"Too much data is a bad thing"

Worn intake valves, pitted camshafts, shock cooling, and AD compliance are on the docket.

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Full notes below:

Norm wonders whether condition-based maintenance and inspections failed him. He is co-owners in an airplane with a Lycoming IO-360, and after a few years they found a crack in the crankcase. The engine was torn down and found to have some rust on the cylinder walls, scoring on the crankshaft, and a worn and pitted lifter. They had been borescoping, doing oil analysis, looking at the filter, and never found any concerns. The hosts say the approach worked perfectly. The point of condition-based maintenance is to fix safety related problems, and they argue that all Norm's issues were financial issues. Mike argues that the lifter wear could have been found with by measuring the valve opening, but that it wouldn't have necessarily resulted in a teardown. The oil analysis wouldn't have found anything because the metal chunks were too large, and although a magnet over the filter material may have helped, he's not sure that would have resulted in a teardown either. The lesson is that the airplane was safe, despite the condition concerns.

Jay has an RV with an experimental IO-540 that he loves. A look at the cylinder data found that one of his intake valves was eroding. As the shop dug into the engine they found a few other issues, including pitting on the camshaft. An IRAN is going to cost him maybe $20,000 or $30,000 less than an overhaul, so he's wondering if it's ok to save the money or should he just overhaul the engine while it's off. The hosts tell him to save his money. The only reason they would overhaul now is to increase the market value if he were planning on selling. Otherwise there's little benefit.

Ronan wonders how to interpret the data on his friend's Piper Arrow as regards shock cooling. They often get the alerts on the Garmin engine analyzer, and they are wondering if there's anything they can do to avoid it. Paul jokes that he should just turn that feature off. Mike said the only time you have to worry about this is when the cylinders are at high temperature, such as cruise to chopping the power. But in a descent the cylinders are already cooling, so he's not worried about it.

Bill is wondering if his club is documenting too much on AD compliance. The hosts give some detailed information on how they document ADs and why it matters. They tend to document everything in a large spreadsheet and note whether or not it applies. If it doesn't, they say so on the document and leave it for a future mechanic or owner. Doing so helps with hours of research, they say. They are also careful to document parts and accessories, especially those inside the engine, as you don't want to have to take the prop off to check a crankshaft serial number every year, for example.