Nice airplane, shame about the engine!

On top of the crankshaft problems that Teledyne Continental Motors are dealing with (which has already seen an SR20 with a broken crank) and the bad magnetos on at least 3 SR20s, there seems to be another problem with the Continental IO-360-ES engine.

N142CD is still sitting at Hayward, CA - it’s all tanked up and ready to go, but its brand-new engine (25 hours flight time) has low compression on four cylinders. The cause is yet unknown, but definitely involves leaking exhaust valves (and is thus not a break-in issue).

Another SR20 in Europe has had an engine failure with low compression on at least one cylinder, no details on that yet.

The worst news is that TCM are apparently either unwilling or unable to effectively deal with these problems. Cirrus Design have an engine that they are willing to overnight to California, but TCM are passing the buck. They won’t authorize the engine replacement, saying they want to remove cylinders and inspect them before deciding what to do.

The person at TCM who apparently has the authority to ok the replacement is uncontactable, will not return phone calls, and everyone else says they can’t make a decision. In the meantime we have a ferry pilot sitting idle, which he can’t do for ever.

So not only do TCM seem to have trouble building engines properly, but they don’t seem to be willing to accept responsibility for delivering faulty product.

Needless to say, my partners and I, and our ferry pilot Rob Leach, are most unhappy, and facing the prospect of substantial costs if the ferry does not proceed soon. TCM’s suggestions so far have been to 1) replace 3 cylinders, 2) replace 6(!) cylinders, and 3) pull the cylinders off and send the to TCM to be looked at. None of which are, in our view, acceptable given that the plane is about to set off on a very long over-water ferry trip.

Clyde-

The situation you describe is unacceptable.

I would write a letter to, say, Avweb,
describing the unwillingness of TCM to deal

with the problem. If you make it more

public, maybe they will respond. In

addition, you should cc: it to Robert

Mehrabian, the CEO of Teledyne. His

“official” website is

http://www.teledyne.com/aboutus/mgtmehrabian.asp

but that is useless, since no way to

reach him is posted (of course).

Mehrabian used to be my boss; subsequently,

he was the President of my Alma Mater. There’s

got to be a way to get through to him. If

you send me your letter, I will make sure

it gets to him.

Glenn

The best solution might be to replace all six cylinders with Millenium cylinders but you know Continental wouldn’t cover that.

On top of the crankshaft problems that Teledyne Continental Motors are dealing with (which has already seen an SR20 with a broken crank) and the bad magnetos on at least 3 SR20s, there seems to be another problem with the Continental IO-360-ES engine.

N142CD is still sitting at Hayward, CA - it’s all tanked up and ready to go, but its brand-new engine (25 hours flight time) has low compression on four cylinders. The cause is yet unknown, but definitely involves leaking exhaust valves (and is thus not a break-in issue).

Another SR20 in Europe has had an engine failure with low compression on at least one cylinder, no details on that yet.

The worst news is that TCM are apparently either unwilling or unable to effectively deal with these problems. Cirrus Design have an engine that they are willing to overnight to California, but TCM are passing the buck. They won’t authorize the engine replacement, saying they want to remove cylinders and inspect them before deciding what to do.

The person at TCM who apparently has the authority to ok the replacement is uncontactable, will not return phone calls, and everyone else says they can’t make a decision. In the meantime we have a ferry pilot sitting idle, which he can’t do for ever.

So not only do TCM seem to have trouble building engines properly, but they don’t seem to be willing to accept responsibility for delivering faulty product.

Needless to say, my partners and I, and our ferry pilot Rob Leach, are most unhappy, and facing the prospect of substantial costs if the ferry does not proceed soon. TCM’s suggestions so far have been to 1) replace 3 cylinders, 2) replace 6(!) cylinders, and 3) pull the cylinders off and send the to TCM to be looked at. None of which are, in our view, acceptable given that the plane is about to set off on a very long over-water ferry trip.

Clyde —

TCM has its problems, all right. Some 20% of the 1999 “Special Edition” IO/550s that went into Bonanzas . . . had to be recalled! The rumored culprit is a bad batch of steel.

RK

On top of the crankshaft problems that Teledyne Continental Motors are dealing with (which has already seen an SR20 with a broken crank) and the bad magnetos on at least 3 SR20s, there seems to be another problem with the Continental IO-360-ES engine.

