So a good friend and client brought his Mooney 201 in yesterday for an oil change and a couple of minor squawks.
Pulled the cowl and this is what I saw :
Just a little oil on the front of the case, eh ?
Good catch Michael!
When there’s oil, one should always have an understanding how it got there. These engines will never be clean like modern engines but that doesn’t mean you should ignore all the oily regions.
Also a shop that does not spray clean the engine with mineral spirits after each annual is no good. You should insist on that.
Yep, and last Spring when I got the plane in for annual, it was clear that the last couple of shops did not clean it up and I had to spend half a day cleaning the engine and gear.
As you can see, the rest of the case is clean and dry and that’s the only way your’e going to catch these things !
Has he had a prop strike or some similar prop accident?
Peter wrote:
Has he had a prop strike or some similar prop accident?
Nope. This is a known weak spot . A few months ago an aeroclub asked me to have a look at a Piper Cherokee that was leaking oil. Much bigger crack, same location.
The good news is that DIVCO has developed a repair that includes a reinforcement @ $800 . The £10000 is the rough cost to R&R the engine and replace all the usual stuff, and then some.
Michael wrote:
The good news is that DIVCO has developed a repair that includes a reinforcement @ $800
And the bad news is that when you give your engine for overhaul and the crankcase is found to be out of limits (quite frequent), your shop will order one from DIVCO and you might get some WWII crankcase that was patched up 5 times and stamped as “overhaul condition” or “factory new limits”…
For the benefit of somebody who is completely ignorant of technical matters can you highlite the crack?
Michael used his nail varnish on the engine to make it prettier…
It’s a dye penetrant inspection, color on a metal surface and then you wipe it off. If there are cracks, it seeps inside where you cannot wipe it off. Therefore if it will highlight cracks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dye_penetrant_inspection
