When an airplane engine is making a small amount of ferrous metal, but the evidence is not totally conclusive, the decision to tear it apart, or not, can be gut-wrenching.
Such was the case for the O-540 engine in a turbo Cessna 182RG I’ve been working on at Classic Aviation LLC.
But after the owners decided to have it torn apart, and I got to see the evidence, I’m convinced they made the right decision.
Take a look at the two worst lifters:
And the corresponding cam lobe for those two lifters:
Here’s a side view of the worn cam lobe:
Now compare to one of the other cam lobes that was NOT worn down:
After seeing the condition of the camshaft and the lifters, I was very pleased with the decision of the airplane’s owners to have the engine torn down and repaired.
This engine was mid-time, and all the cylinders were running fine with good compressions, so it made sense to do this repair as opposed to a full overhaul.
In this episode, we also discussed some squawks from a Cirrus SR22T. I’ve got some photos and even a video for some of these.
Alternator #1 needed to be removed due to brush wear, and the oil seal was leaking… check out the brushes that came out in pieces:
We also had to send the engine driven fuel pump for overhaul… watch a startling video of a BAD fuel leak:
We sent the fuel pump to Mike’s Aircraft Fuel Metering in Tulsa, Oklahoma for overhaul… they do excellent work on fuel system components.
Happy New Year everyone! May God bless you in 2022!
If you’re thinking about buying an airplane, stop right now and listen to this episode, because Adam Sipe can absolutely save you lots of time, money and needless frustration in the process of buying an airplane.
He shared so much valuable wisdom in this episode, and I can’t wait to listen to the whole thing again myself.
… and don’t be fooled by the fact that Adam is only 33 years old… if you listen to the whole episode, you’ll discover his secret (and it’s a secret that applies to all areas of life,) for how he acquired a lifetime of aviation wisdom in such a short time and at such a young age.
Before we go any further, let me tell you a little bit about Adam.
Adam Sipe is the President of Airplane Intel, Inc., a company that helps people buy, maintain, and manage airplanes. He’s an aircraft mechanic with inspection authorization (A&P-IA), commercial pilot, flight instructor, and Embry Riddle graduate. Adam is also a Marine Corps veteran and host of the Airplane Intel Podcast.
Click the following link to read even more about Adam’s aviation journey:
Here are some examples of the “Prebuy Gold” or “Prebuy Wisdom” Adam shared with us in this podcast episode:
“I call a prebuy more of an investigation than an inspection because you’re trying to uncover things that would be outside the normal thinking of an annual or some other scheduled inspection.”
“Missing records can affect the value of the airplane as much as 30%!”
“Sometimes it’s not what the logbooks say, it’s what they don’t say that’s important.”
“Maintenance affects value.”
“In a prebuy scenario, we don’t need to know all the squawks; we need to know the ones that are most important and the most pressing and the most urgent… and the ones that affect value.”
“You’re not replacing a scheduled inspection with the prebuy, and the prebuy is not going to uncover every defect, because it’s just not possible.”
“This is kind of general to the market… the asking prices are extraordinarily too high… in other words, they’re asking far more for the airplane than what it’s worth, and that’s a huge mistake that people go in and offer full price on these airplanes.”
“There’s two points in a transaction on an airplane where you can negotiate (and I encourage folks to negotiate.) One is when you’re making your initial offer. The second time is after the prebuy.”
“Asking prices are too high, and people are over-paying.”
“If there’s a lien on the airplane, that could stop the transaction from happening, and on that note, I recommend people go through an escrow service… a title company that specializes in aircraft transactions, because the reason why that lien didn’t get caught previously is because they didn’t go through escrow.”
“I’ve seen an airplane that was worth maybe $150,000 have a lien on it for $400,000 because someone used it as collateral for something else.”
“I’ve definitely come across missing AD’s and/or overdue AD’s.”
“I highly recommend taking a test flight in the airplane… now, this is where it’s very critical that you’re clearly not the pilot in command; you’re an observer or passenger in the right seat; you let the owner fly the airplane; or someone that’s on the owner’s insurance.”
“The flight test is in my opinion the most important part of the prebuy because that’s where you’re going to learn the most.”
“Hail damage is repairable, but it’s not worth repairing most of the time because it’s just too expensive.”
Wow! Just this list right here has the potential to save you thousands of dollars in your airplane buying process if you put the principles into action.
I highly recommend hiring Adam and his team at Airplane Intel for your next airplane purchase. I’m confident you’ll be glad you did!
Thanks Adam, for joining us for this episode! And thank you for your service in the United States Marine Corps. We appreciate you!
Adam shown next to his F/A-18C Hornet in Beaufort, SC
To learn more about Adam and Airplane Intel, be sure to check out these links:
If you want to read some fun stuff about Adam personally, he was featured earlier this year in the Ocala Magazine, in the series of articles “40 Under 40.” Well done Adam!
And congratulations to Adam and his wife Sarah with the imminent arrival of their first baby, a daughter! Congratulations Adam and Sarah!
