- Joined
- Jun 18, 2014
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Hello all, its been a while since I posted here, but I wanted to share my recent odyssey.
Jennifer and I bought a 1963 Cherokee 180B back in July 2013, and in February 2015, after putting about 110 hours on it we had to undertake some major engine work. I had flown the airplane from Centerville, TN (KGHM) where we hanger it, up to Cape Girardeau MO and back. The O360A3A had about 1100 hours since major, and had been performing wonderfully. The weekend following my flight to KCGI, I went to change the oil, and noticed a bunch of shiny glitter in the oil draining from the filter. After I finished panicking, I went across the way to see the A&P/IA who keeps his Stearman and 172 in the hanger across from us. The metal appeared to be non-ferrous, and after cutting the filter and finding what appeared to be a bunch of aluminum, the search for the source began. We pulled the finger screen and found nothing there. We poked a dental cam into each of the cylinders, and saw that the valves, cylinder walls and pistons were in fine shape. We pulled a magneto off and poked around in there as best we could, and after finding nothing obvious, we decided to pull a cylinder. After we found what appeared to be bits of aluminum embedded in the rod bearing, we came to the conclusion that no matter the source, the engine was going to have to come apart.
We then pulled all of the cylinders, pistons and rods, pulled the remainder of the engine off of the airplane, and put it on a stand. We pulled off the accessory cover, and when we went to pull off the gear that drives the left magneto, the shaft and bolts that hold the shaft to the crankcase came off with it. The two 1/4-20 bolts that hold the shaft to the crank case had wallowed out, allowing the shaft to move around and further wallow out the bolt holes. Source found. The lock plate was intact and correctly installed. The only other issue that we discovered was that the top compression ring on number 2 piston was broken, but the piston and nitrided cylinder bore had sustained no damage.
The A&P/IA agreed to supervise the re-assembly, and recommended shops to take the parts to for repair/overhaul/inspection. I rented a car, loaded up the parts, and headed for Tulsa. The IA did a complete inspection of all four cylinders, and found them to be in great shape, and recommended that we reinstall the cylinders (and a new piston and rings in #2) after a good cleanup.
I took the crankcase to Crankcase Services in Sand Springs, OK, and the crank, rods, lifters, cam and timing gears to Aircraft Specialties in Tulsa. The lifters were rejected because they were too worn to refurbish and the rods were rejected because at some previous overhaul, someone had taken off too much material somewhere, so I bought a set of refurbished lifters and rods from them. The cam was fine and just needed cleaning up, the crank was fine, was standard, and was polished, etc. The crank gear was pitted and rejected, so I bought a new one. The crankcase was repaired and overhauled.
Once we got everything back, the IA started assembly while I washed parts, and washed parts, and washed parts. During this time, we found a crack on the #3 cylinder exhaust riser, so I sent the exhaust out to Dawley Aviation in Wisconsin. They do beautiful work, as did CSI and Aircraft Specialties.
Long story short, we got the engine back together and on the airplane, and I flew it (with a willing CFI, since my biannual was out of date and I was rusty as all get out) last Sunday, and it runs and flies beautifully. Temps and pressures were all great, and for a change, there was no puddle of oil behind the nose wheel after we put it back in the hanger.
So, bottom line to all of this:
Frankly, I didn't have the money to send the engine off to be overhauled, so the two sides of the maintenance triangle that I chose were Good and Cheap, throwing Fast out of the window. 18Z was immobile in the hanger for 11 months. I'm eternally grateful to the IA, who despite being semi-retired from wrenching, took great care of me, and also our fellow pilots at Centerville, and for all the help freely given by others during the course of this project. Our IA has the patience of a saint and the heart of a teacher, and I've learned a tremendous amount about our airplane. While I don't believe that I can technically call this an overhaul, it is a very well documented repair, and the engine has a rock solid bottom end. When it's time to top it, top it I will!. I'll be taking a half-day off tomorrow since the weather looks good, and finish breaking in #2 cylinder. I'll try and post some pictures of the disassembly and assembly tonight.
