Cracked Case on a 182F
I bought my 1st plane 1-1/2 years ago, a very nice ‘63 182 with pretty low total time, a Dynon Skyview glass panel and autopilot.
I just got the bad news during the annual that the case is cracked on the Continental O-470-R engine. It’s the original 62 year old engine with 4,400 hours on it. Was last overhauled in 2010 and has ~1,200 hours SMOH.
I’m looking for advice on what the best path forward is. Considering the age of the engine and the cost to repair the crack, it seems like a factory rebuilt O-470-R would be the best option, but at $55,000 just for the engine I want to make sure. Downtime is also a concern. My A&P says an overhaul on the old engine would take 6-8 months, whereas a factory rebuilt is about 2 months.
Thoughts?
Comments
You might consider a used, mid-time O-470. They are quite a few from owners upgrading to a O-520 or O-550
Thanks. That begs a couple of questions:
a.) Where do you find a good used engine?
b.) Should I take this opportunity to upgrade to an O-520? And what’s the lead time?
Barnstormers and other online aircraft sale sites have listed a few.
when the GO-300 in my C175B,'dies' I plan on the STC to use an O-470.!! 50 more HP.!!
Keep in mind that just because you put a substantially higher horsepower engine on any aircraft you are still constrained by the air speed limitations of the particular model. Granted you might get a gross weight increase but your Vne and Max cruising speeds usually still remain the same. What you really gain is time to climb and shorter takeout performance. Don't forget the higher fuel burn in relationship to your standard fuel supply. Overall really need to be doing a good analysis on engine swaps. I am certainly not against them but it just seemed like over the last number of years I've seen a lot of overkill upgrade on certain air frames. Lol Carl
IA 47yr A&P DAL A/C Inspector 172n
Yup !!! got all that. thanks,