Oh no $$$$$!

[J-nut]

Borrowed a boroscope from a friend today since I was concerned about the condition of my engine. It's been sitting for a few years and when I recently pulled the dipstick there was rust on the upper portion of the dipstick.

Pulling the spark plugs and inserting the scope confirmed what I feared most, bright red shiny rust on the cylinder walls.

Now I'm really dreading pulling the cylinders to look inside the engine.

Bummer is it only has 375hrs SMOH.

[Ron Spiker]

Ugh. Bad news j-nut.

Good luck. I've had a tough time with engine issues over the last year too. Hope yours doesn't take too much time or money to get it taken care of.

[Brad Bowles]

I rebuilt My engine late last year. Most parts are standard O or IO 360 parts the cylinders are not the same. Gibson in OK have several of them. There some other parts that were hard to find that are specific to these engines. Such as the locking washer for the crankshaft gear. Sit down. Lycoming wanted $150 for this they show to have 6 in stock but could not find them. They told me it could take up to 6 months to make some. I found a supplier who had 5 that were the only ones I could find for $60 each. For standard O 360 these are less than $ 2 there is a small difference. If you are going to do this yourself I recomend you obtain a copy of SSP-499B from lycoming which is the numerical parts history book as many of the part numbers# in the manual for the VO & VIO 360 are now obsolete. The Brantly factory has said they are working with lycoming to start producing the engines again. Hopefully this will help. If you have trouble finding parts let me know & I will try to find the place That had some of the odd ball stuff. Good Luck Brad

[mechanic]

Hey Brad,
Quick question. Is the VO/VIO 360's you say are obsolete the same engines offered in the New B2B's???

Thanks,
Brad, aka mechanic

[J-nut]

Well it's official! I pulled a cylinder today and found rust in the innards of the engine. A bit on the bottoms of the con rod caps and on the oil jets as well as a few other places. Not sure but I think there may have been enough varnish on the cam and crank that they may be savageable.

Next step is to decide if I want to try to overhaul it or find a serviceable engine elsewhere.

How do you make a small fortune in aviation? Start with a large one and know when to stop!

[Tom]

The new B-2Bs have the same Lycoming IVO-360 the the -2Bs have always had. The engine is not obsolete, it's just unique to the B-2B, therefore Lycoming only produces them in batches for the factory. Between those runs, they don't make them (although I'm certain they'd run a batch for anyone for the right price).

Tom