Got an odd situation and would appreciate some guidance.
The plane had it’s engine replaced 400 hours ago. Routine oil changes were done every 50 hours. Annuals were done. They brought it for rountine maintenance and found no oil pressure. They changed the oil and filter and found metal filings in the oil filter. They changed the pump too. The mechanic who takes care of our planes told us that the way to handle this is to change the oil, fly the plane for two hours, then change the oil and filter again and check for more metal filings.
I don’t know about you, but why the hell would I fly a plane that is known to have problems to test whether there are metal filings in the oil?
If nothing is found, then fly it for 10 hours and change the oil and filter again.
Is this normal procedure? This is Lycoming engine from a Cessna 182.
Not so sure about the Lycoming, but it largely depends on the concentration of wear metals in the oil. They find it then establish a baseline and check it routinely to see if it gets any worse or better creating a “wear metal trend”. If they suggest flying a few more hours then chances are it was not a dangerous amount. That is IF they are familiar with oil analasis, or IF they even did an oil sample burn. If not i would suggest having a SOAP sample burned by a trained NDT professional.
A couple of questions,
What was the condition of the replacement engine? New,overhauled,if used Time.
How much metal, What kind,Aluminum, Bronze or steel. It makes a difference
What was the oil pressure after the pump change. Normal?
If the oil pressure was ok after the pump change, and the metal found was aluminum and minimum there should be no problem with the 2 hour test and recheck.
It is not at all unusual to find a small amount of aluminum slivers in the filter of an engine with only 400 hours
???'s The mechanic found no oil pressure during routine MX. What about the flight before?? and I’m hoping it was really low oil press not 0psi. as you stated.
Flight it over the field, hey great time to practice holds. and the engine has to get really F’d up to quit, I lost a main bearing in a IO520 and it ran fine with less than 5psi oil pressure untill I shut it down after landing, that was about 20 minutes at a slight over speed.
& I agree with Beech, Where did the comic relief nut-jobs go??
Thank you all for your great responses. I am afraid I don’t know what kind of metal was in the filter - the mechanic opened it. And I know how important that is since it’s the clue to what is failing. We do send our oil off routinely for tests. I can only assume that since they replaced the oil pump first, they assumed it as the source of both the pressure loss and filings. And with anything, you try the easiest fix first before tearing down the whole thing.
I wanna see his credentials…sorry, wrong thread.