The little zero-time Rotax 912, pictured lower left, is eventually going on our Van’s RV-12 E-LSA. And while it’s been stored (for five years) in its original shipping crate and its insides haven’t been exposed to outside air, it’s we’ll past its storage shelf life and certainly outside of the Rotax factory warranty. For others building aircraft from kits, major components—including expensive engines—sit in non-climate-controlled environments exposed to wide temperature and humidity extremes, while the warranty clock expires long before the aircraft sees the light of day. In the world of aircraft engine warranties, that could be considered misuse. We took a look at the basic manufacturer’s warranty for common engines and we think owners should, too, especially before sourcing one that will sit.
Before digging into specific warranty items, a few words on new engine deliveries and prices. We’re preparing an engine satisfaction survey for an upcoming field report in Aviation Consumer, but even without the hard data, we’re sensing a market in turmoil with buyers screaming about huge price increases and worried about long delivery times after dropping big deposits for new engines, including so-called boutique engines from smaller specialty shops. “Stuck waiting for a Lycoming IO-540 we ordered over 18 months ago for our RV-10 project, it’s a little scary having dropped a $45,000 deposit and still have no estimated delivery,” reader Bobby Hubbard told us a few months ago. Some buyers fear that smaller engine dealers might not get the same delivery priority as higher-volume ones. That hurts cash flow—which may already be running lean—and threatens the health and longevity of the dealership. It’s an even slippier slope when the business has collected deposit money.