Warbird Information Exchange

http://community.webshots.com/album/335004114hdEFqt?810

Check out my webshots album for photos of my T-6 engine torn apart at Aero Engines in Los Angeles. By the time it is done I hope to have the wheelwells stripped and repainted in the center section and the firewall area all cleaned up (4 months?).

Looks Good Brnadon:

Mine's going there soon too!

Thanks for posting the photos. Out of curiosity how much time was on this engine? I take it from your comments that it had not been apart since the 1940s, is that correct?

FYI, Aero Engines did the 1340 in my T-6, and she's been running like a champ for many years.

Hi Brandon, thanks for the guts photos. Did you give the engine a leak-down test prior to disassembly? If so, how did the percentages come out?
What was the general condition of the bearing and journal surfaces? Just
curious...

_________________
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DBF

About 1400 hours SMOH and 500 since chrome top. The engine came on an SNJ that was released in 1956 from Pensacola. The hours were carried over from the military data to the logs, but specifics of when the engine was overhauled are unknown. There is a date stamped on the case that I suspect is from a previous overhaul in 1943, but I don't know if it was overhauled between then and 1956.

The engine was last in annual in 1981 and the compression was OK then, but the engine had been sitting since. The exhaust guides appeared to be pretty loose when we stuck a valve in one cylinder, but replacing all the guides is part of the overhaul. I don't have the records of who did the cylinder overhaul in the 1970's, so I don't know if the guides were changed then or not. The pistons and the chrome looked very good aside from the coking and carbon on the pistons.

The link rod pins looked worn as did some of the bearings, but nothing that would have been an incipient failure- although you never know. Just normal wear. After seeing the inside of the engine though I was glad I had it torn down. Having all that carbon and sludge in there waiting to break loose is worrisome to me.

Aero Engines itself is quite a place- straight out of the 1940's. I recommend a visit if you plan to have them do your engine. All their machinery and tooling is vintage, as are most of the employees! A number of them have been there over 35 years. There is a lot of tribal knowledge that will be retiring in the next few years. Aero does nearly all their own work with the exception of chrome plating. They also test run every engine for 5 hours in their "test cell" (mounted on the back of a large truck with a test club and a huge muffler for the airplane engine).

I had logs and a history for the engine, so I chose to have mine overhauled. If you do an exchange, there is no telling how many hours the engine will have on it becuase a lot of them are used by agricultural aircraft. I suspect that my engine has a very low time compared to most.

Although there is no fixed TBO, Aero says agricultural operators get around 1200 hours, while less demanding operators typically get 1600 hours.