at it and each one of them was disgusted by what we found. I was disgusted about what we found. And to keep this thread from becoming a leather bound novel, I’m just going to list what was found over the span of time, some commentary associated, with an explanation of the Jewell customer service experience to follow:

 

-Firewall foot panel box crushed on both sides by lazy engine mount bolt installation

-Missing cotter pins in Alternator hold downs- came loose in flight, bolt discovered in cowling.

-Spark plug leads only hand tightened

-Ferrous Metal still showing up in the oil filter

-Random cam locks found in engine compartment

-Safety wire on oil filter backward (pulling toward the loosen side)

-Safety wire on dipstick tube loose and sloppy, could fit 2 fingers between the tube and the safety wire

-Forgot annual inspection, no evidence of anything done according to lube charts

-Forgot to install new ignition harness. Charged me for it, but just not there. Installed Old one.

-Forgot to install new Lord mounts. Charged and logged, just not there.

-Not even a single new piece of hardware, hose, or clamp used in engine installation, except zip ties.

-No evidence of any work done regarding its’ logged annual inspection.

-SI1508C Dual magneto torque specifications not complied with. (I talked to David about this one specifically, he said he would never tighten that size bolt to that torque spec)

-Installed Damaged magneto capacitors

-Installed damaged starter ring with missing teeth.

-Alternator terminals installed wrong, used wire ribbon as a washer.

-Alternator belt misaligned- causing belt burn.

-No instructions on pickup, no help with inspection, no Break-in instructions

-Zero 8130’s, yellow tags, parts list – no paperwork whatsoever at pickup (David says he is not authorized to issue these items because he is not a repair station- what?!)

-Balance Due at pickup wrong

-Ignored almost all requested work for discussion, including annual inspection, A1B6D to A3B6D conversion, Ram Air Delete, Dirt in defrost vent, oil cooler flush, etc.

-Cylinders poorly “overhauled”, not honed – only scuffed with a bottle brush-> Leading to Cylinders coming off due to oil fouling plugs, excess oil burn, and high CHT’s and discovery of damaged camshaft

-Rusted Exhaust Studs left on cylinders

-Cracked Oil return lines re-installed

-Oil Cooler hold down hardware left loose

-Camshaft failure after 60 hours – abnormal wear on cam apex with burring.

-Prop Governor linkage installed incorrectly causing binding

-Throttle linkage installed incorrectly causing binding

-Erroneous Engine logbook entries (no new ignition harness, no new engine mounts or hardware, cylinder barrels not honed, no new hoses)

-Erroneous Prop logbook entries (not pained, not filed)

-Factory CHT and EGT probes not hooked up, wires hanging disconnected in engine compartment

-Extremely poor/lazy hose and wire routing: Ignition harness wires routed incorrectly, fuel hoses routed incorrectly, starter power cable routed incorrectly, etc etc, etc

- Flexible Baffle Seals ruined by being spray painted.

 

 

You may have gathered after reading the full discrepancy list, that not only did I have to eventually pull the cylinders to have them professionally overhauled, in doing so, we discovered the camshaft already eating itself up after only 60 hours of operation. So, some of the things on the list seem petty, and they are, if not for the eventual findings. If not for the whole picture. If not for the complete and total lack of workmanship, craftsmenship, professionalism, organization…. But alas, it was a total nightmare.

 

 

I of course spoke to David many times throughout the ongoing discovery of these things along the way. He ended up sending me the wiring harness I had paid for but  had forgotten to install, and pretty much hoping I would just go away from there. When I told him about the near departure of my alternator, he said “Man I wish you would have told me before you fixed it, I would have liked to come down there and fix it myself” Rigggghhhtt……

When I told him that I was oil fouling spark plugs after 20 hours of operation, he let me know that he had been watching my activity on Mooneyspace and that since I was doing my own oil changes (this is my best guess anyway) that my warranty had been voided. He accused me of illegally doing “unauthorized work on an aircraft” but had no explanation as to what he was talking about. Then he said, I must have not been following his break in procedures. Finally it got to the point where I would call him and he would get flustered and then just hand the phone to his Dad. It was the most bizarre experience I have ever dealt with. I would explain why something he was saying was not correct, and then when it made too much sense, his Dad would pop on the phone for him and just tell me everything was going to be OK.

Important to note, up to this point, I haven’t asked Jewell for anything. I didn’t ask them to pay for the mechanics that came to my hangar to fix their mess, I didn’t ask them to to pay for a top overhaul, I didn’t expect ANYTHING from them. I had already made peace with the fact that I had just gotten the shit end of the stick. I am one for moving on. I’m not going to rely on ineptitude to help me solve my problems. I am going to get it taken care of and move on with my life. That was of course, up to the point that my engine required another tear down for an abnormally wearing camshaft. 60 hours in. And do you want to know what David Jewell did to assist in that matter? Absolutely nothing. Wouldn’t respond to emails, wouldn’t take my phone call, nothing.

