Hi
I intend to buy a Cirrus SR22 G3 from 2010 with 290 flight time, the compression test give a value between 72 and 76 on 80. Is it OK ? what is the average value we should have for this engine with a total of 290 hours ?
Many thanks for your answers
Charles-Henri Hedouin
LFQQ Lille Lesquin France
Those are really good numbers.
Compression tests are only a leak test and are not necessarily diagnostic as to the health of the engine. Do not rely on compression tests alone. (Those are good compressions, though.) My concern about that airplane would be the low hours. Did it ever have an extended period when it was not flown?
Charles just a word of caution.
As stated the compression test doesnt mean MUCH. While it means something, not an indication of the health of your engine. DEFINITELY have it borescoped.
My caution is make sure you are using someone for the pre buy that knows the aircraft in and out. I owned a Piper for 5 years before i got a cirrus and used the guys that did my piper maintenance. They worked on cirrus’s a good bit so i trusted them. TURNS OUT, even though they worked on cirrus’s a great deal and was actually doing an annual on one while i was getting my prebuy done, they had absolutely no clue what they were looking at. About 2 months of ownership and i had to do close to $20,000 worth of repairs that the shop SHOULD have caught on prebuy.
Charles,
As has been stated, those are great numbers but do not go by that alone. Definitely borescope. Fly the airplane; maybe even consider another compression check after that! But more importantly, is it flown frequently, is there oil analysis to review, is it in a salt water environment, what are the engine parameters??? etc, etc.
There is so much to look at when considering the strength and airworthiness of the engine. A compression check is a tool, an indicator…and sometimes a poor one. Always step back and look at the big picture!
Best regards,
Eric Cipcic,
SR22 driver A&P/IA
It is absolutely ok. You will rarely see higher values.
For what it’s worth: I bought my NA with 780 hours in 2013 and ever since the values were rising, a little higher at each annual, at them moment between 72 and 77 at 1200 hours. I think that my good engine management is responsible for that … or I hope 
I believe the original post was four years ago. Hoping he’s made his decision by now 