That’s a good question, and although I don’t have the full story, we will toss around some possibilities in this episode. Thanks to all of you who responded with some really good guesses about the cause.
I received responses from 33 people after I sent out that email recently! The prevailing guess about the cause had to do with improper magneto timing which then caused the engine to kick back in the reverse direction and break the starter housing. That was my guess as well.
Be sure to listen to the audio to hear about all the responses and ideas.
In a future episode real soon, I’ll be releasing an interview with Adam Sipe from the Airplane Intel Podcast and AirplanePrebuy.com
Adam has a wealth of money-saving, stress-reducing wisdom and knowledge about buying an airplane and conducting prebuy investigations. Be sure to look for this episode real soon.
My good friend, Clark Trobaugh, flew into KSHD this past week, and while he was visiting with his family, I walked over to his airplane on the ramp and noted a few things that needed attention…
Here’s the one that prompted Clark’s brother Scott to send me a text that said, “Thanks for looking out for him. We always knew he had a screw loose and I’m glad you could fix it.” That made me laugh, for sure! These brothers have a lot of fun together.
It turned out the screw was the wrong one… it was a sheet metal screw and should have been a machine screw. Check it out:
And here’s the result after installing the correct screw:
I also discovered a panel chafing under the left horizontal stabilizer:
I removed the panel, cleaned the area, and reinstalled it:
Another item that needed attention was a shielding ground connection on the left alternator… check out this video:
And one more item I took care of for Clark was the left and right elevator trim tab connections… take a look at this:
Since there is a bushing in this location, the bolt should be tightened onto the bushing and the rotation happens around the bushing. I greased the bushing, reinstalled the bolt and nut, and installed a new cotter pin, for both trim tabs.
Here’s how the pieces look when taken apart:
And here’s the end result after reassembly:
Listen to the audio for this episode for more details on these items, as well as a tribute to Clark and Scott’s dad, Larry Trobaugh, who passed away in May of 2020. Larry was a great man, and I think so highly of him and his family.
In this episode, we are talking about two different exhaust valves, both of which showed signs of burning when we looked at them with the borescope.
One valve was in the beginning stages of burning, and the other was too far gone. Scroll down for more info and some photos.
We also talk a bit in this episode about Arthur St. Clair and his P35 Bonanza. I mentioned him in a previous episode, and recently he came back to Classic Aviation so we could borescope his cylinders and exhaust valves. Thankfully, all his valves were in good shape. Here’s a photo from that day:
Now for the two exhaust valves mentioned in the title for this episode…
Here’s a photo of the one that was too far gone, and the cylinder had to be removed and sent out for repair:
Notice the green edge from 11 o’clock to 2 o’clock on the valve… a badly burning area. The valve guide was also very worn, so we sent the cylinder out for repair.
I also cut the old rotocoil apart for this valve and it had a lot of black carbon bits in it, and the internal spring showed the classic flat spot that is many times seen when an exhaust valve has been burning. Here’s the rotocoil:
The other burning exhaust valve on this same engine was only in the beginning stages, and after lapping the valve and installing a new rotocoil and new valve springs, the compression was 72/80 after runup! What a fantastic result! Here’s what that one looked like:
The small area at 12 O’clock on the valve is starting to burn, but it was salvageable by lapping and installing a new rotocoil to ensure proper valve rotation and better sealing capability.
So the moral of the story is, borescope your exhaust valves at regular intervals, like 50 hours, and hopefully you can catch a burning valve before it’s too far gone and has to be removed.
It’s been a long and in-depth annual inspection, along with the extensive list of squawk repairs. But it’s a great airplane, and I’d love to fly it if I had the opportunity!
In today’s podcast, we cover the remaining squawks on this airplane, concluding with scale weighing the aircraft, and sending it back out into the blue skies yesterday!
I’m confident the owner will get many happy and safe hours of flying out of this amazing airplane.
Be sure to check out the store page to learn more about the services I provide. If I can help you in any way, leave me a voice message by clicking the tab over on the right side of the page or send me an email to dean{at}airplaneownermaintenance{dot}com
In episode 188, we covered the first 30 squawks on a Cessna 172 that’s in the shop for an annual inspection and a bunch of repairs.
In this episode, we are tackling another chunk of the squawks and repairs.
Here’s a sampling:
Under the pilot instrument panel, some wiring was tied to one of the fuel primer lines… a bad idea. I secured the wiring away from the primer line.
Here’s another one: the owner did not like the old, large throttle knob, and was ready to change the whole throttle control cable. Instead, I found a new knob that worked very well, and looks much nicer. (The knob in my hand is the old one.)
And another one: the instrument panel shock mounts were sagging, cracked, and broken:
In the next episode, I’m planning to finish the Cessna 172 squawks, and by then, the airplane should be back in the air!
As always, if I can help you with evaluating borescope images, reviewing maintenance records, or one-on-one consulting, you can check out the options on the STORE PAGE here on the website.
It certainly looked like a crusty old engine when we removed the cowling for the annual inspection.
