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O-290-D Overhaul
History and background...
Many of you are aware of my post regarding Engine Follies in Fire Wall Forward
After working on cars, hot rods motorcycles and out board Mercury Hydro plane racing engines I got my first real taste on aircraft engines when I overhauled my O-360-A1A engine in 1988 converted to the fixed pitch -A2A it was a 1959 narrow deck engine with a three digit serial number.It went 1606 hrs on a back yard overhaul. It was a narrow deck case, and when overhauled was not dowel pinned, as then it was not part of the case overhaul, but is now.
It has now been overhauled again in 2001 and dowel pinned has a bit over 1200 hrs now. Its not making metal or fowling plugs and burns clean with a light gray exhaust that leaves no residue sticking to your fingers.
Skip forward to my single place O-290-D, and -D2 engine adventure, I had been entertaining acquiring a single place SA-100 Starduster Biplane for some time due to my very first experience with Lou Stolp's N2314C, and low and behold I had a chance to buy it, or thought I did? It for sale on Barnstormers some time ago, but I was never able to make a deal. At about the same time a good friend here locally had some O-290 parts mostly the O-290-G I paid $ 900.00 bucks, thinking this would be the start to a serviceable engine for that airplane. But it was missing most all of the hardware and had no mags, carb or other accessories, but with it came a new -D2 case.
In the mean time march 2015 another half built SA-100 less engine came available in Northern Calif, it was started in the early 80s and had changed hands numerous times. One can go to my SA-100 build site for details.
Then an old boy locally 94 yrs old at the time was hanging it up and had several engines for sale, and one was an O-290-D that had come off of a 7BCGC Champion N3464D with less that 200 hrs total time since major. It was overhaul by Nickon's Inc Santa Maria Calif, and I thought it would be a turn key engine for my SA-100, and for $2500.00 bucks a complete certified engine mags harness carb and starter with all the log books and current overhaul whats not to like or could go wrong?
I continued working on and reworking all of the things I did not like on this/my SA-100 and had hung the -D engine to check the mount I made and make the engine cowling nose bowl and other sheet metal around the airplane, and before hanging the engine for good, thought I should at least take a look, as it did not seem to turn over very free, like I thought it should? So pulled one cylinder, and things did not look good, and then another. Two major problems, one the cam lobe and lifter on the #4 exhaust valve was eaten up, and pitted pretty bad, and the others although serviceable were not far behind, I believe this is the result of regrinding down to almost nothing and if not done correctly compromises whats left of the harding process.
The second problem with my -D engine the crank would not turn free in the case? This turned out to be thrust flange galling, both positive pulling and negative power off pushing, the specs call for a min of .009 to .014, and a max serviceable of .024, and it had none zero, so all of a sudden my bolt on turn key engine now required some major engine work. Tried cleaning off all of the galled aluminum and polishing the thrust flanges on the crank, but even after this it still had no play apparently when Nickon's overhauled the engine the end play was never checked and it ran the first 200 hrs or so with no or little clearance! So the case went to Ly-Con. The crankshaft rods and such all went out for repair to serviceable limits along with ordering new oil pump gears, rod bolts, main and rod bearings a new cam and lifters, the engine had one new reconditioned cylinder chrome from Gibson that had never been run, Now I suspect it may have been changed after their trip to Oshkosh thinking this was the problem and was why it was removed from the Champ, and not running well?
The other cylinders were also chrome with less than 200 hrs and were all cleaned and honed, the valves lapped and three more sets of rings, a $100 bucks each BTW! As well as overhaul gaskets, the crank came back from aircraft services as serviceable. But it took over a year to find and buy all of the other parts and get the work done. As it conflicted with my SA-100 build, and I ended up putting the -D2 on that airplane N96574 the SA-100 I am currently flying.
Now having Acquired another AS-100 N35RL to put this O-290-D on along with all of the parts to assemble this as a certified engine. I have done so over the last month or so, and it is pretty much ready and is now on that airplane.
My goal with the following is to give others that might be contemplating doing an overhaul themselves or something similar, some sort of idea as to what it takes to do so.
