ORDERED A FACTORY NEW REBUILD FROM LYCOMMING 10 MONTHS AGO. NOW THEY TELL ME I HAVE TO WAIT 13 MORE MONTHS.

[Beau]

I WAS TOLD THAT IT WOULD TAKE 12-14 MONTHS TO GET A REBUILT FACTORY NEW LYCOMMING IO 540.  I waited 10 months.  Now they tell me it is going to be 13 more months before I can have the engine shipped to my installation shop. I have asked for a refund of my $20,000 deposit and Lycomming is not responding. Can anyone recommend a great overhaul shop for a Lycomming IO540?

[alextstone]

Are you referring to the engine for the Bravo, the TIO-540-af1b?  

[Max Clark]

20 minutes ago, Beau said:

I WAS TOLD THAT IT WOULD TAKE 12-14 MONTHS TO GET A REBUILT FACTORY NEW LYCOMMING IO 540.  I waited 10 months.  Now they tell me it is going to be 13 more months before I can have the engine shipped to my installation shop. I have asked for a refund of my $20,000 deposit and Lycomming is not responding. Can anyone recommend a great overhaul shop for a Lycomming IO540?

This is brutal

[philiplane]

That's odd because Lycoming has been shipping ahead of schedule on many engines. Previous 10-12 month wait times have been reduced. The last IO-360-M1A engine I ordered was quoted at 11 months, revised to 8 months shortly after, and was delivered in 6 months. And a turbo Aztec engine (close relative of the Bravo engine) came in 8 months rather than the 15 months first quoted. 

[LANCECASPER]

37 minutes ago, Beau said:

I WAS TOLD THAT IT WOULD TAKE 12-14 MONTHS TO GET A REBUILT FACTORY NEW LYCOMMING IO 540.  I waited 10 months.  Now they tell me it is going to be 13 more months before I can have the engine shipped to my installation shop. I have asked for a refund of my $20,000 deposit and Lycomming is not responding. Can anyone recommend a great overhaul shop for a Lycomming IO540?

The rebuild shop will be waiting for the same parts Lycoming is waiting on. Most likely it's new cylinders. The TIO-540-AF1B has cylinders unique only to that engine.

[exM20K]

53 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

The rebuild shop will be waiting for the same parts Lycoming is waiting on. Most likely it's new cylinders. The TIO-540-AF1B has cylinders unique only to that engine.

Or perhaps turbo components?

My secret decoder ring interprets a 12 month lead time for an engine as: “we have no idea when it will be ready.”

[Fly Boomer]

3 hours ago, Beau said:

I WAS TOLD THAT IT WOULD TAKE 12-14 MONTHS TO GET A REBUILT FACTORY NEW LYCOMMING IO 540.  I waited 10 months.  Now they tell me it is going to be 13 more months before I can have the engine shipped to my installation shop. I have asked for a refund of my $20,000 deposit and Lycomming is not responding. Can anyone recommend a great overhaul shop for a Lycomming IO540?

I thought Ovations had a Continental engine?

[alextstone]

12 minutes ago, Fly Boomer said:

I thought Ovations had a Continental engine?

The Bravo has Lycoming 

[GeeBee]

If I was doing a field overhaul of an IO-540 only one place to go. Gann Aviation

[Fly Boomer]

1 minute ago, alextstone said:

The Bravo has Lycoming 

Right you are!  But N444HK is an Ovation--I just looked it up.  Why is he ordering a Lyc if his airplane is an Ovation?

[alextstone]

Perhaps his avatar has not been updated since a purchase or he owns two aircraft?

[1980Mooney]

It sounds like he is ordering an engine for a different plane. But to his point, if you go to AirPower and search Lycoming IO-540, or O-540 or TIO-540, every 540 engine of every type/model is “On Backorder”. - New, Rebuilt and Overhauled. 

But all the Continental 550’s also show “On backorder”.   I seem to recall looking at this a few months back and they had Continentals ready to ship back then. 

Not a good situation for owners  

 

[Fly Boomer]

It's bad no matter how you look at it, but imagine waiting 23 months only to discover that the engine dropped off at your hangar is the wrong one.

