About a week or so back, I was poking around the Power Flow website because I was wondering how much they were going for these days. While looking at the page they have for my particular airplane, I noticed that it addressed a potential issue with the carburetor:
On the O-360 powered Beech 23 series airframes, the original carb furnished with the airplane is often set too lean. Since our system works by burning fuel in the mixture that would normally be pumped overboard unburned, these aircraft sometimes require that the carb be rebuilt/enrichened to take full advantage of the performance benefits offered by the Power Flow System.
Mine is a B19 which originally came with an O-320, and of course a Power Flow had already been installed, but I wanted to make sure the overhaul shop knew about this since the carb was being rebuilt as well. I wanted to make sure they didn't set it too lean. So I called them back last Wednesday to make sure they knew about it. And, since it was almost four weeks since my earlier call anyway, I wanted to check the status.
The woman, Ann, who answered the phone said that she didn't know the status of my engine, and that they were very shorthanded because most of their staff were out sick with the you-know-what. She also said that they don't overhaul carbs there, but send them out to another shop for that purpose. She said she'd check on my engine, and contact the other shop to make sure they knew about the Power Flow.
Several days passed with no contact so, yesterday, I called them back. Ann answered again and we spoke for a bit. She said she had checked with the carb shop and all was good there. She promised to get my engine status and get back to me later in the day, and that's exactly what she did.
It turns out my engine had already been completed and had been shipped back last week! She didn't know about the carb status, just that when she called last Wednesday it was in the process of being rebuilt. If I understood correctly, the carb shop will be shipping it straight to Snohomish Flying Service, which makes sense. I asked if she knew what had actually been wrong with the engine, but she didn't have that information. We figured Preston out at SFS would know.
This morning, I called the shop at Snohomish Flying Service and Alex confirmed that the engine had arrived, but he didn't think the carb had arrived yet. He checked with Preston and the result is that the source of the problem was the camshaft, and that I should expect a noticeable increase in power from the engine now that it's been overhauled. At this point, it's a matter of waiting for the carb if it hasn't actually arrived yet, waiting for the oil cooler which SFS sent out for overhaul, and waiting to fit me into the schedule. There are other things that I've scheduled to be done which they'll do at the same time. The annual inspection is also due at the end of this month so that will be done as well.
There is one thing I want to talk to Preston about and that's whether or not the engine required a full overhaul, or just a new camshaft. When we started this whole process, I asked them to let me know if the problem was something that could be solved with a repair (e.g. just replace the camshaft) rather than requiring a full overhaul. If the camshaft was shot, but everything else was fine, and they did the full overhaul anyway, why didn't they contact me and let me know so I could make the choice? It's certainly possible that, while the camshaft was the source of the metal, the rest of the engine was in a state where overhaul was warranted. If so, fair enough. But if it was possible to do just a repair, I would have liked the option.
Nevertheless, what's done is done, and the engine should now be good for as long as I own the plane. I'm very much looking forward to getting it back in the air, going through the break-in process, and experiencing the promised increase in power. Fingers crossed it'll be flying next month and there will be plenty of good weather left this summer.
Comments
Post a Comment