I’m currently looking at an aircraft that is in shop with http://www.overhaul.com. The engine has had about 1200 hours on it and is supposed to be delivered with 0 hrs SMOH and 1 year full parts & labor warranty, 3 additional years pro-rated warranty. The engine is a Continental IO-550 with TAT Turbo Normalized system.
Can someone with experience in the subject please comment? Does this work basically get me a new engine or what does it mean?
PS: Mistyped the subject and can’t find how to edit it. [fixed]
Overhauled is not new. It can be good, it can be bad. Just like a new engine. Overhauled does not mean its worse than new. In the racing sport, they never use new engines, only overhauled.
The warranty is usually crap. No matter what happens, it’s always the operator’s fault.
1200 hours on it and is supposed to be delivered with 0 hrs SMOH
I’d ask why it had a major (as opposed to topend) overhaul at 1200 hours. The engine log will have information about what was done at the major overhaul. If your not qualified, pay YOUR engineer to read it. For the guarantee – look at the company. They would have to have a tremendous reputation to lose before they would replace much free of charge.
PS I was told a Jodel engine had only a few hours since a major overhaul. It had had a repair for the sump damaged when it hit a concrete block – but no other new parts. The owner claimed innocence about knowing what a major overhaul was.
[quote fixed]
Stephan
Given it’s a TAT IO550 TN: is it a Cirrus?
If so, you can download the engine logs from the MFD and post them to either CirrusReports.com or SavvyAnalysis.com and get the experts to look at them. That should give you a good idea what happened.
The general tone of reports on the “engine warranty” scene is that the company (original or overhauler) honours the warranty if the engine falls apart or a conrod with a piston attached flies out through the cowling.
Anything less, they will honour it but you have to credibly go after them, which means not just a nasty letter (they get them all day) but instructing lawyers and getting them to hit the company. About €1000-€2000 for that, with a well known (non street corner) legal firm. I personally know of several cases like that. The company gets you to sign an NDA however, so nobody is going to talk openly. Such deals were done e.g. on the SB569 crank business – probably Lyco paid for the engine overhaul pro-rated to remaining time to 2000hrs.
And since conrods very rarely go flying (I’ve seen the remains of one hanging out of a Conti TIO550 in an old twin, 5hrs after an overhaul done by a – don’t look shocked – UK Part 145 company!) this means engine warranties are basically worthless to the average SEP owner who is also in a position (i.e. alive and with the proof) to worry about it.
Hence I am happy to send my engine to the USA, knowing a warranty will be problematic. In practice the US firm would get a UK firm to do the work and settle with them directly.
But yes with an OH at 1200hrs, questions ought to be asked as to why. Changing cylinders (even all of them) is a “repair” not an “overhaul”. This job was a “repair”.
I had a look at overhaul.com and they are proud to use ECI cylinders. You should be aware that ECI had this happen:
“Link”:www.eaa.org/news/2013/2013-08-12_proposed-AD-demands-removal-of-thousands-of-ECI-titan-cylinders.asp
If your engine is still in the states And you can’t examine the work I would rather buy locally..
You should be aware that ECI had this happen
Which makes it very unlikely that it will happen again. If I had to choose today, I’d buy ECi cylinders.
I have to disagree with you when it comes to warranty and shop’s response.
My engine failed 75h. After o/h to new limits. 2 Cyl. Camshaft and lifters gone. The shop re-overhauled the engine and even paid the return shipping cost back to the UK. 90h later the double gear sheared a tooth, the engine was repaired and the shop paid the return shipping costs.
We are not sure what have caused the first failure, however, when the engine was taken apart after the second failure it was noticed that there was an inclusion at the middle of the tooth.
There are shops that stand behind there work and honour their warranties, even go beyond their commitments. Regardless of my experience I recommend this shop to many, everyone can have a bad job here and there but it is important to have a positive after sales support.
I don’t know if Peter is happy for me to add this shops name, if not please remove. The shop is Zephyr Aircraft Engines based in Florida.
Ben
[perfectly fine to mention people/firms who are good]
Scary story…
Yes; I think clearly the company stood behind it’s product, which is great to see, but to get two failures like that is much more than bad luck.
