Hi,

I've owned my airplane, a '69 piper Cherokee, for about 5 years now, and
it's finally time that one "annual from hell" that happens to everyone at
some point or another to hit. The engine is a lycoming O-360 and currently
has around 850 SMOH. It's been overhauled once in it's lifetime.

It started with some aluminum shavings which led us to suspect bad piston
pin plugs. My A&P pulled the cylinders, found that the piston pin plugs
were indeed bad, and sent the cylinders to a cylinder shop for evaluation.

Unfortunately, the shop has found that one cylinder had a cracked exhaust
port and is unservicable. It needs to be replaced. I'm still waiting to
hear on the other three, but at minimum they need to be rechromed and
possibly some repair work as well.

My A&P says that the lower half of the engine is in excellent condition,
so there is no need for a full overhaul.

This leaves me with three options:

A) Replace all four cylinders with new at a cost of $1500 each. Times four
that is $6000.

B) Replace all four cylinders with "used" (reconditioned?) at a cost of
$900 each. Total of $3700.

C) Replace only the bad one and get the three remaining good ones
rechromed and/or repaired. I don't know what the rechroming/repair fee
will be on the other three yet, so that option is unknown. I'm supposed to
hear back from the shop by tomorrow with an estimate.

Of course, added to these costs are whatever labor and parts my A&P has
accumulated during the annual, the labor to put the replacement cylinders
back on, torque everything down, etc. Generally the rest of the annual
went very well (which is the sole bit of good news).

Anyway, my question to the other airplane owners out there -- which of the
three options A, B, or C would you choose? In generally, my philosophy has
been to avoid using "used" parts when at all possible, but of course these
are very expensive parts. Unfortunately I have no budget saved up for
this, so cost is a major factor to me.

I'm probably looking at owning the airplane for another 400-500 hours
maximum. Thus when I go to sell, the ad would read something like "1250
SMOH 400 STOH". Is the top-overhaul a selling point? Is the buyer going to
care significantly whether I use new cylinders or used/reconditioned?

Thanks!

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