500 Hour Engine -- What Needs to be Done?

[Jay Honeck]

So we've reached 500 hours on our Lycoming O-540. All is well, and it
continues to run like a champ, using little oil. (Although we still have a
minor drip that's driving us nuts...) and pulling like a tractor.

So what needs to be looked at when 500 hours is reached? I know there's a
Service Bulletin to inspect the impulse couplers, but what else needs to be
done?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[DavidM]

Jay Honeck wrote:

> So we've reached 500 hours on our Lycoming O-540. All is well, and it
> continues to run like a champ, using little oil. (Although we still have a
> minor drip that's driving us nuts...) and pulling like a tractor.
>
> So what needs to be looked at when 500 hours is reached? I know there's a
> Service Bulletin to inspect the impulse couplers, but what else needs to be
> done?

It might not be a bad time to have your mags taken apart and inspected.
You can also have your oil cooler flushed, to clear out any junk left
over from the engine break-in. Some people replace their vacuum pumps
regularly, but that depends on the age of the pump, not the engine.


All the best,


David

[Denny]

Echoing David's advice...
Send the mags out for overhaul every 500 hours... Not just set the
points and dab lube on the cam... An actual overhaul, and both you and
Atlas will start up in cold weather...
And, a dry vacuum pump is a ticking time bomb past 500 hours... If you
actually fly IMC and depend on the pump to work every time all the
time, now is the time to sell it on ebay and buy a new one...

denny

[Jim Burns]

Last night I stopped by the airport and I just happened to read an article
about http://www.oilcoolers.com/ flushing and inspection service. I was
amazed at some of the pictures of the junk that they flushed out of some of
the oilcoolers. I think the cost was about $200 for a multi-process flush,
inspection, and pressure test.

If you pull the mags, check the drive gear bearing that rides in the
receiving boss at the end of the mag shaft. There were several different
designs of the same bearing number. Do NOT use one that has the ball
retainers spot welded or dimpled between the balls. This is an older and
weak design and they will separate, causing a metal making event. Ask me
how I know. The newer and better designed retainers are actually crimped
together over a longer radius. The bearings are cheap, I bought several for
less than $10 each, there is no reason not to replace them every time a mag
is pulled.

Other than what has already been mentioned, borrow a copy of the Maintenance
manual and photo copy the inspection checklists. I'd bet there is one for
500 hours.

Jim

[[email protected]]

On 2-Nov-2005, "Jay Honeck" > wrote:

> So what needs to be looked at when 500 hours is reached?


Vacuum pump replacement (critical if you fly IFR).
Alternator belt (replace if any deterioration shown, or for sure the next
time you need to pull the prop off for any reason).
--
-Elliott Drucker

[zatatime]

On Thu, 3 Nov 2005 09:07:09 -0600, "Jim Burns"
> wrote:

>Other than what has already been mentioned, borrow a copy of the Maintenance
>manual and photo copy the inspection checklists. I'd bet there is one for
>500 hours.


There absolutely is. I'd recommend buying both the Service Manual and
Parts Manual. They're only about 70 bucks if I remember right.

z

[Ben Smith]

Hey, you've only been burning autogas since your new engine, right? Any
ideas on how many gallons you've consumed so far?

--Ben

[Doug]

I have run my Husky for over 2200 hours. I never did anything special
at 500 hours. I did proactively get new magnetos at 2000 hours. I
wouldn't change the vacuum pump till it fails as you dont fly IFR.
Other than that, just wait till annual and do the normal stuff that
needs doing. All Ive done is replace the broken parts and have not had
any major trouble.

Inspect your throttle cable, replace if necessary. If that breaks, you
are hosed. I dunno, dont they check all this stuff at annual? I've
never heard of a "500 hour" on a small GA aircraft.

Does Piper call for it?

[Jay Honeck]

> Hey, you've only been burning autogas since your new engine, right? Any
> ideas on how many gallons you've consumed so far?

We just turned 6000 gallons on the Mighty Grape's fuel gauge.

However, we didn't build the Grape until 9 months (or so) after we bought
the plane. Prior to that we were *groan* hauling 5 gallon jugs to the
plane...

The only time that engine has burped in 532 hours was when running on avgas.
I fouled a plug badly, after a long ground hold in Titusville, FL, and had
to come 'round and land with my #2 cylinder badly misfiring.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[DavidM]

Doug wrote:

> Does Piper call for it?

Yeah, the Piper Service/Maintenance manual for my Warrior has 50, 100,
500, and 1000+ hour items (the 100-hour items are typical annual items,
and the 50-hour items are typical oil-change items); I imagine that the
manual for Jay's plane is similar.

I listed some of the items for my Warrior in a blog posting a while
back:

http://www.megginson.com/blogs/lahso/archives/2005/04/15/non-annual-inspections/


All the best,


David

[Chris Schmelzer]

In article . com>,
"DavidM" > wrote:

> Jay Honeck wrote:
>
> > So we've reached 500 hours on our Lycoming O-540. All is well, and it
> > continues to run like a champ, using little oil. (Although we still have a
> > minor drip that's driving us nuts...) and pulling like a tractor.
> >
> > So what needs to be looked at when 500 hours is reached? I know there's a
> > Service Bulletin to inspect the impulse couplers, but what else needs to be
> > done?
>
> It might not be a bad time to have your mags taken apart and inspected.
> You can also have your oil cooler flushed, to clear out any junk left
> over from the engine break-in. Some people replace their vacuum pumps
> regularly, but that depends on the age of the pump, not the engine.
>
>
> All the best,
>
>
> David



Mags should be inspected THOROUGHLY every 500 hours, so would make sense
at 1000!
LOL

--
Chris Schmelzer, MD