First annual; bad news

Jmcmanna

I bought my Arrow this past October. The prebuy noted no major issues, although the engine (about 1300 hours since the last overhaul) was installed in 1990. It ran great for the 25 or so hours I have flown it since I bought it. I took it in for my first annual last week and a large crack was discovered on the engine case. I thought that I would have a couple of years before I needed to invest in an overhaul...disappointing, but hopefully I'll be back in the air without too much delay and won't have to worry about it again for a really long time.

Harley Kleemann

Man, that is indeed a bummer!

Scott Sherer

Hi Jim,
I'm so sorry... So is it repairable without an overhaul? What do they need to do?

Jmcmanna

I am going to confer with Paul at Spring City next week. From the initial discussion, I am under the impression that it may be repairable, but being that it is almost a 30-year-old engine, it might be more justified to put on a new one rather than trying to repair this one. I'm thinking that if it happened here, the same fatigue issues are likely to pop up again. Since I'll be flying my kids around, the thought that there could be some other tired metal up front doesn't sit great with me.

Obviously I am perturbed that this was needed so soon...but the rest of the airplane had no issues during the inspection, and once this is done, I am hopefully done with major expenses for many years. Hopefully.

BillCampbell

Ouch, sorry to see that. Hope you can salvage less than a new engine.

Jmcmanna

Me too! By new, I mean, newly OH'd, or maybe factory remanned. I have visions of my kids taking lessons in the family Arrow someday, so having a solid engine would certainly make me feel a lot better about all of that.

Scott Sherer

Roger that, Jim. Let me know if you need a ride to BUU (or back).

Jmcmanna

Wilco; it's in the hangar at Spring City right now, probably until I get a new engine bolted on. At least the rest of the annual went fine. If a hangar doesn't open up at BUU before then, I will probably need a ride back to JVL!

Scott Sherer

OK, any time.

MikeJJ

Jmcmanna, I was faced with a similar decision with about the same engine time after overhaul. I had a good running engine but noticed a small drop of oil from one of the rocker covers. When the cover was removed to change the gasket, it was discovered the exhaust guide and rocker were encrusted with carbon from blow by and needed replacement. When the cylinder was removed, the cam shaft, now visible, was judged to be unserviceable!

So I thought "should I spend the money to replace the cam in a 42 year old engine or replace/overhaul the engine?" After much research, I elected to replace the original 1966 O-360-A3A with a factory zero time O-360-A4A. That also eliminated the RPM restriction, the repetitive inspections of the hollow crankshaft, and gave me the new (at the time) Lycoming roller tappets! Financially it was a stretch, but I believe the right decision.

If you do replace the engine be VERY careful with the break-in. Follow the engine makers break-in procedure TO THE LETTER! You might also want some other things done while the engine is out like going over the engine mount, oil cooler, oil hoses, new engine mount rubber, etc. it's expensive to remove and install an engine, so you might want to maximize the investment by doing any other work made easier, or requiring, engine removal.
Regards,
Mike

Scott Sherer

Right on the money, if you'll pardon the pun, Mike.

Jmcmanna

I appreciate the advice! I am meeting with my A&P on Thursday to talk about options. It’s a mid-higher time engine, so it might be time to bite the bullet and just do the OH for the peace of mind. I think I’ll put in an engine monitor at the same time, too.

N961EA

I talked to an A&P and he said repairing crack without O/H is @$10K.