The International Cessna 170 Association

Good news—

My AME and I pulled the oil pan off yesterday (10 hour job), and cleaned out 40 gears of sludge and crap. There was fine metal particles in the sludge, but it was deep in the bottom of the pan indicating it had been there for a LONG time. Funny to see oily sludge move when you put a magnet in it. Great to clean this crap out from circulating.

We performed a thorough inspection of the engine and couldn't see anything wrong. The lifters, lobes, camshaft and gears looked good. Our conclusion matches our initial thoughts that the metal was coming from the old starter.

I cut the filter open, and it only had a fine amount of metal in it this time. I've now changed the oil & filter 3 times in 15 hours, with less metal each time.

Now that the engine is cleaned out, the next filter inspection will be the definitive test that the engine is OK. I'm going to perform it at 25 hours to be safe

Nice save, Reece, keep your fingers crossed. Amazing your sump was void of corrosion. I’d send it to Ok Aero for coating if it was me. In the future it could be worth a fair penny.

+1 on sending the sump to Kelowna for coating before it corrodes.

c170b53 wrote:Nice save, Reece, keep your fingers crossed. Amazing your sump was void of corrosion. I’d send it to Ok Aero for coating if it was me. In the future it could be worth a fair penny.

Sump had a bit of corrosion, but my AME said it wasn't too bad. It's back on the plane now anyway.

Out of curiosity—what's a coating/repair cost? What's a new sump cost these days?

Well done, sounds like it’s going to work out, and you know more.

reecewallace wrote:Sump had a bit of corrosion, but my AME said it wasn't too bad. It's back on the plane now anyway.

Out of curiosity—what's a coating/repair cost? What's a new sump cost these days?

New sumps are made from unobtainium. Old sumps were made from magnesium. Here’s a thread discussing the coating process: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3746

When my engine comes up for overhaul, I plan to have the sump coated.

Keep us posted!