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Engine build school pictures IO-360

KiloFoxtrot

Well Known Member
If you ever were wondering if it would be worth it to attend a build school to assemble your new engine the answer is Yes. And why not, you are building your plane. These pics are from 2019, but I always thought of posting so others can see the parts that make up an aircraft engine. This engine build is a Superior IO-360 from Aerosport Power. Darren was excellent.

I hope you find it as interesting as I did. No matter what engine you are purchasing you should find out if a builder school is offered.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xit2wd8jxbvbdxb/AACzeB98AEjptnL89yVA_v6wa?dl=0
 
How long does it take?

Are there optional steps you can take if you want to do something different?
 
I can't speak for Aerosport Power, but I did Superior's school years ago and I'd suspect it wouldn't be too different. Spent 5 days, including some classroom time and the last day was a short day. When I arrived, my engine was parts on two wheeled wire shelves. When I was done, the shelves were empty and the engine was on stand. They did run-in after I left and shipped it the next week.

The cases were painted as I had requested and the build included the fuel injection and mag drive covers and spark plug inserts because I was going with LSE ignitions. They also had a jig and drilled the flywheel for the magnets for the LSE ignitions. I'd bet that any build school could handle your engine options with no problem.
 

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Build School

I went through all the pictures. Excellent post, thanks for that.
Ed
 
I’m scheduled for build school for my IO-540 with Darren in April.
We shall see if it happens though given the state of the border etc..
 
emsvitil...I flew in on a Monday and returned home on Friday. I probably could have left a day early but I wanted to see my engine start and come to life for the first time. The engine gets built within a few days, but you can see that there is a lot of work to get the correct parts ready and on the table before I arrived. The only alternative option I know of is to take the 4 hour Lycoming engine class in OSH. Other may be able to comment on alternatives.

flion...A good friend also took the Superior build school and he said it was great. I think you are correct about build schools being able to handle engine options. I just thought to share the pictures an let other builders see what is inside our engines. Maybe others can share their build school experience.

edclee....Glad you liked it.

AdamB...You will like it when you get to the shop. Hope it does not get canceled. They made me feel like a visiting family member and they let me explore the shop to check out all the other cool engine operations going on there. That part I really liked.
 
Great post. Thanks for sharing all of the pictures and your experience. That is definitely on my list of must-do's.

I exchanged emails with Aerosport Power today. They haven't done a build school since March and don't know when they will begin again. Pandemic.
 
Build school pics

Pics were great! Thanks for sharing them. I’ve had good experiences with the guys at Aerosport, but did not do the build school..... wish I had after seeing your pics.

I have attended the Lycoming tear down & assembly workshops at Osh, and they are very well done and worth the time, but it’s hard to match assembling your own engine and then bringing it home with you......
 
Build school postponed

Nice photos !!

I was scheduled at the Aerosport Power build school in May 2020 for my engine.
It was cancelled because of COVID.


Darren has kindly offered to re-schedule me when they'll be able to have customers in their shop.


I'm looking forward to that of course!!! :cool:
 
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What type of case sealant is being used in the photos?

I do not know or even remember the brand of product Aerosport Power uses for case sealant. I am sure that is not a trade secret and if you called Darren at Aerosprt he would tell you. He is a great guy guy with lots of knowledge and always willing to help.
 
pictures

Thanks for sharing these pictures - really interesting. It must have been very helpful to see all the small details and work practices these experts have. It looks like a really organized shop with good processes. I imagine that they take a lot of care considering the importance of the work that they are doing. I took the liberty of downloading your pictures - never know when I might need to know what's behind the curtain on my engine - which is very similar to yours. Thanks again.
 
Thanks for sharing these pictures - really interesting. It must have been very helpful to see all the small details and work practices these experts have. It looks like a really organized shop with good processes. I imagine that they take a lot of care considering the importance of the work that they are doing. I took the liberty of downloading your pictures - never know when I might need to know what's behind the curtain on my engine - which is very similar to yours. Thanks again.

Mickey,
Glad you liked my pictures, and your reference of what's behind the curtain is exactly what you walk away with at the end of school. It took some of the mystery out of things and just added more knowledge. I have nothing else to compare to, but it was very clean (even the overhaul area was clean).

On a different note...I have never seen a post showing a full Avionics panel build and install documented as I did with my engine, but I wish someone would do it. I just purchased everything for a full Garmin IFR G3X panel and I thinking of documenting that. We'll see.
 
