ScottM
Taxi to Parking
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iBazinga!
I thought I would start a new thread on this topic since I was going to talk about my experiences dealing with the AD. Just as a reminder the FAA issued an AD dealing with ECI Classic cast cylinders. If you cylinders are affected you are allowed to use them to the 800hour TIS point an then you must replace them. If you are past 800TIS then you have a couple of months to comply and replace.
All four of the cylinders on my O320-D3G have 975 hour TIS on them. Instead of waiting I decided to use the slow winter months to due the replacement. Also since nearly 10,000 cylinders would be affected I was a little afraid of a shortage of replacement jugs and would end up grounded for a period of time.
Two weeks ago my mechanic and I started on the process. First he verified what I already knew and that was all of my cylinders were affected. A call to ECI to find out what the company was going to do for me was the next order of business. While I was still in a little shock and was angry at the situation I want to say that ECI did make an offer that has taken a bit of the sting out of the whole situation. They offered to refund the unused hours on the classic cast cylinders and apply that to ECI Titan cylinder along with a $360 labor credit (6 hours in my shop). That added up to basically a %50 discount on replacement cylinders. So instead of approximately $5000 for new cylinders I paid just over $2000 shipped for all the parts. This really amounts down to a top overhaul for the engine. While it was something that was not in the budget it will give me peace of mind.
I had bought the airplane last summer. It is in very good condition and showed a lot of tender loving care. The engine was in good condition and I felt like I would not have to put too much into it to get it keep it flying. Well you cannot predict AD but so far nothing besides this has occurred that would be out of the ordinary. BTW I did have a vacuum pump failure but that happens, so no big deal.
I decided that I would like to work with my mechanic on this project so that I could save some money and learn about my engine first hand. My father was a real car nut and worked in the automotive field his whole life. Like a good son I shunned everything about cars probably just to irritate him. There is a bit of irony that I have to learn about engines. I cannot help but feel he is laughing at me from high above.
As a novice to the whole mechanical world of airplane I had some significant issues with the idea of taking apart my airplane. When I showed up to the shop on the morning we were going to start I was wondering if this was going to be the last time the plane was working for a long while and with other disaster were to be uncovered requiring significant cash flow to resolve. But when the mechanic started pulling parts I saw how easy it was going to be. In 1.5 hours we had all of the baffling, hoses, exhaust systems and cylinders removed. All that remained was a lonely looking crankcase, crank/piston rods, camshaft. That was to be the way this engine would remain until the new cylinders arrived.
ECI would not pre-ship the replacements unless I paid full price for them. Then when they received the old ones then they would credit me for the turn in. I felt that if I had done that I would have given them too much power in the whole situation. If I was to be stuck paying full price for replacement cylinders I think I may have gone to a different brand. If I sent them my old ones and they reneged on the deal I would not be stuck with their cylinders and could go elsewhere. So we packed the old ones up and sent them off UPS. BTW each cylinder weighs about 30lbs.
What was interesting was to see the old pistons and the valves. After roughly 1000 hours of operation all of the pistons were in pretty good shape. It looked like number 3 runs a little richer than the rest but basically everything looked very good and the engine had been running well. What was surprising was when I looked into the tops of the cylinders. Each and everyone were developing cracks. Some cylinders were cracked worse than others but basically this annual would have meant a top overhaul anyways. So lucky me, the AD saved me some money.
Looking at the log books and doing other inspection we found that it was time to rebuild the mags. But instead of doing that I am just installing new ones and changing the one with an inertial boost to one that has it. This way I have two and will hopefully be able to start easier. We also found a couple of hoses that need replacing, fortunately not he oil ones but one from the exhaust shroud and another that runs to the air filter. But the cam shaft was in great condition and there was not a sign of corrosion any where.
Yesterday was spent putting all of the new stuff together. I spent the day mostly in the solvent tank cleaning stuff but I also got to tighten some bolts and install the spark plugs. We found that we were missing the primer adapters into the cylinders (I prime 3 out of 4 cylinders) and a gear for the new magneto. That stuff should arrive today and we can finish up. Hopefully getting it started before the weekend so that I can start the break in process Saturday. I did change the oil to straight mineral oil and the plan is to run that for 10 hours change it and then go back to my Exxon Elite oil.
