Saturday, November 03, 2007
It's Here!
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been in contact with Mattituck to finalize the details for the repair of the cracked crankcase. I received the quote at the beginning of October and the work was finished around the middle of the month. Payment was arranged and my engine was in transit again. I got the call yesterday afternoon: It has arrived!
First we have this big box. We originally shipped the engine in a wooden crate provided by Mattituck back in August. I suppose the cardboard crate is for one-way trips.
Here it is, the heart of my bird wearing a fresh coat of blue paint. The small box on the left contains the carburetor. The open box on the right appears to hold parts that were replaced. She got new piston rings, assorted tubes and hoses, a crankshaft counterweight, and some pushrod tubes. I'll dig through those later. It should be fun, kind like looking at your appendix in a jar of formaldehyde after the operation.
It really looks spiffy - fresh hardware and gaskets, and that lovely blue paint.
It looks like everything was cleaned up. Only six years out of the original overhaul, it was getting somewhat grimy. Now it looks almost new. The engine logs are in the package on top.
Back view showing the oil filter and assorted accessory mounting pads covered with plastic plugs.
Magneto and fuel pump below it. Those ignition leads look pretty ratty, now that the rest of the engine has been freshened up.
Curious: the spark plugs were removed before we shipped the engine to Mattituck. They had to have put plugs in when they test ran the engine, and for some reason, they left the bottom plugs in. I didn't see spark plugs on the invoice, so maybe I'm up half a set of plugs on the whole deal?
I did get a new fuel pump out of the whole adventure.
It's nice to have everything back in the same hangar, even if she's in pieces. For now, I may have to settle for the pieces. The shop has a full schedule and it may be a few weeks before they can resume work on Yellowbird. What was hoped to be a one-week annual inspection has run three months so far. There are still some discrepancies from the inspection to be taken care of, and our biennial IFR check is due this month. I don't see all of that finishing up before the end of the month, so I guess I can sit back, wait, and ogle my engine.
