Take this with a grain of salt, but the old-timer who told me to stop pressure washing my Avro's engine...

So back in March at the hangar in Burbank, a retired mechanic named Hank watched me prepping a 1967 Avro 748 for a check ride. He said 'kid, if you hit the cylinders with that pressure washer, you'll push the crud right past the rings.' I thought he was full of it because I've been cleaning engines that way for 5 years with no issue. Well, I did it anyway, and after the first climbout, she started burning a quart every 45 minutes. Compression test on number 3 showed a 50 psi drop. Pulled the jug and found a line of grit embedded in the oil ring. Had to R&R the whole cylinder at $400 in parts plus my Sunday. Has anyone else had an old-timer give them advice that seemed dumb but turned out to be spot on?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_lopez983d ago

Has anyone else ever ignored good advice just because you thought you knew better... I sure have, and it cost me a case of beer and a weekend I'll never get back. That story about Hank and the pressure washer sounds painfully familiar. I did the same thing on my old Cessna 150 engine a few years back, convinced I was being thorough. Ended up with a stuck ring that turned my oil consumption into a running joke at the hangar. The old-timers have this way of being right in the most annoying ways. They've seen the grit, the dirt, the bad decisions that come from being too sure of yourself. It's like they've already made all the mistakes so we don't have to. I bet Hank was probably chuckling to himself when he walked away, knowing you'd find out the hard way. That's the thing about real experience it doesn't come from a manual it comes from screwing up and paying for it.

gracethomas3d ago

Wait, you did the same thing ON AN ENGINE? Dude. That's next level. I thought washing a carburetor was bad but you basically pressure washed your plane's heart.