Argh! Navion broke

Yeah, Continental will give me $9000 for the scrap. I haven't heard from the NTSB yet as to what might have caused this. Something started to come apart and started plugging up the oil system as near as our "untrained" eyes (my mechanic and me) can see.
 
Yep, it done blowed up alright!

Sorry to see that, and the plane on a trailer. Hope things get out back together (the right way!) soon.
 
Wowsers! Happy to see damaged was contained there and didn't damage more of the plane.
 
flyingron said:
Yeah, Continental will give me $9000 for the scrap. I haven't heard from the NTSB yet as to what might have caused this. Something started to come apart and started plugging up the oil system as near as our "untrained" eyes (my mechanic and me) can see.
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Seriously??? Why would Anyone give you 9000$ for that blowed up pile of engine pieces?
 
flyingron said:
Here are the pictures of the engine after we got it back from the NTSB:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskVtUcun
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Yup done come from together fer sure.

That's quite some damage. Hopefully everything comes together (new engine, insurance reimbursement etc) and you get that pretty Navion back up in the air. Always had a fondness for Navions from back in my student pilot days, and more were flying then. Good luck.
 
I've seen similar damage to the engines from a Navajo that was fueled with Jet-A. Any chance you got contaminated fuel?
 
I ain't no A$P, but my unedgumacated guess is that the engine is done broke.

I wouldn't think that it was caused by too much oil...
album-72157681003396265
 
They probably gave you $9k to keep you in their good graces. They were probably thrillled eveyone came out happy and healthy with no loss of life or extreme property damage avoiding millions in lawsuits.
 
To my knowledge, the fuel was fine (I'm guessing the FAA/NTSB looked at that). I was in the air for about 45 minutes before she went.
 
Could be worth $9k to Continental if they are able to learn something from it.
 
Ron, what is that in pics 6 and 7? In #6 you're holding something, base of a jug that separated or ???
 
iflyvfr said:
Ron, what is that in pics 6 and 7? In #6 you're holding something, base of a jug that separated or ???
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That's a piston, looking down from the combustion side. If you look carefully just to the right of my thumb and at the top of my hand, you can see the wrist pin that's been slid out to release it from the rod. The other part of the piston is floating around in the box of parts. The next picture is the crank side of a different piston. Again, the wrist pin has been mostly slid out to release it from the rod.

If you look at the picture of the two connecting rods in the later picture, you can see the piston side (where the pin goes) mostly intact but the part that mounts to the crankshaft (and the cap) are gone.
 
Glad you made it down safely, good job! Looking at the pictures it brings me back to my days running Nascar Modified"s. Been there done that with small block Chevy's, but I didn't have gravity working against me.:)
 
flyingron said:
Yeah, Continental will give me $9000 for the scrap. I haven't heard from the NTSB yet as to what might have caused this. Something started to come apart and started plugging up the oil system as near as our "untrained" eyes (my mechanic and me) can see.
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so....I guess we can't identify the source of that debris that made it come from together?

like a shop rag?....or metal from somewheres?
 
Matthew said:
Could be worth $9k to Continental if they are able to learn something from it.
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Oftentimes in catastrophic failure cases things get so destroyed that it can be next to impossible to tell what was truly the initial failure. In this case I'm sure Continental was interested in seeing it to see what they can learn but I'd bet blame was placed on the shop that had the engine open, whether they deserve blame or not.

In the test lab we have engine analyzers that measure vibration to hopefully catch failures before they become catastrophic. The idea is to learn what really failed first rather than look at something as messed up as Ron's engine and try to make a guess as to what happened.
 
I love my EI MVP50. So nice to have engine instruments up where I can see them, instead of down by my left knee.

Do, please keep us posted on your restoration!
 
SCCutler said:
I love my EI MVP50. So nice to have engine instruments up where I can see them, instead of down by my left knee.

Do, please keep us posted on your restoration!
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Another vote for the MVP-50. You will love it!



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Glad to hear you got back... um... the mess and are now headed toward getting the airplane back in the air.
 
N659HB said:
Nice panel, but how did you end up with a blue throttle handle?
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Yep, his throttle and prop are blue. The throttle and prop in my plane are both black from the factory . . . Maybe that evens things out? :p
 
flyingron said:
Because they want to sell me another factory engine.
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Well, Ron, you've now made more successful forced landings than any pilot I know. This makes you the foremost expert on the subject.

So which engine are you going to choose?
 
I'm putting in another IO-550-B (300HP) because that was what was in there before so it matches the STC that I used to put the engine on the last time. The FAA is getting really obstinate in allowing field approvals for engines these days (I'd love to have a turbo in it but that's the way it is). For those who didn't know, my plane came with a GO-435 (260 HP geared engine). I was flying Young Eagles not too long after I got my plane evacuated out of VKX after 9/11 when it blew a cylinder. That time I made it back to the runway. I did the same truck out to Nebraska trip that I did this time only that time we stopped off in Iowa City on one of the passes and stayed at the Alexis Park Inn back when Jay was there.

Anyhow, the GO and the Navion basket mount came off and an STC for a tubular mount and the IO-550 went on. The engine, prop, exhaust, and all the engine gauges came from a brand new IO-550 off an A-36 Bonanza that the owner bought and immediately took to Tradewinds Aviation to have a turboprop put on. All my engine gauges said "Beechcraft" on them. Of course, there were some issues with that. The A-36 is a 28V system and the Navion is 14. I actually had a 14-to-28 converter to run my gauges. This time we'll get the engine more reasonably configured for what we want to do and I'm putting on the EI MVP-50 to replace all the engine instruments and the horrendously bad fuel gauges.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Well, Ron, you've now made more successful forced landings than any pilot I know. This makes you the foremost expert on the subject.
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LOL! Should it worry me that Ron is three behind one friend of mine, and two behind the other... and the other two have both had one at night out of theirs? ;)
 
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