The exterior is one thing… but perhaps even more importantly, I wondered about the internal condition of the engine.
Surprisingly, the borescope showed the cylinders to be in amazingly good condition on the inside. Perhaps this was partially due to lots of consistent flying in the past couple years.
Since the airplane had been in Florida before it was sold, there were multiple areas of corrosion to clean and repaint. Just the other day, it was “spotty green,” as we had primed the bare spots in preparation for paint.
In this week’s podcast episode, we cover the first 30 squawks… we’ll continue through the list in another episode.
In today’s podcast episode, I talked about this specific SR22, and some maintenance I was involved in… scroll down for some related photos.
But first, I just wanted to say the SR22 is a great airplane! Here are some of the “wonders” of an SR22, as I see it:
It’s a beautiful aircraft!
It feels so natural, sitting in the pilot seat.
It has a parachute.
It’s composite-built.
It’s been around long enough to become “time-tested” and to have many of the bugs worked out.
The paint jobs are usually amazing.
It goes fast, but has fixed landing gear.
On the other hand, the SR22 also has some “woes.”
The nose gear and fairing have had issues.
Sometimes the nose gear fairing breaks apart due to shimmy (probably often due to poor maintenance and low swivel friction.)
Differential braking is required for steering, and sometimes the brakes overheat.
When the brakes overheat, you have to replace the o-rings in the brake caliper (and they are special, high-dollar o-rings.)
An airworthiness limitation requires replacing or repacking the parachute every 10 or 11 years, depending on the model, and this is costly.
And then there’s the maintenance… the SR22 definitely takes some maintenance to keep it in good condition.
And now here are some tasks I helped with on the SR22 at the top of this post:
Repositioning a loose induction coupling which caused full power RPM fluctuation (and probably a few other related things):
Magneto timing, and how I almost dropped one of the rubber drive bushings down inside the engine! It was barely hanging on the edge of a gear inside the engine!
Fixing a piece of baffling (fwd of cylinder #6) that came loose when its 2 attaching rivets failed:
Repositioning an ALT 2 wire so it would not chafe on the prop governor:
Resealing the right brake caliper and installing new temp stickers:
Tightening an oil plug and installing safety wire:
It was an adventure, and I look forward to the next time I get to work on an SR22… I really like those airplanes!
As promised, here’s the video that explains the electrical system in an SR22… I found it to be excellent training:
As usual, if I can serve you with any of your “airplane owner needs” I’d be happy to do so… you can check out my services on the “store” page for details about:
From left: Arthur, Dave, Mervin, Dean (I got to work with these guys last Monday at Classic Aviation., when Dave had me lap the exhaust valves in cylinders 3 and 5.)
Scroll down for more info about this valve lapping adventure.
Diamond DA40 annual inspection – here are some squawks we discuss in this episode:
Electroair ignition leads.
Nose gear issues, including a missing elastomer element:
This is the elastomer pack for the nose gear. The small elastomer element in the yellow circle is the one that we replaced since the old one had split and fallen out of position. The hydraulic press was very helpful in compressing the stack to get the nut started. The end in the yellow circle goes on the bottom end when installed on the airplane, and the rod end bearing at the bottom of the photo is actually the top of the stack, and attaches to the engine mount at the firewall.
AmSafe seatbelts
RG24-15M aircraft battery
Alternator 500 hour brush inspection
Alternator aux. wire terminal loose
Aft door warning light inop.
Prop governor nuts under-torqued
Bolt dangling from the induction airbox
Oil leak caused by the engine driven fuel pump:
Engine baffling issues
Loose brake caliper bolts
Aluminum dust on prop spinner bulkheads:
Aft avionics fan inlet filter badly deteriorated and filthy:
Rudder cable tension low
Wiring and baffle rod under right side of engine
Now back to the valve lapping project with the Bonanza – here are the exhaust valves from cylinder 3 and cylinder 5… #3 compression improved from 60/80 to 62/80, and #5 compression improved from 55/80 to 69/80. The real test will be when we see the results after another 25, 50, and 100 hours of operation.
The #3 exhaust valve definitely has some irregularities; hopefully it will return to a normal appearance in several hours of operation after lapping and installing a new rotocoil.The #5 exhaust valve looks quite healthy overall, with a very small questionable area at about the 1 o’clock position. We also lapped this one and installed a new rotocoil as a proactive measure.
By the way, these photos were taken with my new Vividia VA-400 borescope… I was very impressed with the photo resolution compared with my older borescope from a couple years ago.
There are various options, and if you want to display the images on your iPhone or iPad, I recommend the VA-400 WiFi Bundle #1: VA-400 and W01 wifi box (Model: VA-400W1)
When you purchase from Oasis Scientific and use the code “Dean” you will receive a 10% discount, and you’ll be supporting the podcast at the same time.
It was a great experience meeting Dave Ovad and working on his F33A Bonanza along with Mervin and Arthur.
It was also a pleasure to see Arthur’s P35 Bonanza that day:
Arthur has a really nice panel in his airplane as well… check it out:
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