Hopefully in the next few days I will have the happy ending. That is until I see the bill. Which right now is running about $3500 just for the parts? Labor we have used about 12 hours but I expect that to go up a little more.
All four of the cylinders on my O320-D3G have 975 hour TIS on them. Instead of waiting I decided to use the slow winter months to due the replacement. Also since nearly 10,000 cylinders would be affected I was a little afraid of a shortage of replacement jugs and would end up grounded for a period of time.
Two weeks ago my mechanic and I started on the process. First he verified what I already knew and that was all of my cylinders were affected. A call to ECI to find out what the company was going to do for me was the next order of business. While I was still in a little shock and was angry at the situation I want to say that ECI did make an offer that has taken a bit of the sting out of the whole situation. They offered to refund the unused hours on the classic cast cylinders and apply that to ECI Titan cylinder along with a $360 labor credit (6 hours in my shop). That added up to basically a %50 discount on replacement cylinders. So instead of approximately $5000 for new cylinders I paid just over $2000 shipped for all the parts. This really amounts down to a top overhaul for the engine. While it was something that was not in the budget it will give me peace of mind.
I had bought the airplane last summer. It is in very good condition and showed a lot of tender loving care. The engine was in good condition and I felt like I would not have to put too much into it to get it keep it flying. Well you cannot predict AD but so far nothing besides this has occurred that would be out of the ordinary. BTW I did have a vacuum pump failure but that happens, so no big deal.
I decided that I would like to work with my mechanic on this project so that I could save some money and learn about my engine first hand. My father was a real car nut and worked in the automotive field his whole life. Like a good son I shunned everything about cars probably just to irritate him. There is a bit of irony that I have to learn about engines. I cannot help but feel he is laughing at me from high above.
As a novice to the whole mechanical world of airplane I had some significant issues with the idea of taking apart my airplane. When I showed up to the shop on the morning we were going to start I was wondering if this was going to be the last time the plane was working for a long while and with other disaster were to be uncovered requiring significant cash flow to resolve. But when the mechanic started pulling parts I saw how easy it was going to be. In 1.5 hours we had all of the baffling, hoses, exhaust systems and cylinders removed. All that remained was a lonely looking crankcase, crank/piston rods, camshaft. That was to be the way this engine would remain until the new cylinders arrived.
ECI would not pre-ship the replacements unless I paid full price for them. Then when they received the old ones then they would credit me for the turn in. I felt that if I had done that I would have given them too much power in the whole situation. If I was to be stuck paying full price for replacement cylinders I think I may have gone to a different brand. If I sent them my old ones and they reneged on the deal I would not be stuck with their cylinders and could go elsewhere. So we packed the old ones up and sent them off UPS. BTW each cylinder weighs about 30lbs.
What was interesting was to see the old pistons and the valves. After roughly 1000 hours of operation all of the pistons were in pretty good shape. It looked like number 3 runs a little richer than the rest but basically everything looked very good and the engine had been running well. What was surprising was when I looked into the tops of the cylinders. Each and everyone were developing cracks. Some cylinders were cracked worse than others but basically this annual would have meant a top overhaul anyways. So lucky me, the AD saved me some money.
Looking at the log books and doing other inspection we found that it was time to rebuild the mags. But instead of doing that I am just installing new ones and changing the one with an inertial boost to one that has it. This way I have two and will hopefully be able to start easier. We also found a couple of hoses that need replacing, fortunately not he oil ones but one from the exhaust shroud and another that runs to the air filter. But the cam shaft was in great condition and there was not a sign of corrosion any where.
Yesterday was spent putting all of the new stuff together. I spent the day mostly in the solvent tank cleaning stuff but I also got to tighten some bolts and install the spark plugs. We found that we were missing the primer adapters into the cylinders (I prime 3 out of 4 cylinders) and a gear for the new magneto. That stuff should arrive today and we can finish up. Hopefully getting it started before the weekend so that I can start the break in process Saturday. I did change the oil to straight mineral oil and the plan is to run that for 10 hours change it and then go back to my Exxon Elite oil.
Hopefully in the next few days I will have the happy ending. That is until I see the bill. Which right now is running about $3500 just for the parts? Labor we have used about 12 hours but I expect that to go up a little more.
