195 – Is it Time to Tear That Engine Apart?

Airplane Owner Maintenance - By Dean Showalter

When an airplane engine is making a small amount of ferrous metal, but the evidence is not totally conclusive, the decision to tear it apart, or not, can be gut-wrenching.

Such was the case for the O-540 engine in a turbo Cessna 182RG I’ve been working on at Classic Aviation LLC.

But after the owners decided to have it torn apart, and I got to see the evidence, I’m convinced they made the right decision.

Take a look at the two worst lifters:

And the corresponding cam lobe for those two lifters:

Here’s a side view of the worn cam lobe:

Now compare to one of the other cam lobes that was NOT worn down:

After seeing the condition of the camshaft and the lifters, I was very pleased with the decision of the airplane’s owners to have the engine torn down and repaired.

This engine was mid-time, and all the cylinders were running fine with good compressions, so it made sense to do this repair as opposed to a full overhaul.

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In this episode, we also discussed some squawks from a Cirrus SR22T. I’ve got some photos and even a video for some of these.

Alternator #1 needed to be removed due to brush wear, and the oil seal was leaking… check out the brushes that came out in pieces:

We also had to send the engine driven fuel pump for overhaul… watch a startling video of a BAD fuel leak:

We sent the fuel pump to Mike’s Aircraft Fuel Metering in Tulsa, Oklahoma for overhaul… they do excellent work on fuel system components.

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Happy New Year everyone! May God bless you in 2022!

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