Key pre-buy checklist points on engine related items

[FlyingRon]

Hey, Tom's not doing anything these days...maybe he wants to be Administrator.

[steveinindy]

If I was buying a plane that's close to TBO or any other needed inspection, it's going to be done before the purchase or the deal is going nowhere.

[WLIU]

The manufacturer does make a difference. Continentals have different weak points than Lycos. The cylinders have problems in different areas for instance. Continentals vs Lycos have different criteria for what is passing for a compression test. The cases fail in different places, etc.

And then you get into the different cylinder bore treatments - steel, traditional chrome, cermi, etc.

Lots of stuff to consider. No real one size fits all list of stuff to look for.

Regards,

Wes
N78PS

[Dave Prizio]

The price of an airplane with a high time engine should reflect that fact for starters, so the risk associated with that condition should be well considered.

With any engine you will want to look at the engine logbook. See what has been done and when, from routine service to major repairs. Engines that don't fly much are very prone to corrosion damage, especially cams and lifters in Lycomings. If the engine was previously overhauled, who did the work? Is there a list of replaced parts available? There is a lot of difference between a good overhaul and a not so good one. Of course, check the compression and oil filter. If you have access to a borescope, it woudl be nice to take a look inside the cylinders, especially any of them that are at all marginal on compression.

It is always good to have someone who is familiar with that model of engine take a look at things. Some engines are prone to cracking in certail places or have other peculiar problems. general advice is not going to be enough help to find those problems. ADs are also an issue. Some of them are pretty expensive, like the Lycoming crankshaft AD that many people failed to deal with when Lycoming was still selling crankshaft kits for $2000. There also may still be some ECi cylinders that need to be replaced.

Lastly look at the airframe logbook for any damage, especially recent damage, that might have involved a prop strike. There are plenty of people who will dial the crank and leave it at that rather than do all the service bulletin work. Not good.