Lycoming factory engine preservation [ local copy ]
Maybe Continental engines are shipped oil-filled?
Socata TB owners who took delivery 2000-2003 will be rather familiar with this issue, having got a load of corroded engines 
I got one too, with “just OK” installation dates (taking into account Lyco’s actual engine ship date, which I obtained from Lyco) written in the original French logbooks Details are here
Anyway, this is digressing but it would be interesting if anyone knows how these diesels are preserved ex-factory.
There’s also a Lycoming service letter (L180B) that describes Lycoming’s own way of conserving engines with a special oil.
Peter wrote:
IMHO, removing the said electrolyte from the Earth’s atmosphere would be quite a significant civil engineering project
Not really. When the Swedish railways phased out their last steam engines, a lot of them were preserved for use in a crisis. From the mid 60’s these engines were wrapped in airtight plastic and dried with a dehumidifier. Decades later they were sold for scrap since there were no longer enough staff who knew how to operate them. Several were taken over by preservation societies – those engines were in pristine condition.
So, if you add up the DA40NGs and DA42s equipped with the Austro engine, also taking into account ones potentially manufactured in China, why wouldn’t Diamond have used about 1.000 Austro engines so far?
Gama stats don’t differentiate the Lycoming variants of DA40 from the NGs, but even so the numbers roughly support their statement:
Yes, these figures come close I guess, especially taken into account that the production run of 2005 and 2006 was with Thielert 1.7 engines and many of these converted to Austro.
That’s a point about possible engine conversions, but how many people have really done that? It seems the majority of DA42s went to FTOs and of those I know, zero have converted.
Nobody knows the SMA Diesel whereabouts ?
Here (link to the company’s access map)
Good joke. I’m serious and wonder what’s going on at SMA. With the kind of burn rate they have, and no serious sales, it must be serious, no?
