hi all, have an old but smooth running 0-200A. It was OH'd in 91' with about 1330 smoh on it right now. Its had about 600 hours of that put on in the past five years. in november at anual my mechanic and i noticed quite a bit of metal in the oil that came out of the engine when we removed the oil screen. it was silver and non magnetic and looked like a bunch of silver flakes some up to a mm or two and very thin. mechanic figured it to be a pushed out wrist pin cap so pulled the 2 low cyl's. comp at time of anual was 75,73,67.65 so pulled the two in the 60's. on the 65 cyl found that the cap had pushed out and had been rubbing against the wall but it had polished itself smooth again. honed cyls, new rings and wrist pins. did a ton more work to the plane too like tailfeathers, all new gaskets, cut out and welded gas tanks, etc. bird is flying smooth as ever and broke in the engine running at or above 75% and varying rpms almost every 5 to 10 mins for 20 hrs now. pulled oil screen a few hrs back and still the same shavings. only about a 3rd the amount but only 18 hrs instead of 55. any ideas? im thinking it could just be left over in the engine from before? planing on going another 20 hrs with min 65 and then checking again at end of break in. I really would like this thing to make it atleast a few more years until i get my 18 project in the air and then the plan is to rebuild it. keep the tcart on floats and 18 on 31's

thanks

Back in the day, I had an Lyc O-360 with about 1400 hours on it. I was doing an annual oil analysis. We had some minor aluminum in the screen, but then the analysis spiked. It looked pretty alarming, but they said "not significant." Our IA had a duck fit. To make a short story long, we ended up with an overhaul, new cylinders, the full disaster. I kept our cam as souvenir and take it to parties to show my flying buddies. Anyway, you might try and make it a while and get an oil analysis, although that might take a while. Cut open your oil filter and wash and strain the contents. Stay over flat, open country.

You're on the right track with the 31s.

AlpineTCraft wrote:hi all, have an old but smooth running 0-200A. It was OH'd in 91' with about 1330 smoh on it right now. Its had about 600 hours of that put on in the past five years. in november at anual my mechanic and i noticed quite a bit of metal in the oil that came out of the engine when we removed the oil screen. it was silver and non magnetic and looked like a bunch of silver flakes some up to a mm or two and very thin. mechanic figured it to be a pushed out wrist pin cap so pulled the 2 low cyl's. comp at time of anual was 75,73,67.65 so pulled the two in the 60's. on the 65 cyl found that the cap had pushed out and had been rubbing against the wall but it had polished itself smooth again. honed cyls, new rings and wrist pins. did a ton more work to the plane too like tailfeathers, all new gaskets, cut out and welded gas tanks, etc. bird is flying smooth as ever and broke in the engine running at or above 75% and varying rpms almost every 5 to 10 mins for 20 hrs now. pulled oil screen a few hrs back and still the same shavings. only about a 3rd the amount but only 18 hrs instead of 55. any ideas? im thinking it could just be left over in the engine from before? planing on going another 20 hrs with min 65 and then checking again at end of break in. I really would like this thing to make it atleast a few more years until i get my 18 project in the air and then the plan is to rebuild it. keep the tcart on floats and 18 on 31's

thanks

Are you sure that it’s aluminum and not babbit? Babbit Is it malleable, can you bend it with a knife blade? Most aluminum scuffing will stay in fine powder or chips, flat shiny soft pieces are babbit, the stuff they make rod and main bearings out of, defiantly get an oil analysis and look for Tin, Copper, and in some lead and silver. Good luck!

I had a piston pin cap failure on my C85. If I were you I would remove the other two cylinders and check those pin caps. I would also install an oil filter. I had no indications of trouble when my cap failed. Compressions were all very good, oil pressure was good. Found it during an oil change...metal flakes had gone everywhere.

still have some of the flakes in my garage i will check with the knife test when i get home. engine runs really smooth with like 45-50 lbs of pressure, which i here is good for those small conts. makes the normal click & clacking from the valves but i sure dont here a knock. sure hope its not that. im not an a&p but can you simply replace some bearings like in a auto engine, or do you technicaly have to rebuild the whole engine. im not interested in zero timing the motor right now, but i would like to in a few years. just want it safe and running right.

the other option i was wondering about was purchasing a "timed out" 0-200 that was still running good just to get me by for a year or two if i do have to pull this thing, so i dont want to have much down time at all. im flying it about two to three times a week and ski flying season is just getting sweet up here:) if anyone has a motor like this they would let go cheap let me know.

thanks again

oh i forgot.....is the babbit magnetic? cause these flakes are def not......

No.

oh if anyone in ak wants to go out flying let me know. kinda like going with another bird for the next 20 hrs while i can before i make a decision to pull the motor or not. who's a good company for oil anylasis? do you send them the oil from right out of the sump or the oil that comes out from around the screen in the back? and no i dont have an oil filter. should i get one? i know they really help filter out small particles that my screen will miss. here's some pics of the new tail on my lake at my cabin right after my anual in early december. anyones is invited im always looking for an excuse to get out and up cruising around:)

btw, have a beer while mesuring out and taping off the checkers on your rudder.....it makes the 5 hrs process a little less painful:)