Hi group,

My hat is off to all the engine folks here, Walter, George, Gary, Craig, and others. Your discussions have been great.

 

As some of you may remember I have had several ongoing issues with my engine in my L4P with 300 flight hours on a factory new engine built in Feb. 2001.

 

The latest is a Lifter disintegrating and it looks like it took the Cam with it. Currently the engine is being remove for disassembly. You may remember that about one month ago I changed the oil and cut open the filter to discover large hard chips in the filter, but the Oil analysis showed a Perfect reading in all categories. The chips were sent to Lycon and they thought it was Gears and so I grounded the airplane until TCM had looked at the chips. TCM came back with it being identified as the Lifters. They cleared it for a ferry flight and I was the chosen pilot. At this point I had a mechanic that had removed the Alternator and both Mags. to borescope the gears and found nothing, so we inspected the Mags and found water in the right Mag. They both were given the 500 hr inspection and points replaced. This is after the first right Mag. was destroyed at 170 hrs from water in it, and now with 130 hrs on a new right Mag it is showing moisture again. Then he reinstalled the Alt. and both mags and when we started the engine there was NO oil pressure. After removing the oil pressure relief valve and cleaning with a magnet, getting several chips of steel out, the restart showed lots of oil pressure. I also replaced the moisture filter in the pressure line going to the Mags.

Now to get ready for the ferry flight. I was reading all the LML postings about safety of flight and Shannon taking off with a known engine problem. I needed to get the airplane from Sedona, AZ. to Visalia, CA.,about a 2 hr flight, to take it to Lycon for the Lifter Inspection. They would remove the pushrod tubes and lifters.  So I decided to make a test flight with low fuel and calm winds over the airport which I did and climbed to 11K for 20 min. and landed. Everything checked out fine so I refueled and decided to fly a long route at 16.5K VFR so I could go over as many airports as possible without the IFR issues and a shorter route. The winds were 45 kts in my face at that altitude and the briefer suggested a lower altitude, I explained my purpose.

All I can say is I was alone and very concerned. I used the men's room before and after the flight and the red bottle twice in-flight for a 2 hrs flight. Tells you something. There was nothing inside the airplane to indicate that anything was wrong and the flight went uneventful. Sorry if I threatened everyone's Insurance concerns.

After the inspection it looked like the Cam lobe was also pitted so they are now removing the engine. I'm not sure what to do yet but I need to find out if TCM is going to stand behind any of this. Below is a brief history of my engine.