Late 70's engine . . .

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Sundancer

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Sundog
An aircraft from the late 70's has its original 0-320 engine, about 1800 hours on it. It's 3+ decades past calendar TBO, and about 200 hours till recommended hours for TBO. The airplane is discounted about $10K. My SWAG is $20-30K to put the engine right, depending on what's good (or bad) at overhaul.

My knee-jerk reaction is to assume the engine needs overhaul soon, regardless of pre-buy, and I should offer $10K less than asking. I know it's likely I won't get the engine done for $20K, but if I fly it on condition it could always go well past 2,000 hours.

Flaws in my logic?
 
Most people including me will normally say calendar TBO isn't really something to worry about but late 70s is a long time. Is it running and has it been flown regularly lately? The big concern with an older engine is if it has sat long enough rust can form in places like the lifters/cam and it will start up and run fine... and then deteriorate rapidly from there. If it's been flown regularly and recently then that's less of a worry. It is still high time though, like you said it could go well past 2,000 hours but it also could fail in the next 100, there's no way to be sure.

What I would do is do more research and figure out what a replacement engine would probably run. 1800/2000 hours = 90% of the engine's life expectancy used up. So I'd take 90% of the cost of a new engine off the price of the aircraft's value if it had a new engine.

This is generic advice of course. Specifics on the aircraft type, specific engine model, actual numbers, other details on the condition of the aircraft otherwise would probably get you better and more specific advice.
 
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SWAG on 30K for the engine IMHO might be shooting a little low. 1800 hours in 45 years? Not sure I'd want to fly much at all. As cowman pointed out, any info is gonna be quite generic. I might go at least 20k less than asking. What's the worst that can happen ... :dunno:
 
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Thanks - I got $20-30K from a quick-and-dirty search; further confirms your doubts!
 
Original engine in a low time airframe. Some guys will favor the airframe history. Just saying.

Offer to buy for what it’s worth to you. If he doesn’t accept? Walk away. No emotions.
 
Search for the model that the aircraft has on Air Power Inc. That's the Lycoming factory price and most overhaul shops can beat that price by 10 to 15%.

www.airpowerinc.com

HENPL-RT8797 Lycoming Overhauled O-320-E2D Engine for AVCON CONVERSION

Lycoming HENPL-RT8797 Overhauled O-320-E2D Engine for AVCON CONVERSION
www.airpowerinc.com www.airpowerinc.com

When it comes to old engines... Good Luck, because it's a total gamble.

Just changed a 25 YO engine that had some oil sludge and/or carbon shift around and starve a cam bearing. The engine froze up and the pilot dead-sticked it successfully at an airport. The oil pressure fluctuated for less then 10 minutes before total catastrophic failure.
 
Stewartb said:
Original engine in a low time airframe. Some guys will favor the airframe history. Just saying.

Offer to buy for what it’s worth to you. If he doesn’t accept? Walk away. No emotions.
Click to expand...

Even the low time airframe would be a little bit of a red flag for me. That aircraft has likely flown very little, and therefore may have been maintained very little as well. Hopefully the log books could shed some insight into it. Possible if it was a single owner airplane that only flew 30 hours a year for 60 years, perhaps it was still being maintained regularly. More often than not it flew steadily for 20 of those years, and sat for the rest.

Then again, there are always those "barn-finds" that have been sitting in a climate controlled hangar and wiped down with a cloth diaper every week, just never flew. I actually helped a friend recover one of those, an old Stinson that literally was in a climate controlled barn. The owner was an antique tractor collector and it was his personal museum and workshop. The plane was not even dusty despite having been parked for 15 years. We put a battery and some fuel in it, and it fired off on the second blade.
 
Honestly with that history I’d just do an outright exchange. O-320 would run close to or over $40k with all new accessories.

Figure all new hoses FWF, too and no telling what shape the fuel system is in. That could get real ugly real fast.
 
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I was trying to track down the owner of a 74 Cherokee/charger 235. Looked like it last flew in early 2000's to an airport out of state from owners listed address. Owners (husband/wife) passed away in 2006 and 2010. Stepson was a student pilot, passed away last year. Recently the registration changed. Talked to the guy that bought it. Hadn't flown in 20 years. 150 hours on factory overhaul. Hangar kept, but all the rubbers needed replacing. Luckily not ground run and no airframe corrosion. Still taking a shot on the engine. But might luck out. Time will tell
 
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