Conti engines on SR20 - why the corrosion?

The Continental IO360 is one of the most used engines around, the SR20 is just one of loads of types using it.

It generally is regarded as pretty much “bullet proof” and quite robust. I have not heard of any particular trend with this engine type.

The question may be rather if the airframes in question have something in common, such as sitting for a long time between flights, how are they stored, e.t.c.

BEA reports that 14% of accidents in 2018 were down to engine failure. Sadly I can find no details as to which engines and in what airframes.
IMO you should count yourself lucky that you had the good sense to do a thorough prebuy and were able to walk away.
The someone else is coming this afternoon with the cash ready is one of the oldest sales trickds in the book.
If you really are interested in a particular aircraft and they say that just tell them ok but if the person this afternoon doesn’t want it and you’re serious about selling give me a ring.

Conti 360 is a very descent engine and silk smooth running, the turbo variant in Mooney 231 rarely make +1000h but the non-turbo ones should be able to stay in one piece

You should only care about the airframe for deciding to buy or not, the engine will decide on price discount !

Obviously these days you can’t buy anything at the right price and it’s better to find something you like rather than hope to negotiate a large discount: valuations & demand are too much inflated better hold your breath and sit on cash: shop around, fly what you have, rent…and wait for things to normalise (ahem crash in prices )

as there was always a Buyer A getting ready to inspect and a Buyer B already trying to place a deposit at the same time (crazy market!).

The seller could just be lying; this is a standard tactic.

I think a lot of sellers are offloading old dogs onto the market, while it is still seen to be boiling. There is a lot of hangar queens (planes which rarely fly) around.

In any case, a hangar queen should be obvious from the logbooks, and if it isn’t but you see this amount of corrosion then the logbooks have been forged. It’s that simple. An engine is not going to corrode if used regularly.

I don’t think you can successfully (in general) knock down a price by the engine overhaul if it is a hangar queen (a policy I otherwise totally agree with) because there will usually be another buyer who doesn’t do any sort of a prebuy.

I am partial about the Conti vs. Lyco in SR20s…

The Conti: yes, it a smooth engine and sounds nice. But for an output of only 200hp, and an application like the SR20, it is comparatively expensive, heavy, thirsty and expensive to maintain.

The Lyco is a more rational choice, but then again, I find it a bit of an offense to put such crude, rumbling four-banger into such an elegant touring aircraft as the SR20.

All SR20s are still underpowered though.

On the question: Conti cylinders seem to be less robust than Lyco cylinders. Conti manufacturing quality is even worse than Lycos.

Also, most owners in Europe:

• don’t fly very regularly
• have the aircraft based in climates promoting corrosion.
• don’t preheat in winter
• don’t use good oils and change it very frequently
• don’t know about engine management (many SR20s are flown in clubs or low-hours VFR PPL groups)

All this promotes premature cylinder wear. So, unless the aircraft has had a recent top overhaul, as a buyer I would tend to argue that the aircraft will/might need a top overhaul in the next couple of years and discount the price for that. But of course, the market is so inflated right now and the number of decent aircraft for sale is so low, as a buyer you might not be able to afford to take this stance if your goal is getting an aircraft soon.

A top overhaul on a Conti-powewred SR20 should be about 13k when all is said and done (Conti have just increased their parts prices significantly). So not all that much in the overall context of an aircraft purchase negotiation. The condition of the bottom end is more interesting.

There is a lot of hangar queens (planes which rarely fly) around

Any idea why they don’t sell? I have to say my experience of “trying to buy” an old aircraft seems like begging

Most hangar queens are not up for sale. They are kept for a variety of reasons, ranging from the owner just not flying much, to being dead and his widow not wanting to deal with it emotionally. Some years ago I bought a load of avionics from a “project” who owner had died (heart attack) and his widow didn’t know anything about it, and the pile of stuff was gradually “disappearing” and most of it was gone by the time I found out The strangest things happen…

Very few people understand engine corrosion. The current best practices from people a lot smarter than I am are very simple:

1. Fly regularly – weekly is best, get the oil hot
2. use Camguard – it’s not cheap, but seems to work well to reduce corrosion
3. use an engine dryer – I use the “black max”, but anything that dries the air will help

Yes, it’s a bit more money, yes it’s a bit of hassle, but replacing the engine is pretty expensive, and you’ll be down for many weeks if not months.