No work tonight, because I had to run to the freight yard to pick up my engine!
It’s a factory new Lycoming YIO-540D4A5. I opened the box to make sure everything looked good and pull out the paperwork, but I didn’t actually open the plastic bag that the engine is in. It’s sealed from the factory, and I’m going to leave it in the nice low humidity environment until I’m ready to bolt it on the plane. One thing that struck me as interesting… With an $8000 propellor, I got this very nice professional looking manual, with nice tabs for all the sections. The motor that I spent more than five times as much on comes with a manual that looks like it belongs to a 6th grader’s book report. I think Lycoming must just send some interns down to Kinkos and told them to “make copies of this, and keep it cheap!” (It’s the pink covered binder in the pictures below)
Unbelievable. I’ve seen the engine manuals for Lycoming engines installed in Piper Warriors, Senecas and Seminoles and they are all the same. That also includes the turbocharged versions in the Beechcraft B60 Duke. The Bonanza V35 had continental engines and they had a nice grey vinyl binder similiar to Jepesen manuals. For whatever reason they seem to be tailored to mechanics more than pilots or owner/operators. Great looking airplane and superb craftsmanship in my opinion from what I can see….