EASA has issued an emergency AD for Austro E4/E4P engines with cylinder heads P/N E4A-12-500-000. It says:
Occurrences were reported of HPP [high pressure pump] driving gear failure. Subsequent investigation determined that a certain batch of HPP driving gears was produced with a worn out assembly tool P/N AE300T012-1. Those HPP driving gears may have been damaged during assembly. Concurrently, it was determined
that, for engines equipped with a certain cylinder head, a stack up of tolerances exists between the cylinder head, cylinder head cover, camshaft gear and HPP gear. Both scenarios could result in premature HPP gear failure.
This condition, if not corrected, could lead to engine in-flight shut-down with consequent forced landing, possibly resulting in damage to the aeroplane and injury to occupants.
An inspection of the HPP gears is required before the next flight (except for engines with less than 40 hours total time on singles or less than 80 hours on twins).
Ok, the question is, is this the accidents we were talking about here or is there another issue with those engines? HPP gear failures and ECU failures do not eally correspond or am I wrong here?
Don’t know about ECU, but there was yet another AD for Austro E4 this summer. That one had to do with oil pumps, but only specific serial numbers.
Is this related?
Diamond have a new supplier for cylinder heads in Czech Rep. but latest data shows that they are cracking or failing as soon as five hours and apparently Austro control approved use up to 40 hours.
Is this related?
Diamond have a new supplier for cylinder heads in Czech Rep. but latest data shows that they are cracking or failing as soon as five hours and apparently Austro control approved use up to 40 hours.
No. This is the other one. AFAIK the third one issued in just few months, grounding many aircrafts due to parts being unavailable.
Emir wrote:
No. This is the other one. AFAIK the third one issued in just few months, grounding many aircrafts due to parts being unavailable.
Not good at all.
Unfortunately, Austro Engine has new big issue. Attached is draft of MSB affecting huge number of engines. I don’t know if final version of MSB is released but it won’t be much different. In short, many owners are looking engine replacement in near future plus frequent oil analysis prior to final verdict on exchange/overhaul.
2022_Diamond_Aircraft_and_Austro_Engine_Newsletter_5_MSB_E4_039_PREVIEW_pdf
Nasty.. How are your Conti Diesels holding out? SB’s?
Is it correct that Austro uses the standard cast iron car engine block? If so I wonder if this came about due to field service reports on the car engines? Or does Austro use non-automotive pistons in the stock block, with these being the issue?
If I owned one I’d be very interested in whether an AD is to follow.
On an air cooled engine in the same circumstance you’d just hone the cylinders, install new, correctly manufactured pistons/rings and fly on.
Silvaire wrote:
Is it correct that Austro uses the standard cast iron car engine block? If so I wonder if this came about due to field service reports on the car engines? Or does Austro use non-automotive pistons in the stock block, with these being the issue?
My understanding is that Austro used stock car engine blocks bought from the car engine manufacturers but at some point begun manufacturing the blocks themselves which lead to quality issues. That may be entirely unrelated to this problem, of course.
