By "Run Out", I mean that the engine will not serve the owner for many
years
to come.

While we are nit-picking, What do you mean by "Making Metal"? I always
thought matter could not be created or destroyed.

Making Metal, means that particles of the metal lineing on the main bearing
shells is peeling off and showing up in the oil filter and in the oil when
you drain the sump / oil tank. That's a sure indication that the engine
should not be run a minute longer as failure is very near and unpredictible.
We may complain when an A&P grounds an aircraft with metal in the oil
strainer but should be mighty glad when we consider that he's just saved a
falure in the air.
--
..
..
Cheers,
Jonathan Lowe,
Rallye 100
EI-BFR


(This is a rhetorical question. I know what you mean by making metal, just
as I'm pretty sure you knew what I meant by run out)

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...

"Steve Foley" wrote in message
...

Yup. It's run out,

No, it is not "run out" whatever you mean by that statement. It is
still
holding compression, not making metal, and does not have excessive oil
consumption.


and will need replacement/rebuilding shortly.

Really? And what diameter was the crystal ball that you used to make
this
determination? I've seen engines that have been taken care of go DOUBLE
TBO. I've seen abused engines go HALF TBO. It is strictly a function
of
the care and feeding of the engine.



How should I approach this engine ( i.e. just assume everything over
1800 hours was a freebee and there is no guarantee it's not about to
poop out

Engines don't "poop out". Engines have a slow, steady slide into
required
serious maintenance. Every now and again, one will have an unforeseen
catastrophic failure, but those are few and far between.

The other side of that coin is that bearing/crankshaft wear tends to
become
exponential after a point in time when it departs from linear. That is,
for
a long time (extrapolated by the manufacturer to be "TBO") the wear on
the
bearings and the crank is linear. At some point when the bearings get
to
be
sloppy on the crank, the wear accelerates, and the faster it
accelerates,
the faster it accelerates. If you want to play the crankshaft roulette
game, you extend TBO until the bearings start to make metal. Then you
pull
the engine down, and if you are lucky, the bearings (the cheap part)
took
the hit and left the crank journals intact. If you lose, you grind the
crank UNLESS somebody else played crankshaft roulette before you and the
crank had already been ground to minimums. Now you REALLY have a rough
row
to hoe, in that you get to find a replacement crank ... which ain't
cheap
by
anybody's standards.

Jim