Alright folks, I've been on the fence about posting anything for the past couple weeks, but I think this is significant enough to be worth discussing. Maybe it will help someone avoid the problem I have on my hands. Hopefully there are not other affected engines out there. I'll just state that actual badness occurred about 8 years ago and I do not personally know the guy who did it. Everyone I've interacted with in regards to my plane has been honest, to the best of my knowledge.
I decided last year that I'm much more of a pilot than I am a builder, and that if I'm going to work on a plane it had better be a *completed* airplane that needs minor maintenance and upgrades. With this in mind, I set out to buy an RV. Ultimately I ended up with an 8A after what seemed like a thorough pre-purchase inspection by a highly qualified A&P IA. This post isn't intended to be about him, or the builder/seller. The engine was overhauled in 2017, purchased by the plane builder, and installed sometime around 2019 for the first flight in 2020. The plane was completed in 2020, flown 50h/year and sold in 2024. The seller had oil analysis going back to the beginning and the filter pleats from a recent 25h oil change. The engine had great compression and low oil burn - about a quart every 12-16 hours. I believe I did due diligence in determining the airplane was sound.
I flew the plane for 4 months at almost 20h/mo hobbs time, including down time for a prop swap, GAMI injectors, starter swap, static ports, stick swap, O2 install, and oil change. It flew well, the engine was smooth, and seemed to make close to rated power. It didn't burn much oil and had good oil pressure. I took it to 16,500 feet. I flew over the rockies several times and did a few 500+ nm XC flights. It performed pretty well, although the cruise speed seemed to be a little slow, which I attributed to high DA where I live. I had a lot of fun and felt competent behind the stick.
At the first oil change (50h tach) I noticed a small quantity of metal flakes in the filter. I elected to keep flying it to see if the problem worsened, which was, in retrospect, questionable judgement. At the second oil change (+16h tach), there were significantly more metal flakes in the filter than the previous 50h oil change. At this point I was convinced I had a serious problem and tried to solicit information here on VAF. Ultimately I decided I wasn't comfortable with the engine without a thorough exam, and pulled it off the plane for a shop to IRAN.
The trusted engine shop got back to me recently and described the engine as a train wreck. At this point, it has 260h SMOH. The camshaft is severely worn. The lifters are pitted and corroded. The piston caps were loose and generating aluminum shavings. The front main bearing was installed incorrectly, denting the bearing into the crank. The assembly of the case halves was faulty, resulting in excessive oil leakage and fretting. In short, some parts may have been overhauled competently, but the person who assembled the engine made bad mistakes. These mistakes could have killed me or the prior owner due to catastrophic failure in flight, and the engine may have been only a few hours from abrupt mechanical failure.
So what went wrong? I looked at the logbook entries and found the engine overhaul entry full of spelling errors. That's fine - lots of people aren't great at written english but may have a talent with engines. There is a list of receipts of new or overhauled parts that went into the engine. Several reputable shops provided these parts. The logbook entry is signed A_______ K________ ####### A&P IA
I looked him up in the airman registry. There are 3 entries with the same first and last name. One is a retired A&P who lives in the wrong state. Another is a recent private pilot with IR. The third is an entry that corresponds with the listed certificate number, who lives in the correct state, has only a student pilot certificate (issued 1999) and no mechanic certificates. As far as I can tell, barring inaccuracy of the airman registry, there's a guy out there who was building engines with no credentials and claiming to be an A&P IA. He sold one such engine to the builder of my plane, and may have sold others. I can only conclude that he intentionally misrepresented himself as an A&P IA to lend the appearance of competence to the work he was doing, but the findings of the engine shop suggest he was wildly unqualified. He built an engine that was a ticking time bomb and passed it off as a "major overhaul" by a competent mechanic.
I'm more than a little upset. This plane should have gone years without needing any major work based on the apparent history, logbook entries, and inspection. Fixing it is going to be very expensive and detracts from my purpose in buying the plane: flying the damn thing instead of building it.
So I'm in need of an angle-valve engine. It is likely impossible to overhaul my engine for a cost much less than a brand new Lycoming from Vans with the appropriate discount. If the crank and case are faulty, it could be $60k for an overhaul. The present wait time for a new Lycoming through Vans is 18 months, which is a ridiculous amount of time to have to wait for an engine for my previously-running plane that has been down 6mo already. If there's anyone out there building a 7/8 or 14, who needs to delay their delivery date for warranty reasons, I believe I could order a Vans-discounted YIO-360-A1B6 or YIO-390-EXP119 with this plane's serial number and trade for your earlier delivery. The only silver lining to this fiasco would be an upgrade to something with a warranty and the reasonable belief of reliability. A 390 for only a few thousand more than what the 360-A1B6 costs would certainly feel a bit better. I realize that's a long shot, but otherwise I'm paying a full new engine price for just an overhaul.
