Maintenance

As engine parts go, cylinder assemblies are a commodity item that most owners will have to buy sooner or later, as part of a major overhaul or perhaps for a mid-time top overhaul.

For the past decade, at least, the new cylinder market has become fiercely competitive but many shops recommend and owners buy reconditioned, yellow-tagged cylinders anyway, to save a few bucks.

Naturally, these are cheaper than new and if bought from a reputable shop, theyre usually a good value. But not always. Quality varies widely and the only protection you have against buying junk is a pre-installation inspection of the cylinder that your mechanic may or may not be doing. And that advice applies eve…

As some 3000 owners suffer through troubles with TCM crankshaft inspections, yet another quality-control related engine issue may be about to emerge: Accelerated wear on connecting rod bearings.

As we reported in last months issue, our survey of shops conducting the massive TCM crankshaft inspection turned up an incident of unusually high rod bearing wear on a low-time engine. Were seeing evidence that this may not be isolated.

As of early June, in an afternoon of phone calling, we found at least seven engines built by three overhaulers which appear to have prematurely worn rod bearings, some of which have come from Superior Air Parts but others that may have been supplied by ot…

Six years ago, in an article titled Designed for Maintenance?, we looked at the typical modern GA airframe strictly through the mechanics eye. Our idea was to highlight ways to spark a new age in light airplane development by focusing on things that would make an airframe easier to maintain and thus cheaper to own.

We found that inadequate design features added a lot to the cost of owning an airplane and we imagined that ease of maintenance would do as much to bring down the cost of flying as would new fuels and engines and slick new airplane designs, which, frankly, are only now beginning to come off the drawing boards and onto the ramp.

Its time for another look. GA is indee…

[IMGCAP(1)]Sooner or later, every starter on a Lycoming engine will do it, intermittently at first then every time you try to start the engine.

Were talking about the failure of the Bendix drive to push the pinion out of its housing and into the flywheels ring gear. You hear the urgent whirrrrrrrrrr…but no engine cranking. Other than cursing and squirting some lube down into the drive, there’s not much you can do, although some owners will nurse the thing along by using a screwdriver to manually back the drive onto the ring gears teeth.

Long term, you’ll need to either rebuild or repair the drive or replace the starter. One option thats becoming increasingly popular is the lightw…

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Anybody old enough to remember the conspiratorial advice whispered to a barely pubescent Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate has dealt with more than enough of the aviation variety to understand all too we’ll why plaaaastics can have a bad name.

After a few years, the notoriously misnamed Royalite and the other members of its genus crack, stain and cast an aura of general shabbiness. Most often, the plastic is replaced outright or painstakingly repaired and painted, but there’s another option which could provide a much classier look for the same cost. Many aircraft interior shops now have the ability to cover all that loathsome plastic with FAA-approved fabric, or even lea…

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Snap crackle and pop. In this case, it isn’t a breakfast food, but the distinctive electrical noise you hear in your headset. In the old days, before we knew how bad cabin noise was for your hearing, we didnt notice the crackling from the avionics over the background din.

But now, thanks to the wonders of noise-canceling headsets, we can hear the proverbial pin drop and we detect every burble and burp. In some airplanes, the static is almost unbearable while others have none.

The good news is electrical noise can be completely eliminated. The bad news is that it can be a costly exercise. Plus, there are no guarantees that the action you take to reduce static will be e…

[IMGCAP(1)]Just as the dropped slice of bread inevitably lands buttered-side down, when you put a quart of oil into your engine, you’ll probably get a few drops-maybe much more than a few drops-where you don’t want them and the rest inside the crankcase, where it belongs.

Weve seen pilots and mechanics use all sorts of funnels, plastic gadgets and harsh invective while doing the dirty deed, so we asked around to see if there are any failsafe secrets on adding a quart or two of oil.

Mechanics tend to use tricks useful only in the shop-mainly large plastic funnels complete with a drain bucket or pan-so we asked pilots what they expected from a good spout, listened to their recommendat…

[IMGCAP(1)]A controversy reminiscent of the old argument, But its a dry heat.., is whether youre better off to bite the bullet and buy a new airplane or nurse an older model along, paying as you go for the inevitable things that break.

Given current prices, a new airplane is actually more of a howitzer shell than a bullet and can blast an abyss into all but the plushest bank accounts. Buyers who opt for new airplanes sometimes rationalize the cost by convincing themselves that a new airplane will break less and will thus actually cost fewer dollars in the long run. Also, it should be more reliable, thus fewer canceled trips.

On the other hand, owners of mature airplanes-and thats…

[IMGCAP(1)]Does the oil you dump into your engine really matter that much? Some owners swear Aeroshell is the best oil going while others wont touch the stuff, preferring Phillips well-regarded XC.

Lacking any valid side-by-side wear data across a range of engine types, no one can really say which is best, although some engine shops are willing to try. Our view is that the way an engine is operated probably has more to do with engine longevity than the type of oil used.

And like most owners, weve tended to assume that the aircraft engine oil market is far too small to justify serious research into improved products.

We assumed wrong. Last spring, oil giant ExxonMobil announced…

[IMGCAP(1)]If there’s another job as thankless as degreasing the belly of an airplane, it doesnt come immediately to mind.

Some of that grunge finds its way onto the belly via engine oil leaks-major and minor-and the rest spews out of the crankcase breather line and the exhaust pipe. The breather, of course, is the culprit.

Over the years, various devices to staunch the flow of oil mist have been tried. These so-called air/oil separators purport to scavenge the oil vapor and dump it back in the crankcase instead of overboard, where it condenses on the belly.

The latest of these gadgets comes from M-20 Oil Separators, the same company that developed a turbo-normalizing system for…

[IMGCAP(1)]Shopping the market for an engine overhaul is often an act of faith. Short of looking over the mechanics shoulder when the engine is assembled, an owner relies largely on the reputation of the shop doing the work.

It doesnt happen often, but shops occasionally foul-up due to honest oversights, substandard parts quality or, occasionally, gross lack of basic expertise.

An example of the latter recently surfaced in an F-model Mooney being serviced at contributor Coy Jacobs shop in Florida. The airplane had fresh major overhaul done by Phoenix Aviation, a Missouri shop no longer doing business.

With only 29 hours on the overhaul, the Lycoming IO-360 showed excessive oil…

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Are you $%@#%# guys living on the same planet as I am?

Were happy to say we don’t hear this sort of thing from readers often but when we do, its usually because some product or service weve recommended hasnt worked out the way we were sure it would.

Welcome to the real world of variable perceptions, where the term satisfaction is a moving target and what one aircraft owner considers good service and a swell deal, another considers the bum steer of a lifetime.

If there’s any constant truth in buying aviation products and services, its this: Even the best of service shops, those with sterling national reputations, arent capable of satisfying everyone everytime…