Powerplant

11/22/2013

I finally got an engine. It is a Lycoming IO-360A1A. It had a prop strike, but at least I have something as a foundation to build upon. After returning from the long road trip of picking it up from Arkansas, I eventually got it dismantled. All parts were sent away for inspection/repair, sans cylinders; they only have 820 hours on them and look good, but I will probably end up exchanging them so I end up with a zero time since major' engine. The case came back from Divco with a thumbs up. The cam and other small steel parts came back OK, too. The big one; the crankshaft was not expected to pass as it had a runout according to the seller, amazingly, it was repairable and was fixed and yellow tagged! That saved me a whopping $7K.

I decided to send the cylinders off to ECi, in San Antonio, for overhaul. The cylinder head covers were chrome plated. I decided to paint the crankcase red. I used aerosol paint, then baked in the oven at home (the wife still doesn't know! Or does she.......). Once I had everything accumulated, it was time to reassemble the engine. For the longest time I was going to build the engine myself, with a couple of sets of experienced eyes overlooking. However, there are so many things still to do on the project, that after 7 long years, I decide to expedite the journey a little bit, by getting a local EAA buddy to build it for me. Although I was a willing helper...