What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Build it up and pickle, or wait?

rmartingt

Well Known Member
Yesterday afternoon I took possession of part of an engine--more specifically, a bunch of disassembled and yellow-tagged parts. All of the internals are in sealed bags with preservative, and I'm storing it in a climate-controlled shop.

I still have some parts to buy--cylinder assemblies, the "mandatory replacement" parts, and the SDS EFI system--but that's probably not going to happen until later this year. I probably won't actually be at the stage of needing it together to hang and run systems for another year or two, and I doubt I'll be ready to run it for a little while after that.

What I'm wondering is this: is it better to build the engine up now and pickle it, or should I leave it disassembled in its preservative bags, and assemble it later? An A&P coworker who has done a lot of Lycoming overhauls will be supervising but I'm planning to do as much of the work myself as I can.
 
I bought an RV-7A project with a Titan O-360 engine. The engine had been run in the test cell, pickled and then hung on the mount. It sat for several years in a dry climate controlled space until I bought it.

The advice I received about inspection of the engine was either "it will be fine, go ahead and fly it" or, "it will be easy to pull the engine now and have it inspected". I took the latter advice and am glad I did.

I sent the engine to Penn-Yan and there was corrosion on the cam and a couple of the lifters - as the lifters were sitting on the tips of a couple of the cam lobes.

I don't have much experience with this but based on this single data point my advice is to wait until you are closer to needing the engine.
 
All right, I'll just leave it.

That said, for right now I'll take the case, sump, and accessory housing and clean/paint those and get them better protected. It'll give me something to do...
 
If you wish to build it and pickle it with it standing vertically on an engine stand, this is a very viable option to consider. The vertical storage allows the engine to be completely filled with oil and the camshaft submerged.

Or engine was filled with oil through 12 years of horizontal storage, mounted on the airframe. It took some effort to keep it filled with preservative oil but it certainly doesn't appear to have taken any harm over the years. Now that we're flying I'll keep cutting open the oil filters and keep looking for debris, but so far, so good.
 
I would not assemble until required. You can coat the critical surfaces of the cam and crank with gear oil and stick them in bags, same with the lifter bodies. They will stay protected for a long time and you can observe them. Once assembled, it is much harder to protect all surfaces, as outlined by the previous poster that found problems. Tight fit areas can reduce the protective film to very thin levels that can be compromised. I coated my cylinders with oil and left them in the house. After 2 years, there was 0 corrosion. This would not necessarily be the case if I had a piston with tight rings installed to scrape the oil off them.

Larry
 
Last edited:
You might put silica gel in a 1 liter pop bottle and attached via hose it to the breather port. That will keep the cam and lifters dry. Then use some covers over the carb and exhaust ports and use silica gel sparkplugs. That will keep the cylinders pretty dry. It is easy to monitor the color of the silica if you add some blue beads. Buy the 500 gram packs on ebay and some of the blue version.

If you don't put covers over the intake and exhaust ports, you will have to dry two of the sparkplug inserts periodically but it helps.
 
Back
Top