Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes Thinking about a new engine?

No. I actually think my engine was a pretty good candidate for running beyond TBO. Oil analyses were all very good. I replaced the cylinders about 600 hours ago and they're all still 79/80. And the kind of flying I do -- frequent, and quite a few relatively long flights -- should aid longevity. You have to realize, though, that while a bad oil analysis definitely indicates trouble, good ones don't mean that nothing serious is wrong or about to happen.

But replacing the engine now has some advantages, not all unrelated to my age (just turned 70). I've only been licensed for 7 years and want to get in as much flying as I can while I can. By replacing the engine now, I can dictate when the plane will be grounded rather than having it happen at a possibly inconvenient time like the middle of the good flying season -- and/or at an inconvenient place. At my current flying rate of about 200 hours per year, I should get ten years out of a new engine, and think it's fairly likely I'll be finished with flying by then. So stretching the time on the old engine (by what, one or two years max?) probably wouldn't be much benefit except maybe in resale value if the new engine outlives my flying career.

My engine log is incomplete and doesn't show the first 1000 hours or so from the time the plane was new. But it appears that the current engine is the original one, it has 7,000 hours on it, and has been overhauled at least three times (the first at about 1000 hours for unknown reasons). And although it's anecdotal, a local highly respected engine shop remarked that it's seen quite a few major problems (e.g., cracked journals) on over-TBO O-200s. I frequently fly over very rugged terrain and often carry a passenger, so I'd rather err on the side of caution when it comes to maximizing engine reliability. And I'm not the kind of person who lets liability worries dictate his life, but can imagine what prosecution fodder an over-TBO engine would make if a failure were to cause an accident. I can otherwise show that I take very good care of my airplane.

One immediate consideration is that my wife and I are planning to fly from Oregon to Maine and back this summer and I'll feel a little more secure with a new engine (worn in past the infant mortality period) than with one that's past TBO.

So those are my reasons for swapping out the engine now.

I considered selling the plane and getting another, but I've spent so much time and money getting all the little and big problems on this one fixed, getting it set up for IFR, and adding extras (to the ones it already had), that I don't want to start over with another plane. After all is said and done, that route might have been a little less expensive (but not necessarily so) but it would almost surely consume a huge amount of time I'd rather spend flying.

Everybody's situation is different so I'm sure most people will choose different options.

Roy