TSIO-360 Overhaul

[Flying Crab]

Anyone have input on getting a 231engine overhauled.

[natdm]

I used Watson Aero. James is fantastic at communication. Some stuff to note that I learned from my overhaul:

• If you can, fly your plane to him. I couldn't do that, it was a 'forced overhaul', let's call it.
• Holy crap, some mechanics don't like other mechanics. James is not one of them. He made mistakes and was willing to rectify all of them but the mechanic that had the plane didn't want to talk to him. Pretty much all of the below issues are due to that
• Mechanic in Chandler didn't send the turbo since he mis-read, so he had to send it to Main Turbo. Main is 6-8 months backed up on parts, so see what James could do about that. Luckily my turbo was overhauled by them 200 hours ago so they knew it'd be light and did it in a day.
• When the engine got back to AZ, even though my mechanic here seemed very aggressive towards Watson, he said it was very very well tested, and most of the configurations for RPMs were very small tweaks, and was the best he'd ever seen. 
• It took 7 months from uninstall, ship, overhaul, ship, install, fly. 

[natdm]

Here's the returned engine, installed. You'll notice that apparently the previous owners didn't comply with SB CSB19-01A, and James installed the old parts. If you have the old primer system, it might be a good time to get that fixed. 

Also James painted the oil cap. He said he's done this on hundreds of engines. He sandblasted and painted over "OIL 8 QTS" which is illegal, so we had to put a little label on it. Would be nicer if it said it on the paint, and was painted yellow. 

[hammdo]

Looks like a work of art….

-Don

[anthonydesmet]

Where are you located?  My plane was flyable but I chose to have it sent for overhaul.  I wanted my plane in my climate controlled hanger during the three months. During that time I was able to repair interior plastic, install new windows and tighten some things up.

My engine went to Don George Aircraft in Orlando.  He has a pretty good reputation around here and I could stop in once in awhile to see how things were tracking.  
 

Engine came back tight with no install issues.  I am on 400 hours since 2020 and no issues.

i can’t remember where we sent turbo but that came back on schedule with no issues.

[hubcap]

I was thinking about purchasing a salvage engine or core and having it overhauled while I was still flying my plane. When the overhaul is complete just an engine swap. Plane should only be down a week or so. Then you can sell the old engine core.
 

Anyone here with experience doing it that way? Pros? Cons?

[kortopates]

8 hours ago, natdm said:

Here's the returned engine, installed. You'll notice that apparently the previous owners didn't comply with SB CSB19-01A, and James installed the old parts. If you have the old primer system, it might be a good time to get that fixed. 

Also James painted the oil cap. He said he's done this on hundreds of engines. He sandblasted and painted over "OIL 8 QTS" which is illegal, so we had to put a little label on it. Would be nicer if it said it on the paint, and was painted yellow. 

Nice. James is also fellow colleague of mine at Savvy Aviation. It would be good time to at least replace the old flexible baffling if not also re-work the aluminum baffling. Glad you caught removing the fuel diverter!

[Pinecone]

2 hours ago, hubcap said:

I was thinking about purchasing a salvage engine or core and having it overhauled while I was still flying my plane. When the overhaul is complete just an engine swap. Plane should only be down a week or so. Then you can sell the old engine core.
 

Anyone here with experience doing it that way? Pros? Cons?

Other option would be to order factory reman and fly until it comes in.  Then a quick swap and send back the core

[natdm]

1 hour ago, kortopates said:

Nice. James is also fellow colleague of mine at Savvy Aviation. It would be good time to at least replace the old flexible baffling if not also re-work the aluminum baffling. Glad you caught removing the fuel diverter!

The fuel diverter is actually still in the plane. :-| I asked the shop to cease any extra work that's not required and I can hopefully do it with a fellow mooneyspace member (who's also given me the appropriate amount of grief for it not being done) when I'm in the mid-west this summer. 

And James was fantastic. As a new-ish plane owner, and curious about the mechanics of it all, I always love mechanics that take pride in explaining their work. He took texts, emails, and calls. He text'd me a few days ago asking if I was at TBO yet. Good dude. 

[Falcon Man]

Other engine overhaul options: Send a core to a A & P school for overhaul and save the labor costs.

Unfortunately some engine shops have as much as a year waiting for parts.