I’ve got so much more to say on the subject, so much more to describe, so much bizarre behavior, so much ineptitude that I could literally write 5x the amount I have here. If anyone is thinking about sending their engine to these people, or having any work done whatsoever, I am happy to give detail in whatever capacity you’d like so that you don’t have to be disappointed like I was. This happened almost 2 years ago. I have kept my mouth shut, I have only recently been commenting on their work, I have maintained professionalism on my end, I have given them every opportunity to do the right thing, and at this point, it’s just my duty to let others know about it. I am back flying now, the proud new owner of a Zephyr Aircraft Engines rebuilt motor that is night and day compared to what I got back from Jewell Aviation.

 

 

Here are some juicy quotes verbatim, from David Jewell in his email comms with me:

 “There is no excuse for anything done wrong as I have said before and I apologize. The engine installation was just poorly done. It was running on Monday and you picked it up on Wednesday. I was trying to prepare for a vacation the next day with my three kids and a woman I was in a very contentious divorce with and I was doing my best to manage the work on an unprecedented number of engines here for overhaul.”

“the A&P mechanic told me about his work was not right and he was fired. My dad did two test flights and didn’t report any issues.  I am very aware of how unhappy you are with our work. It is apparent that you should have been doing all the work on this plane, and avoided all of the problems. It takes time to be thorough and the three days from first run to departure was nowhere near enough.”

“We have a warranty on what we do and you have voided almost every part of it. You are not a licensed mechanic and are doing and documenting your work on Mooneyspace. You waited a month before contacting us with complaints that you were apparently repairing yourself and may or may not have had inspected by your A&P.”

“The crankcase, crankshaft, gears and connecting rods had no work done on them outside of our shop. We don’t issue 8130-3 forms, we make a log book entry for what we do here. We cannot make 8130-3 forms, we are not a repair station.  The camshaft and lifter tappets were new and are listed on the invoice I have attached. I wish this didn’t happen and I will never offer to annual anyone’s aircraft that isn’t local again.”

 

 

I still cannot figure out how my situation went so wrong, but it did, and they wanted nothing to do with making it right, in the right way. To be fair to the accused, at the very end, after all of the above, they made a gesture that I send them my engine back and they would take a look at it. With my ass in the chair, and up to that point trying to dodge blame while also at the same time admitting doing a shit job, I just could not allow them to put a wrench on my airplane. The trust had been shattered not only from the poor work but the poor resolution commitment.  I sought counsel from MANY respected IA’s, probably 6 total, many of whom are highly regarded, and let’s just say, they agreed 100% with not letting them come close to my airplane again. It was an expensive mistake, but lessons have been learned.  Got a few pics on this computer, more at work, will post later. Happy to answer any questions

[PT20J]

Wow!!!

There are plenty of great professional rebuilders out there. Clearly, this is not one of them.  

Skip 

[ArtVandelay]

But their advertised prices are by far the cheapest you’ll find…and sometimes the cheapest is actually the most expensive.

It sounds like the OP did the selection process himself.

In my case I let my AP do that, gave him a list of 4, Jewell being 1. I figure he knew what questions to ask, he recommended Zephyr and that’s who I went with. They said it would take 8 weeks, but it took 16…this was before Covid. The only squawk was a loose oil return line. Zephyr change ownership a few years ago as well but their quality hasn’t suffered.

The smashed foot wells is because they don’t know what they’re doing. Mooneys requires the engine mount to be unbolted from the firewall, then separate the frame/engine…reverse when mounting.

Sorry for the OPs problems, but the detail review is appreciated, and will be by future MSers.

[Guest]

Wow!  What a story.  Who did you get to do your overhaul again?

[Eight8Victor]

Thanks for the pirep Steve. Knowledge is power and you have certainly empowered anyone that reads this. Have you posted your experience to Beechtalk? 

[ArtVandelay]

Wow!  What a story.  Who did you get to do your overhaul again?

He said he’s now a proud owner of a Zephyr engine.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

He said he’s now a proud owner of a Zephyr engine.

Missed it in all the other blood and gore!

[Boilermonkey]

These kind of stories make me sick.  It's not just that the work was done poorly, but they didn't stand behind their work.  Mistakes can happen, but if you want to be in this business you got to stand behind it.

I just gone through some of this myself.  One thing I'll say about the shop we used, is that they stood behind it, and made it perfect in the end.

[jetdriven]

Sounds like my client who had his engine put together by these guys. It’s leaking oil from a blind bolt hole and they basically told him to stuff it. 

[Niko182]

Might want to post this on beechtalk, POA, and piper forum.

