After a 7 month long wait is was time to fire her up with two newly overhauled engines. I loaded in my CFII with me (as I hadn’t flown for almost 5 months) and off we went. Box climb above the airport up to 2000ft.
Engines oil pressure barely in the green at full power, and well below green on both engines at cruise. Right engine runs much hotter than left, but otherwise behaving. Cut it short after 20mins and land. Manage to do a good landing after being away for 5 months, which pleased me.
When they pull oil filters, the left engine showed excessive aluminium and steel that my mechanic was not happy with. Engine was sent back to overhauler for further inspection. Turns out there’s something called an oil jet that directs oil to the bottom of the pistons for cooling on the S1A5. The one on cylinder 3 had come loose from the oil galley and created a gaping hole – that was the reason the engine could not make oil pressure. The metal in filter came from case damage as the oil jet nozzle exited. They decided to replace case and crank. Right engine was suspected to have the oil jet thingys mis-torqued as well, so it was also opened up for precautionary reasons.
At least they’ve been very speedy in rectifying it and it is part of warranty. I should be able to do new test flight end of this week if all goes to plan. I hope all goes well then. I’m done waiting.
You have a massive amount of faith in the engine shop not having done some other “stuff” which hasn’t come to light.
If this happened to me, I would run a mile from them.
They should have bench run the engines, too.
They did bench run them, but all checked out. Multiple ground runs as well.
Are they also paying for the considerable labor cost to R&R the engines?
Such cases partly explain the high overhaul costs. Needs to come from their profit margin.
They are picking up tab, thankfully.
But the final price has very little to do with overhaul price. My engines were quoted (with all accessories) at $23,965/each. That’s what I paid. But when all the turbo overhauls, waste gate overhauls, hoses, baffling, engine mounts NDT, labour has been added up – it’s almost twice that. It’s all the small stuff that gets you, not the engines in themselves.
If this happened to me, I would run a mile from them.
And not apply for warranty?
They seem to be very helpfull to me. Mistakes are made EVERYWHERE. I am 100% sure that errors are made at your company as well, and that you will do your best to help your customer as good as you can, don’t you?
It seems that overhaul costs for bigger engines, especially those with turbo charging, are increasing well ahead of inflation. Presumably the in service population of some of these engines is reducing quite rapidly, and overhaul shops are trying to get as much from the business niche before rendering some types totally uneconomic to keep in service.
If your west coast based I can appreciate the rationale for a turbo charged twin engine but over time I have argued myself into preferring the safety aspects of a simple, rugged single engine, for example a T206H, over legacy twins.
I had the chock of my life when I looked at factory new engines. Well over $100K for an IO-540! It’s highway robbery. I love flying, but I’m really sick of aviation and the shenanigans that go on here. They’ve ruined it for everyone with their military pricing and regressive technologies. We should all be flying with cheap turboprops by now. I hope Elon Musk or some other innovator comes along with some disruptive technology that will put all of the old backward peddlers out of business. Then aviation might just have a chance.
As for turbo twins, I have to admit that there’s no way I could afford to have one in Europe. Or I could afford to have one, but not fly it at all. It’s a shame, as they’re perfectly suited for Europe – they get you high where routings become more straight and they can give the airlines a run for the money in time over the short distances there. Still, I suppose they’re cheaper than a turboprop, so it’s relative. But then the inconvenience of Avgas etc rears its ugly head… They’re a dying breed.
A company called EPS has made some ripples in the twin market with their 350hp diesel. The engine just flew last week mounted in a Cirrus. This would be an interesting lifeline to all the old legacy twins, if the price can be kept in check. If they start with delusional pricing geared towards drones and military contracts of $200-300K/piece, then we’re back to square one. I fear that might be the case. But if it can be kept to around $100K/engine, then perhaps it might just make some inroads.
Cue the usual line from the old skool tech defenders: “yes but it works”.
