Skip to main content

DYI borescope inspection for aircraft engines

By
Disclaimer: I am a pilot, not A&P. I want to learn how to do my own borescope inspection for prebuy of used aircraft and for inspection of my own engines. These are my research notes.

Why This Matters

There is a big fixation on compression tests to determine engine health. This is plain wrong. An engine with 40/80 compression reads could be perfectly healthy with 1000s of hours to overhaul, while one with 78 compression reads could be on the verge of catastrophic failure. Borescope inspection is the way to go.

Where to start

  1. Watch this excellent EAA video How Healthy is your Engine from expert Mike Busch.
  2. Read Mike's blog post Putting Compression In Context on the same subject.

What equipment to use

  1. Use an intraoral dentistry camera. Higher quality photos than any borescope tool, and it's a 90 degree bend so works well inside cylinders. You will need to attach a light.
  2. Barring that, get a digital borescope that can record photos.
  3. Avoid cheap $200 borescopes, spend at least $800-$1000.Where can I get reference images on example borescope images and explanations

How to get references images from good and bad borescope exams

  1. All About Cylinders EAA video has many great color photos.
  2. See Continental Service Bulletin SB03-3

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to get anything on EBAY for free (and get away with it)

By
This article explains how to get anything for free on Ebay. This is very simple, proven and guaranteed to work. You can get, for example, an IPhone 4, a 64GB IPad 2, or even a Macbook Pro laptop for free. 1. If the seller does not use delivery confirmation, you already won. Just tell ebay you never received the item. They will always side with you (bhe buyer) and refund your money, including shipping, AT THE SELLER'S EXPENSE. There is nothing the seller can do. Ebay will not investigate further, they close the case.  I have hard numerous reports of this happening.  See this facebook thread  and this article . The buyer now has no item, no money, and in addition he is out the cost of shipping. Totally screwed. 2. If you are dealing with a savvy seller, they will use delivery confirmation. Don't worry, you can still get your item for free. After you receive the item, open a case and claim the item broken. Let's use an IPhone 4 as an example. Open a claim and say the me...
10 comments
Read more

THE COPA CIRRUS SR22 PERFORMANCE REPORT

By
About this report This report was generated from data collected from 160 active COPA SR22 pilots. You can see the original survey here: http://tinyurl.com/sr22cruisesurvey . You can download PDF . Table of Contents What you will get out of this report Who were the pilots behind this survey What aircraft are counted in the survey Actual cruise speed and fuel flow Fuel flow vs TAS for NA lean of peak operations What is the most efficient altitude for NA SR22? Turbo SR22 performance at high and low altitudes Are TKS/FIKI planes slower? What is the fastest NA SR22 by generation? Who gets the best range? Are high hour NA SR22 engines slower and do they burn more fuel? How do LoP vs RoP performance compare? POH vs actual performance for NA Who is the fastest SR22? Conclusion About the author Frequently asked questions What you will get out of this report This report is for SR22 owners and buyers. How your SR22 performs compared to other SR22s How altitude affects perfo...
2 comments
Read more

How to hot start a Cirrus SR22

By
The SR22 does not like to normally start when the engine is hot. I use a simple procedure to hot start my SR22. My  Method 1. Prime 5 seconds 2. Throttle 1/4" open, mixture cutoff. 3. Start cranking and slowly advance mixture. 4. Once engine starts to fire, go mixture rich. Honestly I developed this through trial and error, I don't know exactly why it works but it does. I think this works because the prime step pumps cold fuel through the system to cool it down. Then cranking the engine with mixture cutoff pushes all the fuel and air bubbles out of the system, leaving room for clean fuel to be pumped in through cold fuel lies. CPPP Method At the 2015 CPPP in Williamsport we learned about another trick. Hot engine means hot fuel lines, which vaporize fuel (literally, fuel boils, air bubbles form). Engine doesn't want to start with part fuel part air being pumped in. You must cool down your fuel lines first. 1. Throttle closed, mixture cutoff. 2. Run boost pum...
1 comment
Read more