Jennifer and I bought a 1963 Cherokee 180B back in July 2013, and in February 2015, after putting about 110 hours on it we had to undertake some major engine work. I had flown the airplane from Centerville, TN (KGHM) where we hanger it, up to Cape Girardeau MO and back. The O360A3A had about 1100 hours since major, and had been performing wonderfully. The weekend following my flight to KCGI, I went to change the oil, and noticed a bunch of shiny glitter in the oil draining from the filter. After I finished panicking, I went across the way to see the A&P/IA who keeps his Stearman and 172 in the hanger across from us. The metal appeared to be non-ferrous, and after cutting the filter and finding what appeared to be a bunch of aluminum, the search for the source began. We pulled the finger screen and found nothing there. We poked a dental cam into each of the cylinders, and saw that the valves, cylinder walls and pistons were in fine shape. We pulled a magneto off and poked around in there as best we could, and after finding nothing obvious, we decided to pull a cylinder. After we found what appeared to be bits of aluminum embedded in the rod bearing, we came to the conclusion that no matter the source, the engine was going to have to come apart.
We then pulled all of the cylinders, pistons and rods, pulled the remainder of the engine off of the airplane, and put it on a stand. We pulled off the accessory cover, and when we went to pull off the gear that drives the left magneto, the shaft and bolts that hold the shaft to the crankcase came off with it. The two 1/4-20 bolts that hold the shaft to the crank case had wallowed out, allowing the shaft to move around and further wallow out the bolt holes. Source found. The lock plate was intact and correctly installed. The only other issue that we discovered was that the top compression ring on number 2 piston was broken, but the piston and nitrided cylinder bore had sustained no damage.
The A&P/IA agreed to supervise the re-assembly, and recommended shops to take the parts to for repair/overhaul/inspection. I rented a car, loaded up the parts, and headed for Tulsa. The IA did a complete inspection of all four cylinders, and found them to be in great shape, and recommended that we reinstall the cylinders (and a new piston and rings in #2) after a good cleanup.
I took the crankcase to Crankcase Services in Sand Springs, OK, and the crank, rods, lifters, cam and timing gears to Aircraft Specialties in Tulsa. The lifters were rejected because they were too worn to refurbish and the rods were rejected because at some previous overhaul, someone had taken off too much material somewhere, so I bought a set of refurbished lifters and rods from them. The cam was fine and just needed cleaning up, the crank was fine, was standard, and was polished, etc. The crank gear was pitted and rejected, so I bought a new one. The crankcase was repaired and overhauled.
Once we got everything back, the IA started assembly while I washed parts, and washed parts, and washed parts. During this time, we found a crack on the #3 cylinder exhaust riser, so I sent the exhaust out to Dawley Aviation in Wisconsin. They do beautiful work, as did CSI and Aircraft Specialties.
Long story short, we got the engine back together and on the airplane, and I flew it (with a willing CFI, since my biannual was out of date and I was rusty as all get out) last Sunday, and it runs and flies beautifully. Temps and pressures were all great, and for a change, there was no puddle of oil behind the nose wheel after we put it back in the hanger.
So, bottom line to all of this:
Frankly, I didn't have the money to send the engine off to be overhauled, so the two sides of the maintenance triangle that I chose were Good and Cheap, throwing Fast out of the window. 18Z was immobile in the hanger for 11 months. I'm eternally grateful to the IA, who despite being semi-retired from wrenching, took great care of me, and also our fellow pilots at Centerville, and for all the help freely given by others during the course of this project. Our IA has the patience of a saint and the heart of a teacher, and I've learned a tremendous amount about our airplane. While I don't believe that I can technically call this an overhaul, it is a very well documented repair, and the engine has a rock solid bottom end. When it's time to top it, top it I will!. I'll be taking a half-day off tomorrow since the weather looks good, and finish breaking in #2 cylinder. I'll try and post some pictures of the disassembly and assembly tonight.
