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As winter approaches and airplanes get flown less often (for those of us in the cold, wet north anyway) just a friendly reminder to take good care of that expensive block of aluminum and iron ahead of the firewall. My 22/20 with it's mid-time O-320 had sat in previous owners hangars a lot in it's life, and when I bought it a couple of years ago it seemed to run well and cleanly with no residue in the oil filter pleats, etc. I'm now doing a ground-up rebuild of my Pacer, so naturally have spent too much money on her already and figured I'd just re-hang the engine and run it. Long story short, I decided to pull a jug and take a look anyway, and, well, now I'm into a major overhaul - rusty camshaft syndrome strikes again! :o
Sorry to see that Todd. Unfortunately I have seen it a lot. Out of all the prop strike inspections I have done. none of them had bent crankshafts but a lot of them had bad cam and lifters. Everything around here gets Cam Guard to help prevent the rust and corrosion. Flying more always helps too. At least you will now know what you are flying behind.
Thanks Ed, that's a good suggestion - I did put together the earlier version of Dave Barker's drier. This new one is a lot more sophisticated, more along the lines of the deluxe one Tanis makes. That unit moves a lot more air, but is pretty expensive. They are nice to have for Northwest winters.
My engine has been sitting since I purchased and started my project over a year ago. I have been turning it over by hand every couple of weeks. This engine has approx. 600 hrs since major and was last run in 1991. The oil is clean and smells like some type of additive is included. I have been concerned about what she looks like inside, especially in areas prone to corrosion. So I removed #1 cylinder today to get a good look at what is going on. I am extremely pleased to see no corrosion and internal condition looking remarkably stellar. Yippee! I will sleep well tonight.
I've attached some pics that I hope give justice to how she really looks. She is now ready for the firewall-foreward "makeover" of stainless firewall, new baffle seals, Sky-Tec starter and new ring gear, Nipendenso alternator, rear-baffle oil cooler and hoses, new angle oil filter adapter, overhauled mags and carb, vacuum pump, and a Colt nose bowl.
We're having fun, and life is good (had to get a pic of my grandson in ther for ya'll).
C'mon Lou - we grandfathers are allowed to brag a bit - name, how old, walking, talking?
Good lookin' little fella - must take after his Grandpa!
We went out over the weekend with our best friends and they took along their grandson. He's only 6 months old but bright as a button, loves standing and "jumping" up and down, giggles all the time and there was no way he was going to sleep. (Might miss something). They have sure changed since mine was little.
Thanks, guys. Yeah, the little booger has a smile that just makes your day. I keep that one on my screen saver - keeps me from getting (too) grouchy. They live 10 minutes away, which makes it wonderful. He is now 15 months and is what we would call a "ringed-tail-tooter", getting into everything. But he knows who grandpa is. Grandpa keeps a cookie stashed away for him and Grandpa takes him outside to sit in the airplane, on the tractor, or whatever.
Life is great. My daughter and son-in-law are expecting in August, and I have a suspicion that this one (from son and daughter-in-law) will be wanting a baby sister soon. So I better get my work done while I can. I haven't started on my wings yet for the 22/20, and I'll be finishing out my panel and interior while those are being done. We've got a few weeks of work left on the Tripe and she'll be ready to go. We are ready for some Spring weather.
Just before we got over three feet of snow last month I put in fresh oil, a can of Avblend and flew for an hour, I knew it would be my last flight for at least a month. I'm hoping that the Avblend and straight 40W oil will hold off the rust untill I can fly again. We have had some great weather but the grass strip where I'm based is still unusable.
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