N142CD is still sitting at Hayward, CA - it’s all tanked up and ready to go, but its brand-new engine (25 hours flight time) has low compression on four cylinders. The cause is yet unknown, but definitely involves leaking exhaust valves (and is thus not a break-in issue).

Another SR20 in Europe has had an engine failure with low compression on at least one cylinder, no details on that yet.

The worst news is that TCM are apparently either unwilling or unable to effectively deal with these problems. Cirrus Design have an engine that they are willing to overnight to California, but TCM are passing the buck. They won’t authorize the engine replacement, saying they want to remove cylinders and inspect them before deciding what to do.

The person at TCM who apparently has the authority to ok the replacement is uncontactable, will not return phone calls, and everyone else says they can’t make a decision. In the meantime we have a ferry pilot sitting idle, which he can’t do for ever.

So not only do TCM seem to have trouble building engines properly, but they don’t seem to be willing to accept responsibility for delivering faulty product.

Needless to say, my partners and I, and our ferry pilot Rob Leach, are most unhappy, and facing the prospect of substantial costs if the ferry does not proceed soon. TCM’s suggestions so far have been to 1) replace 3 cylinders, 2) replace 6(!) cylinders, and 3) pull the cylinders off and send the to TCM to be looked at. None of which are, in our view, acceptable given that the plane is about to set off on a very long over-water ferry trip.

Still no word from Continental, but per their earlier request, three cylinders have been removed from the engine to send to TCM. The A&P who removed them says the exhaust valves are leaky, and have a reddish color. He didn’t attempt any disassembly or further investigation.

Rob Leach has left Hayward to pick up a plane from Melbourne, Australia and plans to be back in Hayward about 7th June, by which time we hope the plane will have a new engine.

Shame on Teledyne. That’s not going to be great publicity for them. The name Mehrabian is (I think) a persian name. He is probably from Iran. If anyone finds out how to reach him, let me know. I’ll drop him a nasty note in his native language.

Dr. Mehrabian was president of Carnegie Mellon University when I was Professor of Naval Science there from 1991-95. If I remember correctly, he is a metallurgist!

Joe

Clyde-

The situation you describe is unacceptable.

I would write a letter to, say, Avweb,
describing the unwillingness of TCM to deal

with the problem. If you make it more

public, maybe they will respond. In

addition, you should cc: it to Robert

Mehrabian, the CEO of Teledyne. His

“official” website is

http://www.teledyne.com/aboutus/mgtmehrabian.asp

but that is useless, since no way to

reach him is posted (of course).

Mehrabian used to be my boss; subsequently,

he was the President of my Alma Mater. There’s

got to be a way to get through to him. If

you send me your letter, I will make sure

it gets to him.

Glenn

Dr. Mehrabian was president of Carnegie Mellon University when I was Professor of Naval Science there from 1991-95. If I remember correctly, he is a metallurgist!

Yes, he was Professor of Metallurgy somewhere prior to becoming president of CMU. Also, his bio makes no mention of any business qualifications, or any experience outside academia prior to joining Teledyne. His metallurgical skills certainly don’t seem to have helped TCM any, and he does seem an unusual choice for a CEO.

I think he was at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) prior to CMU.

IMHO, he was a very good university president. He also did a lot for the City of Pittsburgh in taking the lead in persuading and helping the city’s government to do some effective strategic economic planning.

Hope he’s as effective in the private sector.

Joe

Dr. Mehrabian was president of Carnegie Mellon University when I was Professor of Naval Science there from 1991-95. If I remember correctly, he is a metallurgist!

Yes, he was Professor of Metallurgy somewhere prior to becoming president of CMU. Also, his bio makes no mention of any business qualifications, or any experience outside academia prior to joining Teledyne. His metallurgical skills certainly don’t seem to have helped TCM any, and he does seem an unusual choice for a CEO.

TCM has its problems, all right. Some 20% of the 1999 “Special Edition” IO/550s that went into Bonanzas . . . had to be recalled! The rumored culprit is a bad batch of steel.

Yes, and they’re now talking about legal action against the steel supplier, but there just seems to be a lack of quality control - TCM surely have in place acceptance testing for materials or components they source from outside suppliers?

Or perhaps with the steel TCM just didn’t properly understand the metallurgy involved.