Dropped Lycoming TIO-540, now what?

Q

qflyer

Well-Known Member
A T206 I fly some just had an overhaul (TIO-540-AJ1A) and the engine was delivered back to the local shop to put back on the plane. While unloading the engine from the truck, the chain broke and the engine dropped 5-6 feet to the concrete hangar floor. It landed on the top corner of the number 2 cylinder and rolled over the top of the engine and stopped on the opposite side. Obvious damage: #2 cylinder is busted open, a couple pushrod tubes are bent/dented, 5 of 6 intakes are damaged, fuel rail on one side is severely bent, etc etc.

The mechanic said he'd just replace everything that's damaged, and call it good. I know the engine wasn't running at the time, but am I crazy to demand a complete tear down? Just glancing at it, it doesn't look like the crankshaft was hit at all.

Lycoming has gone home for the day, so I'll be calling them first thing tomorrow. In the mean time, what say you guys? Replace damaged components, full tear down, or something else?
 
Question from a non-mechanic: How can you properly asses what is damaged without a full tear down?
 
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I'm not so concerned about the money side of it right now...the shop has insurance, and they're going to pay for it (at least that's what they say.) My concern is that they're trying to just fix the obvious damage, and not do a full inspection/overhaul. I'm guessing that this isn't a real common occurrence, so I assume there's nothing published by Lycoming that mandates a complete tear down. Like y'all said though, how can we know the extent of the damage without doing a tear down?
 
qflyer said:
I'm not so concerned about the money side of it right now...the shop has insurance, and they're going to pay for it (at least that's what they say.) My concern is that they're trying to just fix the obvious damage, and not do a full inspection/overhaul. I'm guessing that this isn't a real common occurrence, so I assume there's nothing published by Lycoming that mandates a complete tear down. Like y'all said though, how can we know the extent of the damage without doing a tear down?
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The money side of it is everything because the shops insurance wants to get out of it as cheaply as possible. You need to get on the horn with Lycoming and get in writing from them their recommendation which I can virtually guarantee is going to be at LEAST a sudden stoppage inspection. Under no circumstances would I accept an engine of that size, complexity, and cost unless it had been inspected per Lycoming. It takes a LOT of force to break a cylinder off and all that force got transmitted through the case into the bearing saddles, some of it may have gone through the rods...there is just so much that could be wrong that you wouldn't know unless you look closely and the only way to do that is like I said, at least a prop strike level teardown. Plus on top of this you paid for a freshly overhauled engine and whoever dropped the thing needs to make it right.
 
deadstick said:
I'm sure the local FSDO would have the answer.

:stir:
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If that's what it takes to get the FBO or the shipper to pony up the cash to make it right, I would absolutely involve the FSDO, the manufacturer, and anyone else who can provide a third party view of what needs to be done.

Our FSDO had us do a prop strike/sudden stoppage inspection for a prop strike with a non moving propeller that damaged less than 1/4 inch of one blade tip. And they were in the right per Lycomings SB (I forget the number off the top of my head but if the OP googles "Lycoming sudden stoppage" it should show right up). I can't imagine getting away with less after the thing fell of a crane and broke a jug open.
 
That's what I was getting at. "Hi, Mr FAA. I'm here with A&P Joe with ACME Airplane Maintenance. He said..."

The engine is not designed to take a load like that. The lugs, through bolts, the case -- all of those were exposed to an unnatural force. Who's to say there isn't a hairline crack or a small deformation of the crank?

I earned this name thanks to shoddy engine maintenance that generated a problem that took over a hundred hours to manifest. It's no bueño.
 
This is a joke. repair the damaged parts and move on. The engine goes through worse in shipment and planes are not falling form the sky. A visual inspection is all you should need.
Remove the so called "damaged" parts and send them my way. I will take them off your hands at no cost to you.
 
Vector said:
This is a joke. repair the damaged parts and move on. The engine goes through worse in shipment and planes are not falling form the sky. A visual inspection is all you should need.
Remove the so called "damaged" parts and send them my way. I will take them off your hands at no cost to you.
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Engines routinely experience 200G impact forces during shipment?
 
gotWXdagain said:
Engines routinely experience 200G impact forces during shipment?
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I worked for UPS in highschool loading trucks and I know how much care we gave to products that came down the conveyor.

Even your car wasn't designed for 200G impact, so....your point?!
 
Vector said:
This is a joke. repair the damaged parts and move on. The engine goes through worse in shipment and planes are not falling form the sky. A visual inspection is all you should need.
Remove the so called "damaged" parts and send them my way. I will take them off your hands at no cost to you.
Click to expand...

This is the worst advice ever given to anyone on any topic on any message board.
 
My customer (OEM) dropped a bit of Avionics off a 3ft cart as they wheeled it to the install area. Said Stores Management Processor weighs about 22lbs and impacted the top corner of the box, cracking a cooling fin and bending one cable connector (visible damage).

Calculated force of the fall was enough to Scrap the whole box, including the cards within the box, as we could no longer certify them. We could replace the housing and connector, red strip the cards and allow their use in the SIL only for test purposes.

This was only Avionics from a short distance, can't imagine anyone saying.....Just fix the damaged parts and move on.

3ft fall in this case cost $92,300!
 
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