FFS. I need a new hobby.

Epilogue:
Engine has 30 hours on it now. 25 hour oil change was clean, with the exception of what appeared to be some blasting media in the filter. I thought I had everything pretty clean, so I was surprised when we found some of this stuff at the 2 hour change. It looks like some stuff I noticed in the exhaust ports, so I assume it was hiding down in the heads somewhere. Concerning as it has to go through the oil pump to get to the filter. We stuck a borescope into the sump and found a little bit in there too, which we managed to flush out with mineral spirits. I'll change oil again at 50 hours and hopefully it will be gone.

Otherwise it's running beautifully. It burned 2 quarts in 25 hours, so I'm considering break-in complete and switched back to Phillips XC.

I sent the my crankcase cores back to Divco in mid march, with radio silence since. Because it's about $6500 hanging out there...I decided to call and check up on it. They show them as received 3/24. Apparently it takes 60 days to "get through inspection". Sigh.
 
Jim K said:
Epilogue:
Engine has 30 hours on it now. 25 hour oil change was clean, with the exception of what appeared to be some blasting media in the filter. I thought I had everything pretty clean, so I was surprised when we found some of this stuff at the 2 hour change. It looks like some stuff I noticed in the exhaust ports, so I assume it was hiding down in the heads somewhere. Concerning as it has to go through the oil pump to get to the filter. We stuck a borescope into the sump and found a little bit in there too, which we managed to flush out with mineral spirits. I'll change oil again at 50 hours and hopefully it will be gone.

Otherwise it's running beautifully. It burned 2 quarts in 25 hours, so I'm considering break-in complete and switched back to Phillips XC.

I sent the my crankcase cores back to Divco in mid march, with radio silence since. Because it's about $6500 hanging out there...I decided to call and check up on it. They show them as received 3/24. Apparently it takes 60 days to "get through inspection". Sigh.
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Get through inspection = cash float.
 
They should pay you interest on that $6500....
 
Jim K said:
No. Lawyers I spoke to said it wasn't worth pursuing, and FSDO wasn't interested either.
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I have a feeling that the previous owners of my C182 must have also used AirWorx to do a top end overhaul before I bought the plane last June. I'm using my local guy to re do their work.

I'm learning from others on this board that sometimes you just deal with it and move on. No one wins every battle, just pick the right battles and keep the percentage high.
 
I think it's more likely the thought is "well, he saved his family last time the engine died, so he should be able to do it again. And if he can't, the probable cause will most likely be 'pilot's failure to maintain control after engine failure for unknown reason', and no one will care". Perhaps that's too negative of me.

Continuing with ramble and maybe being a jerk, I'd be temped to get the response back from FSDO that they weren't interested in writing. Just so if some other poor soul has a similar problem and isn't as skilled or lucky, somebody on the Internet might find that, might did a little deeper, and might be able to address the problem after the next accident. Again I'll say, maybe I'm being too dark/negative.

The positive thing on this, besides saving the plane twice, is your attitude in pushing to get this done and done correctly. Helps prop up my faith in humanity that doesn't always extend to everyone... Now to find some iced tea, I'm being more rambley than is usual for even me.
 
Epilogue Part III
Return of the Lance

Hit 50 hours. Changed the oil. Filter and suction screen clean :thumbsup:. I was buttoning her up Friday night so I could fly young eagles today, and i noticed one of the bolts on the alternator bracket was broken. Whomp whomp. I may or may not have borrowed one from a (very) dusty core engine that I had seen laying forgotten in a corner. Regardless, I didn't get her back together until this afternoon so I didn't get to fly YE, but I did go do some celebratory chandelles.
 
Jim K said:
I was buttoning her up Friday night so I could fly young eagles today, and i noticed one of the bolts on the alternator bracket was broken. Whomp whomp
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What a piece of crap airplane. I would get rid of it because of that little problem and get a new one... :lol:
 
Zeldman said:
What a piece of crap airplane. I would get rid of it because of that little problem and get a new one... :lol:
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Or do what most others do. Ignore those little problems. What could go wrong???
 
Alternator? Who needs an alternator...You do have a battery, don't you?
 
SoonerAviator said:
I agree, he should sell to some Okie for the price of scrap just so he isn't tempted to try and salvage it himself.
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An Okie? Naaah...he needs to sell it to someone with some class, like a Longhorn!
 
Kayoh190 said:
An Okie? Naaah...he needs to sell it to someone with some class, like a Longhorn!
Click to expand...
Careful here, A prolific poster with that connection watches this board and the resultant avalanche....sigh......
 
I think some of you are overestimating the reliability of farm machinery. It’s not surprising that Jim is building something complicated to get by when his primary machine is broken down. What’s surprising is that it’s an airplane and not something complex like a combine harvester.
 
