Arne wrote:
We recently renovated one of our PA28-161 at Termikas and they did a good job of overhauling the engine (O-320) too. It’s not much further for you than it was for us.
@Arne, how much did it cost?
I would suggest you to go for a self-declared AMP. It would save you a whole lot of money if the engine seems to be good. You can keep doing the recommended procedure for TBO extensions if you like to make sure that it is still good.
So what was the total downtime between removing the engine and having it reinstalled? How happy are you with the service? What were the total costs, all in?
It was about 4 weeks. I am very happy with the company – Barrett Precision. Cost was about $35k (overhaul same cost as the exchange) plus £2k DHL shipping (on a special discount deal).
The engine runs great. Very smooth and noticeably smoother than the previous one.
The only negative thing is that there is an oil leak at the top of the crankcase which started at about 10hrs. It is not difficult to deal with; one has to seal off the crankcase bolts as well as the joint. PR1422 seems to work well and it isn’t worth taking the engine apart for that, and anyway these things do happen because the mating surfaces are very narrow at the top of the crankcase. Fortunately the area is accessible. It isn’t a pressure leak; just vapour from the crankcase which is vented anyway through the breather.
Recommendations for engine overhaul – Lycoming O-540
During service corrosion was found on the camshaft on our engine, repair work is also needed in all cylinders and maybe a new camshaft. I got a price for reparation from Denmark and the quote was 20 675 USD + VAT incl a new camshaft. A complete overhaul from this shop would be 36 937 USD + VAT. I think a complete overhaul might be a better option since its 21 years since last time (even though the engine only has 500 hours).
Any recommendations for other engine shops? Or other reflections…
If you fly 500 hours in one year, corrosion is very unlikely, 500 hours in 21 years, most likely. If the engine is opened up, more surprises may wait to be discovered. Read the new book by Mike Busch ‘Engines’ for some very good advice for owners.
It depends on where the rust is.
If they found camshaft corrosion they must have removed at least one cylinder. I don’t think there is any way to view the camshaft otherwise on a 540. One pilot, used to have a Cessna TR182 with a turbo O-540, told me that his camshaft can be inspected via the oil fill hole but I have not heard of that elsewhere.
Also corrosion normally starts inside the cylinders. If it cannot be removed with a re-hone (and perhaps going oversize) then you need new cylinders and then you are looking at an overhaul, more or less, because that is what happens at an overhaul.
I wonder how much they knew about the engine internals when they quoted the 20k figure. That figure is meaningless unless they already have the engine open.
The 36k figure is roughly in the right area for an overhaul by a reputable firm.
Why in USD? Are they sending it to the USA? There are indeed very good engine shops out there, some EASA145 so the engine can be installed on an EASA-reg plane, but you might as well send the engine there yourself and save yourself a good few k.
A report on my engine job is here.
Firstly the costs of repair are so high that it makes overhaul the only option.
Secondly there are some very bad overhaul shops in Europe and one of the worst in in Denmark. I have seen engines overhauled by the worst of these shops struggle to make 500 hours before major work is required.
So the conclusion of my thirty five years in the business is that if your engine is staying in Europe I would only recommend NMA or Norvic, if you are going to sent it to the USA then be very careful as there are a lot of very bad engine shops, Peter has posted above about one of the good shops in the USA and this is the sort of information that is very useful.
We recently had two engines overhauled by Nicholson-McLaren. Except for some administrative snags when the engines were shipped back, we were quite happy.
A few years ago we had an engine overhauled by Norvic. No problems with that either. This time we choose Nicholson-McLaren because of a noticeably lower price.
+2 for Norvic, recently I had two IO-540 overhauled by Norvic. Both overhauls went smoothly in a reasonable timeframe and both engines are now flying fine, with minimal oil consumption. I need more flying time on the new engine to judge the longterm effects and quality of the overhaul but so far so good.
Finalising the installation
After first flight!
The cheapest option is to get the best possible engineshop do the best possible overhaul and stand behind their product.