[philiplane]

If you need an IO-550 you can likely get one from Certified Engines Unlimited, next week. They are one of the largest stocking engine shops in the US. 

https://ceu.aero/

[LANCECASPER]

15 hours ago, Fly Boomer said:

Right you are!  But N444HK is an Ovation--I just looked it up.  Why is he ordering a Lyc if his airplane is an Ovation?

He had an Ovation and a Bravo and sold N444HK (the Ovation) 8 years ago (https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/200789091/n444hk-2004-mooney-m20r-ovation2-dx) and now just has the M20M (N9154X)

[Will.iam]

50 minutes ago, philiplane said:

If you need an IO-550 you can likely get one from Certified Engines Unlimited, next week. They are one of the largest stocking engine shops in the US. 

https://ceu.aero/

Why can’t one of the largest engine stock facilities be in a dry climate like Arizona instead of the highest corrosion state of Florida. Just seems like asking for trouble. 

[NewMoon]

7 hours ago, alextstone said:

Perhaps his avatar has not been updated since a purchase or he owns two aircraft?

Flightaware registration says it's a 2003 M20R, engine info says Cont IO-550. strange

[1980Mooney]

8 hours ago, NewMoon said:

Flightaware registration says it's a 2003 M20R, engine info says Cont IO-550. strange

That was the OP’s registration for his plane in 2006. His current plane’s registration is N9154X

https://www.flightaware.com/resources/registration/N9145X

[Fritz1]

Sorry to hear, that sucks, call around to get a better picture, Gann, Lycon, Victor, Poplar grove, penn yann, Mena, call Jimmy Garrison, he sometimes knows things, that other people don't, BAS was parting out a Bravo with a non shock loaded engine about 4 weeks ago, as stated before cylinders may just be out, set of serviceable cylinders might be your best bet right now to get into back into the air, the AF1B cylinder is used in no other engine, that makes these cylinders rare and hard to find

[Skates97]

Different engine (O-360A1D) but I went through something similar with Air Power. Was initially supposed to be 12 months, then it turned into 19 months. I found one at Airmark in FL and they quoted a 9 week turn for overhaul. Ordered it from Airmark, cancelled the Air Power, and Airmark shipped in 7 weeks. I was able to get the deposit refund from Air Power without issue communicating via email. I'll PM you the emails for the two individuals I dealt with at Air Power for the cancellation/refund. 

[M20F]

On 8/17/2024 at 5:50 PM, LANCECASPER said:

The rebuild shop will be waiting for the same parts Lycoming is waiting on.

100% the answer.  Situations vary.  If your cylinders are good (can be over hauled) maybe you get done in 6 weeks.  
 
Need a new crank maybe 18 months.  
 
I am selectively picking some parts but @LANCECASPER got it right. 

[Paul Thomas]

When I talked with some shops earlier this year, getting cylinders in advance wasn't really going to speed up an overhaul because you still need to other parts out. As much as they were willing to order cylinders, they didn't recommend stocking up on parts to try to get a faster o/h.

I can't help but wonder how much of our engines issues at this point are due to the need to gain 1,500 hours for the airlines vs. covid backlogs.

[OR75]

2 hours ago, Paul Thomas said:

When I talked with some shops earlier this year, getting cylinders in advance wasn't really going to speed up an overhaul because you still need to other parts out. As much as they were willing to order cylinders, they didn't recommend stocking up on parts to try to get a faster o/h.

I can't help but wonder how much of our engines issues at this point are due to the need to gain 1,500 hours for the airlines vs. covid backlogs.

no need to rush to 1500h ... the airlines hiring has very much slowed down

[A64Pilot]

Usually most first run cylinders can be overhauled, and cranks turned if necessary, but my limited experience with 540’s is if the engine isn’t well past TBO the crank will mike out fine.

At least give Carlus a call, in my opinion his overhauls are better than the factory. Ask about a “performance” overhaul

https://www.gannaviation.com/engine-overhauls

 

[Paul Thomas]

9 hours ago, OR75 said:

no need to rush to 1500h ... the airlines hiring has very much slowed down

They are still rushing around here. Lots of people renting in FL to rack up hours faster than the flight instructor/banner towing/etc routes. Some of these people are flying 8 hours a day, as if it was a job, to get to the magic number. I don't remember seeing people do that prior to the rule change but it could just be more apparent today.

The flight schools have grown at every airport, and they have grown substantially. There are also multiple operators selling block time that is measured in hundreds of hours.