I decided last year that I'm much more of a pilot than I am a builder, and that if I'm going to work on a plane it had better be a *completed* airplane that needs minor maintenance and upgrades. With this in mind, I set out to buy an RV. Ultimately I ended up with an 8A after what seemed like a thorough pre-purchase inspection by a highly qualified A&P IA. This post isn't intended to be about him, or the builder/seller. The engine was overhauled in 2017, purchased by the plane builder, and installed sometime around 2019 for the first flight in 2020. The plane was completed in 2020, flown 50h/year and sold in 2024. The seller had oil analysis going back to the beginning and the filter pleats from a recent 25h oil change. The engine had great compression and low oil burn - about a quart every 12-16 hours. I believe I did due diligence in determining the airplane was sound.
I flew the plane for 4 months at almost 20h/mo hobbs time, including down time for a prop swap, GAMI injectors, starter swap, static ports, stick swap, O2 install, and oil change. It flew well, the engine was smooth, and seemed to make close to rated power. It didn't burn much oil and had good oil pressure. I took it to 16,500 feet. I flew over the rockies several times and did a few 500+ nm XC flights. It performed pretty well, although the cruise speed seemed to be a little slow, which I attributed to high DA where I live. I had a lot of fun and felt competent behind the stick.
At the first oil change (50h tach) I noticed a small quantity of metal flakes in the filter. I elected to keep flying it to see if the problem worsened, which was, in retrospect, questionable judgement. At the second oil change (+16h tach), there were significantly more metal flakes in the filter than the previous 50h oil change. At this point I was convinced I had a serious problem and tried to solicit information here on VAF. Ultimately I decided I wasn't comfortable with the engine without a thorough exam, and pulled it off the plane for a shop to IRAN.
The trusted engine shop got back to me recently and described the engine as a train wreck. At this point, it has 260h SMOH. The camshaft is severely worn. The lifters are pitted and corroded. The piston caps were loose and generating aluminum shavings. The front main bearing was installed incorrectly, denting the bearing into the crank. The assembly of the case halves was faulty, resulting in excessive oil leakage and fretting. In short, some parts may have been overhauled competently, but the person who assembled the engine made bad mistakes. These mistakes could have killed me or the prior owner due to catastrophic failure in flight, and the engine may have been only a few hours from abrupt mechanical failure.
So what went wrong? I looked at the logbook entries and found the engine overhaul entry full of spelling errors. That's fine - lots of people aren't great at written english but may have a talent with engines. There is a list of receipts of new or overhauled parts that went into the engine. Several reputable shops provided these parts. The logbook entry is signed A_______ K________ ####### A&P IA
I looked him up in the airman registry. There are 3 entries with the same first and last name. One is a retired A&P who lives in the wrong state. Another is a recent private pilot with IR. The third is an entry that corresponds with the listed certificate number, who lives in the correct state, has only a student pilot certificate (issued 1999) and no mechanic certificates. As far as I can tell, barring inaccuracy of the airman registry, there's a guy out there who was building engines with no credentials and claiming to be an A&P IA. He sold one such engine to the builder of my plane, and may have sold others. I can only conclude that he intentionally misrepresented himself as an A&P IA to lend the appearance of competence to the work he was doing, but the findings of the engine shop suggest he was wildly unqualified. He built an engine that was a ticking time bomb and passed it off as a "major overhaul" by a competent mechanic.
I'm more than a little upset. This plane should have gone years without needing any major work based on the apparent history, logbook entries, and inspection. Fixing it is going to be very expensive and detracts from my purpose in buying the plane: flying the damn thing instead of building it.
So I'm in need of an angle-valve engine. It is likely impossible to overhaul my engine for a cost much less than a brand new Lycoming from Vans with the appropriate discount. If the crank and case are faulty, it could be $60k for an overhaul. The present wait time for a new Lycoming through Vans is 18 months, which is a ridiculous amount of time to have to wait for an engine for my previously-running plane that has been down 6mo already. If there's anyone out there building a 7/8 or 14, who needs to delay their delivery date for warranty reasons, I believe I could order a Vans-discounted YIO-360-A1B6 or YIO-390-EXP119 with this plane's serial number and trade for your earlier delivery. The only silver lining to this fiasco would be an upgrade to something with a warranty and the reasonable belief of reliability. A 390 for only a few thousand more than what the 360-A1B6 costs would certainly feel a bit better. I realize that's a long shot, but otherwise I'm paying a full new engine price for just an overhaul.
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