Engine Purchase Sanity Check

[RV7AJeremy]

Hello all, I am looking for advise/a sanity check for my plan to purchase an engine. Before I make this significant of an investment I want to make sure all my bases are covered since I have never done this before.

Here is the back-story on the engine:
The engine is a Superior Vantage IO-360-B1A2 built by superior in 2007. It is still a 0 hour since factory new. The engine has been stored in a desert climate overseas until last November when it was purchased and moved back to the states and is now in Indiana. The engine was preserved by the factory in 2007 (superior stated that their preservation process was only good for 6 months) and there has been no other entries in the log book since then. The desiccant plugs still look bright blue and when the engine was purchased and brought back to the states last November the cylinders were bore scoped and no signs of corrosion were present.

My plan with the owner is to have an A&P pull two of the cylinders and inspect the cam and crank and the engine in general for corrosion and general condition, we would then have the engine re-preserved as I am still a ways out from finishing up this project. I have also talked with superior and there are no outstanding AD?s or bulletins.

What are the thoughts from the group? Is this an appropriate action to take to ensure that my investment in this engine is safe? What am I missing? Thank you all for your expertise.

[Pmerems]

Give Bart at Aerosport Power a call and get his thoughts. He is very helpful.

[smokyray]

Originally Posted by RV7AJeremy

What are the thoughts from the group? Is this an appropriate action to take to ensure that my investment in this engine is safe? What am I missing? Thank you all for your expertise.

Jeremy,

First, good plan to pull a jug and inspect the Cam. On a Lycoming sitting and not running invites corrosion, cyllinder walls and Cam are favorite spots. Using ACS Cam Lube will help you during your future ownership BTW. If it has logs look at the past inspections and get an A&P's advice if possible. Even in the desert corrosion can form and pulling it apart to inspect is money.

On my three RV's I rebuilt my own engine from a run-out (0-320A) which kept the "out the door" cost under $10K. I was always on a military budget

Email me if nobody else will help!

V/R
Smokey
smokyray@rocketmail.com

[aerhed]

That's a dandy motor. Corrosion is your only real concern. Like Smokey said, if those area are good, so are you. Look for odd spot corrosion too. Sometimes things get spilled or splooshed over time.

[agirard7a]

Check for pitting on the exhaust valves,
And hydrolic lifters. Had both of those issues
With an engine that sat.

[Canadian_JOY]

As an additional question from somebody in a similar situation... but with an O-360A1F6 (counterbalanced engine). My engine is filled to the top with oil, as much as will go in it. Top spark plugs were used as fill ports to fill the cylinders as completely as possible. Intake tubes were removed, plugged with cap plugs. The exhaust ports are covered with blanking plates. I suspect there are 20+ quarts in the engine and it leaks a couple of ounces per month which I assiduously replace. It has been mounted on the firewall for a number of years now. I'm curious if anybody has experience with engines similarly stored?

[RV7AJeremy]

Thanks for the replies guys...funny thing is that when you all posted them we were signing the paperwork this morning. Here is the skinny on the engine buying process for me:

1. Thank goodness for student XCs; part of the training process for them near the end of the T-6 program is to go cross country and get experience in the national airspace system. It was actually really good training for the student and we accomplished a lot of approaches alone the way. We just so happened to full stop in the same city as the engine was located

2. I hired an A&P IA to do a pre-buy inspection. He first started with just the overall general condition of the engine as advertised (1.1 hours on the factory test stand, then sat in the original factory packaging for the last 6 years). The engine appeared from the outside to be in absolutely new condition. He then did a compression check 3 cylinders 80/79, the other one 80/78, which he said was outstanding. I bought one of these http://www.amazon.com/Greenlee-FL2AA.../dp/B0042VILIQ last week at lowes aviation supply for $10 and it was an awesome tool to have. I was able to stick in into the cylinders and see everything; not a sign of corrosion; in fact, to my uneducated eye it looked like they came off the assembly line yesterday. He borescope various sections of the engine, we took covers off everything we possibly could and looked inside, it all was immaculate:-) We looked at every valve we could see, everything looked brand spankin new. He recommended that we not pull a cylender based on everything we had seen so far. He stated he would love the business and love to charge me the money but he didnt think is was necessary. I agreed. We spend about 3 hours looking over every sq/in of the engine. I also had superior supply me with the origional build list for the engine complete with serial numbers of the components, it all checked out.

So there were three issues that did arise with the engine.
1. The rubber tubes (sorry for no technical name) from the induction system was starting to show signs of dry rotting
[IMG][/IMG]
2. The engine mounting sections had several scaring/nicks (see pic below). The A&P assured me that it was normal and it probably happened on the test stand at the factory (I am open to other peoples opinions, but it is kind of too late now) It looked like some threads had dug in slightly on two of the holes, he said that it was probably from someone trying to get a bolt into the hole and had turned it to line it up, he said it was somewhat normal and checked for cracks ect.
[IMG][/IMG]
3. On of the tubes, (the one in the pic directly under the closest engine mount) had a small dent in it. He inspected it for cracks, which there didn't appear to be any, and said that it also probably happend on the test stand from someones wrench and recommended I "keep an eye on it".
[IMG][/IMG]

So now, I am a whole lot poorer, but a very excited man

[rockwoodrv9]

Jeremy,
What a great feeling it is having an engine. It makes you think that is actually real and you are going to end up with an airplane!