In-Flight Engine Failure

Ouch. I paid 20K and change for a Penn Yann O-540 rebuild to new limits
with everything new except the case and crank last summer. Yours is a 4
banger, right? I guess the turbo adds a bunch to it?

"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote:

Yes, seems reasonable, painful as that conclusion is.
Price tag: $21K (plus labor). Gulp.

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

6 cylinders.

Ray Andraka wrote:

Ouch. I paid 20K and change for a Penn Yann O-540 rebuild to new limits
with everything new except the case and crank last summer. Yours is a 4
banger, right? I guess the turbo adds a bunch to it?

"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote:


Yes, seems reasonable, painful as that conclusion is.
Price tag: $21K (plus labor). Gulp.


--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

IHMO, the aviation gods have smiled upon you. They made the engine last
long enough to get you safely on the ground so you could write that $21k
check. The alternative could have been much worse.

I definitely agree.

I will back-up that recommendation although I am not totally unbiased as I
work at the airport. Tour the engine shop if you get a chance.

"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote in message
...
Yeah, that is where my A&P just recommended that I send it. Your
endorsement makes me fee all the better! Thanks.

PaulH wrote:

Had a prop interference overhaul done at Poplar Grove, IL a couple of
years ago. I visited the shop when the had the engine apart and was
really impressed.

In article , Nathan Young
writes:

Many (OK, some) ignition switches have an AD with a recurring inspection
requirement that requires testing the OFF position every 100 hours. AD
76-07-12

Yep, and you can tell when the mechanic is testing the Bendix switch
by the backfires outside his hangar.

Question. If you let the engine come to a stop and then restarted it, would
that be better? Would it possibly cause a manifold fire? It would prevent the
backfire.

Chuck

"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote in message ...
Yeah, that is where my A&P just recommended that I send it. Your
endorsement makes me fee all the better! Thanks.



I had to change a cranckshaft bolt by an AD on a AEIO 540 on an extra 300L.
'EXTRA' distributor and 'lycoming' estimated the labor time to be
somwhere in the 30 Hrs,While pulling the engine of the aircraft was
the only way to perform the job.
The guys in POPLAR GROVE did it in 12 hrs,whitout even removing the
engine,
they are experts,and $$$ savers compare to the others mentioned above,
I am back there again when engine work needed(hope never).
Good luck with the overhaul,and safe flying - soon.



PaulH wrote:

Had a prop interference overhaul done at Poplar Grove, IL a couple of
years ago. I visited the shop when the had the engine apart and was
really impressed.

For a rebuild on the TSIO360 I guess you can go to (in personal order of
preference):

*) Western Skyways
*) TCM
*) Victor Engines

If you didn't have the "FB" version before, you can get the upgrade
(pushrods I think) and have an 1800 TBO.

"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote in message
...
Well, it happended. I have owned the plane (Piper Turbo Arrow III) for
3 months and the engine failed during climb out on Tuesday. Altitude
was 4400 feet. Luckily, the engine did not entirely quit and I made it
to an airport within 10 miles. TBO was 1000 hours away. Dissapointing!
When we cut the oil filter, it was full of fairly large aluminum and
steel bits of metal. Arg!

(1) Upon examination, the wire into the left magneto was found to be
broken off, just at its connection to the magneto. A mechanic theorized
that it could have grounded to the magento housing. He said that that
could have actually caused a grounding of both magnetos and could have
fouled up the engine firing, and could have contributed to the failure.
Later, he said that he thought that it was just a coincidence that the
left mag wire happened to have been broken when the engine failed due to
some other reason. What do you folks think? Could the two have been
tied togehter?

(2) Now I am faced with having to have the engine overhauled. Growl!
The engine has brand new cylinders on it (well, they have about 100
hours on them) put on by the previous owner. So, I think we want to do
a custom overall of this particular engine. Does that make sense? Are
there different places who do this sort of thing with different
reputations for quality of work? If so, I would like to hear about
recommendations (the engine is a TCM TSIO-360-FB) or perhaps criteria to
use in making a judgement. Also, are there different quality parts or
methods in doing the overhaul that are options that I need to specify
when I ask for the overhaul. In other words, if I can pay 10% more and
get more reliability, then I might like to have the option to do
that...but often, you have to be knowledgeable enough to ask for the
right things.

Update: The crank shaft broke! That means I was operating on just a
couple of cylinders. The overhaul folks said that have only seen this
happen one other time; apparently it is quite rare.

I am going to visit my engine tomorrow to see the damage for myself, see
if we can conclude what caused it, and learn as much as I can from
seeing my engine splayed out on a workbench.

Seems like a great learning opportunity. Any suggestions on good
questions to ask, or something special I should try to learn from seeing
my engine in this state?

-Sami
N2057M, Piper Turbo Arrow III (in surgery)

Did this engine ever have a prop strike?

Karl


"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote in message
...
Update: The crank shaft broke! That means I was operating on just a
couple of cylinders. The overhaul folks said that have only seen this
happen one other time; apparently it is quite rare.

I am going to visit my engine tomorrow to see the damage for myself, see
if we can conclude what caused it, and learn as much as I can from
seeing my engine splayed out on a workbench.

Seems like a great learning opportunity. Any suggestions on good
questions to ask, or something special I should try to learn from seeing
my engine in this state?

-Sami
N2057M, Piper Turbo Arrow III (in surgery)

kage wrote:
: Did this engine ever have a prop strike?

: Karl

That was going to be my question! Even a prop strike on something "soft"
such as snow can lead to a later crank failure. Did you see any mention of
a prop overhaul/replacement in the logs?
--
Aaron Coolidge