[MikeOH]

Reading only a little between the lines, this looks like nepotism run amok...Dad wants to retire, turned business over to son that doesn't seem passionate about the biz AND is going through a divorce....what could possibly go wrong?  Sadly, the OP found out.

[aviatoreb]

Wow.  What an epic disaster of a company.

[Guest]

Sadly in my experience this type of poor quality work is the norm. The last three imports this year from the US are disasters.

[WaynePierce]

Wow! How disappointing but informative. I get my annuals done in Holly Springs where the other Jewell is located and would not hesitate to have that one look at something on m engine.

 

[David Lloyd]

Who signed off on all that?  If it was the mechanic fired, he certainly deserved what he got. So many problems, can only be a team effort.

The narrative seems to indicate few hours flown before the engine was opened at Zephyr, how many on that camshaft?  I can't imagine a new camshaft looking like that in just a few hours.  Was it really new?  Did they try to regrind the old one themselves? 

I'm not a mechanic, licensed, certified or anything else. I'm not even a shade tree mechanic.  I have turned enough wrenches to know how difficult it is to do a job correctly.  When I see something like this, I just cringe.

[201Steve]

9 hours ago, Eight8Victor said:

Thanks for the pirep Steve. Knowledge is power and you have certainly empowered anyone that reads this. Have you posted your experience to Beechtalk? 

Not yet but I will, because I wish I would have seen it. Extremely expensive lesson. 

[201Steve]

1 hour ago, David Lloyd said:

Who signed off on all that? 

Sam Jewell. The “fired AP” didnt stick around long enough to sign his part. 
 

1 hour ago, David Lloyd said:

how many on that camshaft?  I can't imagine a new camshaft looking like that in just a few hours. 

60 hours when we pulled cylinders. Yep, it was new. No idea how it happened so fast. 

[201Steve]

8 hours ago, Boilermonkey said:

I just gone through some of this myself.  One thing I'll say about the shop we used, is that they stood behind it, and made it perfect in the end.

Things happen, nobody is perfect, but in any business, self responsibility and a commitment to actively participating in getting it corrected is the only way to keep your respect. I have waited a long time to let them resolve it. I don’t like to write anything negative about anybody, but to protect the next guy, that’s my duty as the dummy here. I did this the right way, didn’t post anything negative until long after they decided to dodge and avoid tactic was the way to go. 

[ArtVandelay]

60 hours when we pulled cylinders. Yep, it was new. No idea how it happened so fast. 

The new camshafts (or lifters) have DLC (diamond like coating) that supposedly prevents camshafts wearing.

[201Steve]

14 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

The new camshafts (or lifters) have DLC (diamond like coating) that supposedly prevents camshafts wearing.

That’s what was installed. Lycoming DLC

[DXB]

OMG what an abject horror story - only thing that would make it worse is a mechanical failure that gets someone hurt or killed. Not too long before your misadventure, I had a friend who came across the country to get a bargain overhaul with them and has been quite satisfied with the results - now several hundred hours in. I would have strongly considered using them before this post.  It sounds like the combination of taking on too much work, labor force depletion, supply chain woes, and a nasty divorce has utterly destroyed what may have once been an engine shop that offered great value.  Thank you for the detailed precise documentation @201Steve.   This is the part of the aviation hobby I hate the most - though I've never caught it quite this bad...yet.

[Cruiser]

4 hours ago, M20Doc said:

Sadly in my experience this type of poor quality work is the norm. The last three imports this year from the US are disasters.

does that include the M20J w/TKS out of an Indiana dealer ? 
I was looking  at that one. 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Cruiser

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, 201Steve said:

That’s what was installed. Lycoming DLC

I was wondering why the lifters looked decent with abnormal wear on the cam, but this may explain it.

Thanks for the sharing and the thorough documentation.   I'm glad you've moved on and gotten things figured out, but sad to see somebody have to go through that.

It's also sad how many of these "nightmare from otherwise reputable shop" stories often have a "divorce in progress" angle to them.   Basically, everybody is losing on all sides.  Never a good thing.   

 

[jetdriven]

I can’t see how DLC lifters trash a new cam unless the cam really wasn’t new. In fact the cam usually lasts longer than lifters do even after they’ve been Spalled or torn up. Something doesn’t add up here.

[N201MKTurbo]

On 9/3/2022 at 1:28 PM, 201Steve said:

60 hours when we pulled cylinders. Yep, it was new. No idea how it happened so fast. 

If the dry tappet clearance wasn't set right, that can happen. 
 

https://www.kitplanes.com/maintenance-matters-36/

When I assembled my engine I spent 1/2 a day working on this. I swapped push rods and rockers many times trying to get them all in range. I ended up ordering two new pushrods. When I was done they were all between 0.040 and 0.060