Ken,

Thank you for posting. Great pictures and excellent documentation. I looked at all of them in detail and being able to zoom in sure beats peeking under the hood of already flying airplanes. I too will save them to my computer for later reference.
 
Engine

Ken,

Thanks for posting the engine build pictures. Is the final color on your engine the Metallic Gray shown on their website?
 
Ken,

Thank you for posting. Great pictures and excellent documentation. I looked at all of them in detail and being able to zoom in sure beats peeking under the hood of already flying airplanes. I too will save them to my computer for later reference.

So Happy this post is getting some good views in such a short time. Before I went to the build school I was always looking for a post showing the details of an engine.
 
Ken,

Thanks for posting the engine build pictures. Is the final color on your engine the Metallic Gray shown on their website?

Hey Oly,
Good to hear from you and hope your engine is in the fast lane for the guys up north to work on it. I checked the website and I really don't think that is the color I have. My engine looks to have a steel bluish tint and that one looks just plain silver. I do recall Darren telling me my color was under the custom palette. I didn't want a one color engine so I opted for the two tone and it really looks great. Another reason I looked into lighter colors is that it is better for visual inspection when tracking down an oil leak.
 
This is fantastic and thanks for posting... I had no idea such build options existed. New RV-10 builder here but very interested in such a hands on approach to the engine in the future. At what point in the build should I start looking into engine options more seriously and pursuing this?

Just started the tail kit and planning a 2 year build time frame.
 
This is fantastic and thanks for posting... I had no idea such build options existed. New RV-10 builder here but very interested in such a hands on approach to the engine in the future. At what point in the build should I start looking into engine options more seriously and pursuing this?

Just started the tail kit and planning a 2 year build time frame.

A two year build time for and RV-10 is impressive to me. If you are really wanting to go to the build school I would contact Darren at Aerosport just to see what engine options are available and the costs. You don't have to make any decisions now, but it is always nice to be ahead of the knowledge curve.
Find out about backorder status of engine parts and if he sees things getting back to normal by end of 2021. Ask about what the standard price increase is and plan the build school before the price increase. They may have a deal at OSH if the show happens, and I think it will this year. I think it would be fair to make the statement you should be ready with FWF and Engine installation when you are finishing airframe.
 
KiloFoxtrot, Thank you for posting the photos of your engine build. I have an older Superior XP- IO-360 engine with high compression pistons and roller lifters. Back when my engine was built, Superior was using a specially designed automotive style roller lifter. Those roller lifters are no longer available and it appears that Superior has switched to a new roller lifter design that incorporates off-the shelf aviation style lifter guts. At one point, a few years ago, Superior had started modifying their engine cases to allow installation of their new style roller lifter from the outside. In other words, the entire roller lifter could be removed once the pushrod tube is removed. Do you recall if your engine’s roller lifters are removable without splitting the case? I anticipate that the answer is “no”, but I’m just curious. Possibly they eventually designed a replacement lifter that didn’t require any modification to their existing engine case. I didn’t particularly like their case mod anyway.... Any input would be appreciated. Thank you!
 
KiloFoxtrot, Thank you for posting the photos of your engine build. I have an older Superior XP- IO-360 engine with high compression pistons and roller lifters. Back when my engine was built, Superior was using a specially designed automotive style roller lifter. Those roller lifters are no longer available and it appears that Superior has switched to a new roller lifter design that incorporates off-the shelf aviation style lifter guts. At one point, a few years ago, Superior had started modifying their engine cases to allow installation of their new style roller lifter from the outside. In other words, the entire roller lifter could be removed once the pushrod tube is removed. Do you recall if your engine’s roller lifters are removable without splitting the case? I anticipate that the answer is “no”, but I’m just curious. Possibly they eventually designed a replacement lifter that didn’t require any modification to their existing engine case. I didn’t particularly like their case mod anyway.... Any input would be appreciated. Thank you!


Speeddog
When I was in the school I do recall them saying that i would be able to remove the lifters without splitting the case. I just checked the Superior website for confirmation.
Here is what it says:
Roller Lifters
Our roller lifters were developed to provide a smoother running engine and to help reduce wear between the camshaft lobe and the roller face, minimizing the occurrences of cam-lifter spalling.

Superior Exclusive!

A unique feature of our roller lifter design is that they can be removed without opening the engine case, which reduces costly maintenance and repairs.

Hope that helped.
 
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