I was thinking of a Cirrus, with dual alternators...and continued flight with one failed.
 
iamtheari said:
I think some of you are overestimating the reliability of farm machinery. It’s not surprising that Jim is building something complicated to get by when his primary machine is broken down. What’s surprising is that it’s an airplane and not something complex like a combine harvester.
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Shows you where my priorities are :crazy:
 
kyleb said:
You'd better be able to perform repairs on that yourself. Otherwise you'll go broke. Mid '70's to mid-80's American cars were reliability and maintenance nightmares.
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Thought those past era cars were a lot simpler (points, condenser, strobe timing light, carburetor ,… ) to maintain that today’s where you need almost a computer guru plus thousands of dollars worth of diagnostics equipment to find out what the problem is nowadays… If you don’t maintain your car today is just like one 40 years ago…
 
Cesarmx said:
Thought those past era cars were a lot simpler (points, condenser, strobe timing light, carburetor ,… ) to maintain that today’s where you need almost a computer guru plus thousands of dollars worth of diagnostics equipment to find out what the problem is nowadays… If you don’t maintain your car today is just like one 40 years ago…
Click to expand...
In 750K miles of Honda Accord ownership (3 vehicles, current one has 230K miles), those cars have needed tires, brakes, oil, filters, timing belts, water pumps, plugs, and one clutch pedal assembly. All of the things other than the clutch pedal assembly were either wearable parts or planned maintenance. I've never been stuck on the side of the road because of a breakdown. We've gone from engines (and the whole vehicle) being worn out at 100K miles to vehicles commonly lasting 300K miles or more. The lifespan of even the wearable parts is up tremendously - spark plugs go 100K miles now, not 20K. If there is a problem, you can buy a code reader at Harbor Freight for anywhere betweeen $40 and $400 and it'll <mostly> tell you what the problem is as opposed to you having to troubleshoot it for an hour or three. But to your point, yesterday's cars were simpler. The problem was those simple systems were unreliable and drove a ton of M&R.

Now, as I posted in another more recent thread, cars have become even more complicated since I bought my current one. Lots of sensors and the like that add safety, but also add to repair costs. I don't know that I'm a fan of that. But the overall funcitionality and reliability of cars is amazingly high these days. As compared to when I was a kid and the threat of a roadside breakdown was "that which should not be mentioned" on every vacation trip by auto...
 
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I reluctantly agree new complicated cars are more reliable… however, the old unreliable points and carbs while seemingly never worked quite right, RARELY didn’t work at all.

Stuck on roadside by new car needing a battery. Managed to get ‘67 Nova off the Coronado bay bridge by rebuilding the carb while sitting in the middle lane, bridge swaying, cars shooting by at 70 knots, waiting for help. Just troubleshot it, removed it, fixed it, reinstalled it all in 10 minutes with a wrench, screwdriver and pliers. Drove it for months without a starter once, couldn’t afford the $20!

Only car I’ve ever owned that didn’t EVER leave me needing a ride was a ‘68 Triumph TR250.
 
I learned to drive on a 1971 FIAT 850 sport and that car left me on the side of the road all the time. Of course I was young back then and 90210 was super popular but I tell you I rode the bus more than the car. I was cool though to drive with the top down. I think I drove the car for a year without even knowing it didn't have a functioning thermostat. Oh and one day the battery just blew up. That was fun but for the most part aside from the roll down window design which was let me say, odd the car was simple to work on. Now my Polestar 2, well a new light costs 2k and a battery change about $600. The battery change takes about and hour due to the amount of connections you need to remove. I will say that the average person has lost the ability to troubleshoot and fix stuff and would just rather have someone fix it instead even if it's a ripoff.
 
And this is what we had to do with our pre computer, un complicated cars.....

 
I can say I've never been left stranded by any of my vehicles except a 1988 300ZX which had the driveshaft u-joint break and try to be in the cabin with me, lol. Every other GM, Ford, Nissan/Infiniti product we've had ran fine with normal maintenance. Even my diesel Excursion with the dreaded 6.0L has never failed to get me home (even after the water pump pulley came from together). Vehicles generally seem to last if you do the required maintenance and fix things before they break.
 
Tools said:
Only car I’ve ever owned that didn’t EVER leave me needing a ride was a ‘68 Triumph TR250.
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I had the same deal with my '71 TR-6 (same drivetrain, slightly different body style). The only time it threatended to strand me was once when I replaced the rotor in the distributor. The car went 1/4 mile and died. Fortunately, I still had the old rotor, popped it in, and away we went.

Now, my friends who got to drive it until they broke a half-shaft, well... Kind of odd coming up on your friends, dead in the road with a rear wheel at an odd angle. Well known problem with those cars. They made the axles out of melted down Stukas or something.
 
British cars and the electrical system:

* The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."
* Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.
* Lucas - Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
* Lucas - Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
* The three position Lucas switch - Dim, Flicker and Off.
* The Original Anti-Theft Device - Lucas Electrics.
* Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices

# Back in the 70's, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck.
# Q: Why do the British drink warm beer? A: Because Lucas makes their refrigerators
# Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone.Thomas Edison invented the Light Bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.
# Recommended procedure before taking on a repair of Lucas equipment: Check the position of the stars,kill a chicken and walk three times clockwise around your car
 
I'm hanging out as part of the management crew for a road rally here in NY in the late 80's/early 90's as a helper. A crew guy walks in, a bit confused and a little upset. He said "We have a guy in this absolutely beautiful car, but it doesn't pass tech. The turn signals don't work." My friend asks "What is it?" Guy replies "it's a Jag." Friend replies "Pass it. It's British, the electrical system isn't supposed to work."
 
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