Starduster 

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Fortunately, there is still snow on the ground so I'm not doing much flying, after all its only March 18, 2004.  I'm in no hurry and want this done right so we'll see how long it takes before its back in the air.

Getting the engine off and torn down is surprisingly easy... except for the splitting cases part.  Now, remembering where all the hoses go may be another story.  Wish I had made more notes.

Pistons & Rings

Pistons looked good, no scoring and no broken rings.  We'll toss 'em and buy new of course.

Cylinders

Well, we were happy to see how good of shape the cylinders were in.  We dumped a bunch of alcohol into them, covering the valves and spark plug hole to see if there are any leaks.  They may hold water or air, but alcohol goes through most anything.  Lucky day here, no leaks!  

Unfortunately, the excitement didn't last.  When we pulled the valves, they didn't look very good and were a little loose in the valve guides.  One cylinder was a little out of spec.  So we sent the whole bunch away to see what they could find.

Rocker Arms

Nothing out of there ordinary here.  Everything looks good, but we'll send them off to be inspected, reconditioned, and rebushed.

Camshaft

First peek at the camshaft showed some wear on the lobes.  Not much but we'll have the folks at Aircraft Specialties take a look and see what they think.

Splitting the Cases

Ok, that's harder than it looks.  We ended up making a part to separate the two halves.  Lycoming references a pressure plate, SL-122, but I couldn't find one so my son Kade machined up a couple of plates and bolts to go over the cylinder head studs on the left side of the engine.   When tightened, the plate presses on the center through bolt and, with the help of a little rubber mallet, pushes the case halves apart.  Note to self:  good item to sell on eBay!!

Crankshaft

Holding my breath on the crankshaft until it gets inspected.  Don't want anything bad here.  A couple of pretty good groves in the center bearing and some scoring in the nose bearing.

Repair List

So here's the list... as I'm writing this, I'm hoping it doesn't grow much bigger.

Shipping Everything Out

Well, its the 27th of March and everything's boxed up and sent off to be reconditioned.

Not sure what the deal is with Tulsa, but at least the parts won't be too far away from each other during the process.  Now all we have to do is sit and wait for them to come back all shiny and new.

In the mean time, there is a lot of work to do back at the ranch... Check out the next section to follow the process.

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