Talk me out of this...

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 02:43:34 GMT, Paul Folbrecht
wrote:

So that $15.2K is for a remanufactured engine or to remanufacture _your_
engine?? Cause I thought doing the latter (tearing it down and
replacing most of the parts) was the 'usual' method, and I thought (had
been told) that around $10K for everything for a 235 was about right.
(No, not told by the FBO that's selling the plane.)

Factoryengines.com lists O-235s for 15.2k, 17.9k, and 22.5k (overhaul,
remanufactured, and new respectively). Plus, you will have install
costs and have accessories to overhaul or replace. You could hit $20k
easily for an installed overhauled engine.

Factoryengines usually has pretty good prices, but I was surprised
about the $15k for a O-235 overhaul. I have a O-360 in my Cherokee,
and its overhaul is only $13.8k.

Regarding the differences between overhauls - I'm not an expert at
this by any means, but here's my take...

Overhauled engine: Engine parts are replaced or reworked as necessary
to be within overhaul limits. You need to be careful about what type
of overhaul is specified. There are two main kinds of overhauls,
service limits, and new limits. Service limits are the absolute
minimums as specified by the engine manufacturer (a bad idea in my
opinion). There are also overhauls to new limits, ie the components
of the engine have the same tolerances as a new engine. Either way,
the engine comes out with the same logbook, and total time is not
reset. It is however 0 hours since major overhaul.

Blueprinted engines: There are speciality shops that match/balance
components to provide a smoother and more powerful engine. These
typically cost more than a regular overhaul, and perhaps more than a
remanufactured engine. Regardless, the engine will not be zero timed.
It is essentially an overhaul to super-specifications.

Remanufactured. Engine components are reworked/replaced to new
limits. Engine is issued a new logbook and is 0 TT / 0 SMOH. Many
question the value of the reman besides having a zerotimed logbook.

New engine: This the easy one. It is brand new from Lycoming. O TT,
0 TSMOH.

Avweb has a good article on engine overhauls:
http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/182826-1.html

-Nathan