The current lycoming overhaul manual for the O-235, and the O-290-D is dated 2007, and of course has most of the basic information to disassemble and reassemble these engines, and can be down loaded. But as most of you know these engines are overhauled by service instructions of which many have been revised several times or more. There are also AD notes that need to be complied with during overhaul, especially if the engine is to maintain its certification.
Some but not all of the Service Instructions pertaining to engine overhaul on Lycoming engines, are listed below
#479C Crankshaft Gear Modification
#1125D Crankcase Parting Flange surface Sealants
#1029D Tightening Procedures for Cylinders Crankcase Through studs, and Bolts.
#1059E Pre-Lubracation of Parts Before Assembly
#1068A Tappet Clearance Adjustments
#1324D Front Crankshaft Oil Seal
#1512 Main and Connecting Rod Bearing Upgrades and superseded Part Numbers.
The Parts Catalog For these engines PC-102-1-B was last revised in May of 1991, and is fairly current, and can also be down loaded.
One should have some sort of procedure game plan list or outlined in play prior to starting the engine assembly. I wrote several notes regarding assembly of this engine, mostly to remind myself not to forget several important parts that need to be in the engine as the assembly is conducted.
One should also have all of the parts new or serviceable as well as gasket set ready for assembly.
I started with the crankshaft bolted vertical to the engine stand.
First was the drive gear that turns not only the oil pump, but also all of the accessory gears that time the engine and crank to the cam, and also turn the magnetos. It has a bendable lock tab and special bolt and torq. It also needs to be coated with food grade Anti-Seize, BTW. The gear need to fit flush and be with the current three scallop configuration.
A mixture of 50 wt aircraft oil and STP are liberally used during engine assembly
Second was installing the rods, and when one is doing so they should verify that the bearings are indeed the correct ones for the crankshaft as most that are inspected usually get turned under size. So it is very important that the correct bearings are a match to the crankshaft.
Next of course are the installation of the rods and rod bearings with all of the connecting rod numbers facing down, as well as new rod bolts and nuts that are properly torqued.
The Engine Case Cam and Crankshaft Assembly will follow in the next post regarding O-290-D engine overhaul.
Dave
History and background...
Many of you are aware of my post regarding Engine Follies in Fire Wall Forward
After working on cars, hot rods motorcycles and out board Mercury Hydro plane racing engines I got my first real taste on aircraft engines when I overhauled my O-360-A1A engine in 1988 converted to the fixed pitch -A2A it was a 1959 narrow deck engine with a three digit serial number.It went 1606 hrs on a back yard overhaul. It was a narrow deck case, and when overhauled was not dowel pinned, as then it was not part of the case overhaul, but is now.
It has now been overhauled again in 2001 and dowel pinned has a bit over 1200 hrs now. Its not making metal or fowling plugs and burns clean with a light gray exhaust that leaves no residue sticking to your fingers.
Skip forward to my single place O-290-D, and -D2 engine adventure, I had been entertaining acquiring a single place SA-100 Starduster Biplane for some time due to my very first experience with Lou Stolp's N2314C, and low and behold I had a chance to buy it, or thought I did? It for sale on Barnstormers some time ago, but I was never able to make a deal. At about the same time a good friend here locally had some O-290 parts mostly the O-290-G I paid $ 900.00 bucks, thinking this would be the start to a serviceable engine for that airplane. But it was missing most all of the hardware and had no mags, carb or other accessories, but with it came a new -D2 case.
In the mean time march 2015 another half built SA-100 less engine came available in Northern Calif, it was started in the early 80s and had changed hands numerous times. One can go to my SA-100 build site for details.
Then an old boy locally 94 yrs old at the time was hanging it up and had several engines for sale, and one was an O-290-D that had come off of a 7BCGC Champion N3464D with less that 200 hrs total time since major. It was overhaul by Nickon's Inc Santa Maria Calif, and I thought it would be a turn key engine for my SA-100, and for $2500.00 bucks a complete certified engine mags harness carb and starter with all the log books and current overhaul whats not to like or could go wrong?
