Airplane Owner Maintenance

A Maintenance Oriented Podcast For Airplane Owners, Pilots, and Mechanics

Tag: mooney

173 – What’s Happening With Cylinder #1 in my Mooney M20J?

April 9, 2021 / / 0 Comments

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I got an email from Michael this past week. He owns a Mooney M20J, and something strange happened with cylinder #1’s EGT and CHT recently. Michael agreed to let me share the story, so that’s the main feature in this episode. The picture above is one Michael took with his borescope while looking for any obvious problems with the cylinder.

Before we get to that story, here are a few items I included in this episode:

  • How I microwaved a fork, and nothing bad happened 🙂
  • How I’ve been fighting the mice at Classic Aviation.
  • The great people this week who either stopped by the shop to say hi, or who sent me an email or voice message:
    • Mike, and his Cirrus SR22.
    • Steve and Janet, and their Twin Comanche.
    • Rudy and his Mooney M20J.
    • Michael and his Mooney M20J. (This is the featured story in this episode.)
  • A little follow up from the Piper Saratoga story I talked about in the last episode
  • … and here’s the little basil plant that has become more interesting than I ever thought it would:

Here are a couple more samples from the excellent photos Michael took of cylinder #1 with his borescope:

Finally, for those of you who love great books, especially books that use good aviation stories to teach life lessons, I have a good one to recommend.

John Ramstead has a new book coming out real soon called “On Purpose With Purpose.” From his days as an F-14 Tomcat pilot, to a near-fatal horse-riding accident, to his transition to a podcaster, speaker, and coach, John’s book is absolutely inspiring. I’ve already pre-ordered my copy, and I’ve been reading the digital version… it’s excellent!

Why don’t you join me in reading this book? Click here to buy your copy.

If you just want to learn more about the book, click here.

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143 – Oh No! A Lycoming Exhaust Stud Pulled Out!

May 30, 2020 / / 2 Comments

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Note: The “Safety Wire Like A Pro!” video training course is available for one more day at 20% off (use code “canard” for discount coupon.) Read about the training here:

https://airplane-owner-maintenance.teachable.com/p/safetywiring

Three stories for today:

Story #1:

A Lycoming exhaust stud pulled out.

It was disappointing, but turned out to be an inspiring learning experience.

A helicoil had previously been installed, which pulled out, and left a hole too big to install another helicoil (thread repair). Listen and find out how we solved the problem with a “Keensert” thread repair:

It worked fantastically!

Story #2:

Bad spark Plug.

We also talked in this episode about a bad spark plug and how we determined which one was bad, using the engine monitor system in a Cirrus SR22.

The EGT for cylinder #2 was higher than all the others because only one spark plug was firing in that cylinder which caused the exhaust gases to be hotter when they crossed the EGT probe.

It turned out the spark plug ceramic was cracked and the plug was not working at all: (I verified it using the spark plug tester.) There’s actually another crack on the other side of the ceramic as well.

With some basic training, an engine monitor can be an excellent troubleshooting tool.

Story #3:

Rough engine in an Ercoupe.

After some troubleshooting, it was discovered that cylinder #2 had no compression due to a stuck exhaust valve.

Other resources mentioned in this episode:

https://airplane-owner-maintenance.teachable.com/p/safetywiring

(Use code “canard” for 20% off on the safety wiring training course until midnight May 31, 2020.)

PilotWorkshop.com

(Be sure to sign up for the free pilot “Tip of the week.”)

142 – Fixing a Stranded Cessna 172XP and Flying it Home

May 16, 2020 / / 0 Comments

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What an adventure!

This airplane got stranded at Wilmington, Delaware due to failure of the #2 cylinder on the Lycoming IO-360 engine.

The local maintenance shop discovered the exhaust valve rocker shaft stud had broken… here’s what it looked like:

Obviously, that cylinder was rendered useless… and it caused a significant power loss. Thankfully, the flight instructor and student were able to make an uneventful landing at KILG.

Weeks later, Kenneth and I set out on an adventure to fix the airplane and get it back home.

We left early one morning with a new cylinder assembly and all the parts and tools we anticipated needing for the repair.

It went as well as could be expected… here’s Kenneth at work in the shop, where we were surrounded by amazing airplanes… a TBM, a Cirrus Vision Jet, and some other bigger jets. The only other piston airplane in this shop was a Piper Warrior.

I wasn’t sure how it would go having two of us working on the same cylinder change, but it went very well.

We took a short lunch break to grab some burgers at Wendy’s, and by mid afternoon, the installation was complete.

We did a short ground run, and then it was time for a brief local flight to make sure things were good for the return to Shenandoah Valley. I’d never done a maintenance test flight at a towered airport, so that was a little different, but actually went very well. The controller was excellent to work with and very helpful, which was much appreciated.

After the short flight, we checked the engine again and everything looked good. Now it was time for the flight home.

Kenneth flew the Mooney we had traveled in that morning, and I flew the Cessna 172XP. Most things went as planned, except for the out of the ordinary situation right before takeoff.

A single engine Cessna landed and told the controller their oil door popped off, and it was on the runway. So we had to wait for a maintenance truck to come out and retrieve the oil door off the runway before we could take off. I didn’t see that one coming!

The trip home went very well… I flew VFR, so I was thankful I had noticed the night before that I could fly slightly around the North side of the BWI, IAD, and Washington, DC area, and stay clear of those areas.

This airplane has a JPI engine monitor, and I later downloaded the data and saw exactly where the cylinder failure had occurred. Take a look:

I just wish the sample rate had been set to 1 second, instead of 6 seconds, but it’s better than nothing for sure. The upper graph is the EGT, and the yellow line is cylinder #2, the one that failed. What I haven’t fully figured out yet, is why the purple (#4) dropped off so dramatically right after that. I’m thinking that happened since it was right next to #2, but I need to ask an engine data expert about that. Maybe I’ll check with Joe Godfrey with Savvy Analysis.

(The bottom graph is engine RPM.) There’s so much more information in the profile that is not shown here.

One more thing… I was very thankful that when I got an error message on the way home, it was for cylinder #1 and not #2, the one we had just fixed. Here’s a shot of the engine monitor on the trip home:

It later turned out that one of the probe wires for #2 was loose… an easy fix.

All in all, it was a great adventure, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to help rescue a stranded airplane. It’s a wonderful thing to fly an airplane you’ve returned to airworthy condition!

Here’s a screen shot of my trip home… a little squiggly, but I figure it’s not bad for the given circumstances!



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