I had a phone call today from the guy at TCM who deals with problems like ours - I had been unable to call him, and he said he is so busy with the crankshaft problems, that he has given up answering the phone.
Anyway, TCM pulled the cylinders apart and found that the valves and seats were gunked up with what appears to be fuel residue. He said that they usually see this after an engine has been run at idle or low power for some time (not the case with ours, at least not since delivery). There was no evidence of overheating or overleaning. He believe s that this residue should burn off with a full power run.
This doesn’t make a lot of sense, in that before the compression tests, the engine was run at high power - 30 minutes or so in flight, then 20 minutes or so full power ground run before each test. So it’s still unclear to me why the seats should be gunked up.
Anyway, TCM have authorized the maintenance shop at Hayward to obtain and fit 3 new cylinders (the old ones he says would have been ok if cleaned up, but fitting new ones will be faster). TCM are paying for all parts, labour and freight.
After this is done, Rob Leach will be back in Hayward, and we expect him to fly the plane for 10+ hours, after which another compression test will be done. If all is well then, the ferry will proceed, if not, it’s back to square one.
That’s relatively good news considering all the speculation.
I wonder if this engine is more susceptible to this.
I’m sure all of us fan’s of your site and the SR20 are looking forward to hearing about your flights in Australia.
Imagine if most of the world were as GA friendly as the U.S. and Australia.
Good luck!
I had a phone call today from the guy at TCM who deals with problems like ours - I had been unable to call him, and he said he is so busy with the crankshaft problems, that he has given up answering the phone.
Anyway, TCM pulled the cylinders apart and found that the valves and seats were gunked up with what appears to be fuel residue. He said that they usually see this after an engine has been run at idle or low power for some time (not the case with ours, at least not since delivery). There was no evidence of overheating or overleaning. He believe s that this residue should burn off with a full power run.
This doesn’t make a lot of sense, in that before the compression tests, the engine was run at high power - 30 minutes or so in flight, then 20 minutes or so full power ground run before each test. So it’s still unclear to me why the seats should be gunked up.
Anyway, TCM have authorized the maintenance shop at Hayward to obtain and fit 3 new cylinders (the old ones he says would have been ok if cleaned up, but fitting new ones will be faster). TCM are paying for all parts, labour and freight.
After this is done, Rob Leach will be back in Hayward, and we expect him to fly the plane for 10+ hours, after which another compression test will be done. If all is well then, the ferry will proceed, if not, it’s back to square one.