I continued working on and reworking all of the things I did not like on this/my SA-100 and had hung the -D engine to check the mount I made and make the engine cowling nose bowl and other sheet metal around the airplane, and before hanging the engine for good, thought I should at least take a look, as it did not seem to turn over very free, like I thought it should? So pulled one cylinder, and things did not look good, and then another. Two major problems, one the cam lobe and lifter on the #4 exhaust valve was eaten up, and pitted pretty bad, and the others although serviceable were not far behind, I believe this is the result of regrinding down to almost nothing and if not done correctly compromises whats left of the harding process.
The second problem with my -D engine the crank would not turn free in the case? This turned out to be thrust flange galling, both positive pulling and negative power off pushing, the specs call for a min of .009 to .014, and a max serviceable of .024, and it had none zero, so all of a sudden my bolt on turn key engine now required some major engine work. Tried cleaning off all of the galled aluminum and polishing the thrust flanges on the crank, but even after this it still had no play apparently when Nickon's overhauled the engine the end play was never checked and it ran the first 200 hrs or so with no or little clearance! So the case went to Ly-Con. The crankshaft rods and such all went out for repair to serviceable limits along with ordering new oil pump gears, rod bolts, main and rod bearings a new cam and lifters, the engine had one new reconditioned cylinder chrome from Gibson that had never been run, Now I suspect it may have been changed after their trip to Oshkosh thinking this was the problem and was why it was removed from the Champ, and not running well?
The other cylinders were also chrome with less than 200 hrs and were all cleaned and honed, the valves lapped and three more sets of rings, a $100 bucks each BTW! As well as overhaul gaskets, the crank came back from aircraft services as serviceable. But it took over a year to find and buy all of the other parts and get the work done. As it conflicted with my SA-100 build, and I ended up putting the -D2 on that airplane N96574 the SA-100 I am currently flying.
Now having Acquired another AS-100 N35RL to put this O-290-D on along with all of the parts to assemble this as a certified engine. I have done so over the last month or so, and it is pretty much ready and is now on that airplane.
My goal with the following is to give others that might be contemplating doing an overhaul themselves or something similar, some sort of idea as to what it takes to do so.
The current lycoming overhaul manual for the O-235, and the O-290-D is dated 2007, and of course has most of the basic information to disassemble and reassemble these engines, and can be down loaded. But as most of you know these engines are overhauled by service instructions of which many have been revised several times or more. There are also AD notes that need to be complied with during overhaul, especially if the engine is to maintain its certification.
Some but not all of the Service Instructions pertaining to engine overhaul on Lycoming engines, are listed below
#479C Crankshaft Gear Modification
#1125D Crankcase Parting Flange surface Sealants
#1029D Tightening Procedures for Cylinders Crankcase Through studs, and Bolts.
#1059E Pre-Lubracation of Parts Before Assembly
#1068A Tappet Clearance Adjustments
#1324D Front Crankshaft Oil Seal
#1512 Main and Connecting Rod Bearing Upgrades and superseded Part Numbers.
The Parts Catalog For these engines PC-102-1-B was last revised in May of 1991, and is fairly current, and can also be down loaded.
One should have some sort of procedure game plan list or outlined in play prior to starting the engine assembly. I wrote several notes regarding assembly of this engine, mostly to remind myself not to forget several important parts that need to be in the engine as the assembly is conducted.
One should also have all of the parts new or serviceable as well as gasket set ready for assembly.
I started with the crankshaft bolted vertical to the engine stand.
First was the drive gear that turns not only the oil pump, but also all of the accessory gears that time the engine and crank to the cam, and also turn the magnetos. It has a bendable lock tab and special bolt and torq. It also needs to be coated with food grade Anti-Seize, BTW. The gear need to fit flush and be with the current three scallop configuration.
A mixture of 50 wt aircraft oil and STP are liberally used during engine assembly
Second was installing the rods, and when one is doing so they should verify that the bearings are indeed the correct ones for the crankshaft as most that are inspected usually get turned under size. So it is very important that the correct bearings are a match to the crankshaft.
Next of course are the installation of the rods and rod bearings with all of the connecting rod numbers facing down, as well as new rod bolts and nuts that are properly torqued.
The Engine Case Cam and Crankshaft Assembly will follow in the next post regarding O-290-D engine overhaul.
Dave
