Originally Posted by wings&wheels
Originally Posted by tomcat27
Question for wings&wheels regarding the Piper: do you have periods of time where you don't use it? Frequently used planes seem to have no problem making it to specified TBO, but many infrequently-used planes have an issue with camshafts rusting (from what I have read)
Haven't had a problem and the last engine went a bit past TBO (a few hours waiting for a rebuild slot). The airplane is in a hangar and gets flown year round...except when it is just too cold to do a preflight, and that minimum temp seems to get higher each passing year
The engine does have an pretty good electric heater, the Tanis w/ elements screwed into the cylinders and a heating pad on the oil sump. I'd say that very infrequently flown aircraft probably have more issues w/ corrosion and Lycomings seem have more cam issues than Continentals (the cam is lower in the case, some say it retains an oil coating better), but I've never seen it as a widespread occurrence. I'm sure is is a problem in extreme circumstances. Ironically, my last airplane, a Piper Tomahawk (reputation aside, it was a fun little bird..I loved it), had a cam issue and it was a flight school airplane before me, flown most days.
My friend showed me the original camshaft from his 72 Mustang Mach 1 351 Cleveland, that had like 60k miles and it was badly pitted/corroded. He also had to rebuild the entire engine because the rings were stuck (probably from sitting too long and the maintenance was unknown).
He also has a 79 Cadillac Seville with a 350 Olds engine with 80k miles. The camshaft looked the same (he upgraded it for better performance) the engine ran fine before and after the cam upgrade, but does have slightly low oil pressure.
I need to upgrade the camshaft in my 76 350 olds so I can see if my original has corrosion. I kind of doubt it since it's running great and I've put 100k miles on it in 13 years. It's the one I was talking about in the above post, stored for winter. It has unknown but likely high miles, sat for at least 5-10 years before I got it. It had a few freeze plugs leak shortly after I got it in my car but it has never used more than a qt and a half between 3k oil changes. I had to do some serious coolant flushing. But the engine was spotless inside. No sludge. The rusted out 81 Monte Carlo it was sitting in at the junkyard had a ton of used oil filters in the trunk, so I think it came from someone who knew enough to change the oil.
Originally Posted by tomcat27
Question for wings&wheels regarding the Piper: do you have periods of time where you don't use it? Frequently used planes seem to have no problem making it to specified TBO, but many infrequently-used planes have an issue with camshafts rusting (from what I have read)
Haven't had a problem and the last engine went a bit past TBO (a few hours waiting for a rebuild slot). The airplane is in a hangar and gets flown year round...except when it is just too cold to do a preflight, and that minimum temp seems to get higher each passing year
The engine does have an pretty good electric heater, the Tanis w/ elements screwed into the cylinders and a heating pad on the oil sump. I'd say that very infrequently flown aircraft probably have more issues w/ corrosion and Lycomings seem have more cam issues than Continentals (the cam is lower in the case, some say it retains an oil coating better), but I've never seen it as a widespread occurrence. I'm sure is is a problem in extreme circumstances. Ironically, my last airplane, a Piper Tomahawk (reputation aside, it was a fun little bird..I loved it), had a cam issue and it was a flight school airplane before me, flown most days.My friend showed me the original camshaft from his 72 Mustang Mach 1 351 Cleveland, that had like 60k miles and it was badly pitted/corroded. He also had to rebuild the entire engine because the rings were stuck (probably from sitting too long and the maintenance was unknown).
He also has a 79 Cadillac Seville with a 350 Olds engine with 80k miles. The camshaft looked the same (he upgraded it for better performance) the engine ran fine before and after the cam upgrade, but does have slightly low oil pressure.
I need to upgrade the camshaft in my 76 350 olds so I can see if my original has corrosion. I kind of doubt it since it's running great and I've put 100k miles on it in 13 years. It's the one I was talking about in the above post, stored for winter. It has unknown but likely high miles, sat for at least 5-10 years before I got it. It had a few freeze plugs leak shortly after I got it in my car but it has never used more than a qt and a half between 3k oil changes. I had to do some serious coolant flushing. But the engine was spotless inside. No sludge. The rusted out 81 Monte Carlo it was sitting in at the junkyard had a ton of used oil filters in the trunk, so I think it came from someone who knew enough to change the oil.
