Any opinions on this M20K 231 (N1167N)?

[rickseeman]

We had a little thread drift here. The last 4 pages turned into N/A vs turbo. But that's ok. The guy will probably never buy an airplane anyway after reading the first page. One guy told him to budget $5,000 for a prop when the ad says 1 SPOH, another said to budget $139,000 for an engine and avionics (1104 SFRM & King GPS/autopilot) and then the old, it hasn't been flown much talk, so the engine is probably junk. He'll probably never look at an airplane again if they're that expensive to maintain. I know an old guy that has 6 old Mopars. He said he wanted to get them running. So 2 friends and I went over there. The first one was a 1970 6 pak Challenger. I asked how long has it been since it was started? He said 1998. Whoa. I can't believe in a couple of hours we got that thing going. The next week we did his wife's 340 Challenger that hadn't been started since 98. So I said to him, if we get all these cars running, which one would you drive? He said the pewter color 69 Road Runner. But I'm worried about that one, he said. I asked, why are you worried about it? He said, well we put a rebuilt carburetor on it in 78 and it ran fine but I haven't driven it since. 45 years. It's coming up. I guess I'm not concerned that the engine in this 231 is 1104 SFRM 31 years ago.

[oisiaa]

8 hours ago, rickseeman said:

The guy will probably never buy an airplane anyway after reading the first page.

I'm still here and reading the topic. Interesting stuff. All of this discussion is good for me to take in. I'm still planning on buying, but don't want to bring every little question here.

[MikeOH]

9 hours ago, rickseeman said:

We had a little thread drift here. The last 4 pages turned into N/A vs turbo. But that's ok. The guy will probably never buy an airplane anyway after reading the first page. One guy told him to budget $5,000 for a prop when the ad says 1 SPOH, another said to budget $139,000 for an engine and avionics (1104 SFRM & King GPS/autopilot) and then the old, it hasn't been flown much talk, so the engine is probably junk. He'll probably never look at an airplane again if they're that expensive to maintain. I know an old guy that has 6 old Mopars. He said he wanted to get them running. So 2 friends and I went over there. The first one was a 1970 6 pak Challenger. I asked how long has it been since it was started? He said 1998. Whoa. I can't believe in a couple of hours we got that thing going. The next week we did his wife's 340 Challenger that hadn't been started since 98. So I said to him, if we get all these cars running, which one would you drive? He said the pewter color 69 Road Runner. But I'm worried about that one, he said. I asked, why are you worried about it? He said, well we put a rebuilt carburetor on it in 78 and it ran fine but I haven't driven it since. 45 years. It's coming up. I guess I'm not concerned that the engine in this 231 is 1104 SFRM 31 years ago.

Hmm, criticizing those of us who are advocating caution seems a bit odd if one is interested in reducing risk for the OP.  By his own admission, he has NEVER owned and has very little GA experience.

Comparing an old/not recently used auto engines to an old/not recently used aircraft engine is highly misleading in your context: what counts is how long after you 'get it running' they last.  You do NOT know; just because you got it started?? That's your argument to why the OP shouldn't care about 23 hours in 20 years (or whatever long period it was).  It's also disingenuous as the cost to rebuild a car engine is pretty insignificant to that of an aircraft engine overhaul, don't you think?  To act like an engine with that little usage is somehow comparable to one that has frequent and recent use is poor logic, IMHO.

And, finally, it is the OP's money at stake, NOT yours.  So, you've pretty much got nothing to lose if you end up being wrong.  If the price is right (treated as a run-out) AND the OP doesn't mind a project (I think he stated he does NOT) then this might be a plane to consider.  But for the OP I stand by my suggestion to find another aircraft.

[jlunseth]

Why I love a turbo:

1.  KPIA->KFDK in an hour forty five (that’s about 315 kts GS

2.  KXWA->KFCM in an hour and a half (it was so cold all the windows fogged over even with the heat and defrost on full).

3.  Having to start a descent at the South Dakota border to make a landing at KFCM.

4.  The couple of times that ATC has asked me to slow for the Citation landing ahead.

5.  Being given a STAR by ATC.

6.  Being above the junk in clear air almost every flight.

7. Holding the mask to my face, like Mustang, when I talk to ATC.

8.  Flying a long pattern for landing at KGPI from about 9,000 to land at 3,000. The speed brakes worked really well.

I’ll be the first to say those things don’t happen every day. Most of my flying in the last several years has been for Angel Flight Central, and I don’t generally go to the flight levels because I don’t want to put the patients on O2 and because by design, the flights are not usually long enough to justify it. Also, I like flying LOP so much that I usually just go as high as I can and still stay LOP. But I do a couple of flights a year up there, on a mask. You run into some unusual weather conditions. Ice clouds, which once upon a time would cause a manifold pressure failure be plugging the air filter, until the factory rolled out an automatic door for the intake. The threat of icing is always a concern, weird how it works. Some clouds have all the conditions for icing except they are too thin so no ice, and then others will coat the aircraft quickly.

Edited November 5, 2023 by jlunseth