TCM 240, 360, 470, 520, and 550 series engines SAIB NE-10-09
This Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) alerts you, owners, operators, certificated repair facilities, and flight standards district offices, of Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) 240, 360, 470, 520, and 550 series reciprocating engines and Rolls-Royce Motors, Ltd. (R-RM) 240 and 360 series reciprocating engines hydraulic lifter failures. These TCM hydraulic lifters, part numbers (P/Ns) 657913, 657915, and 657916 have experienced rapid wear on the surface of the hydraulic lifter assemblies both in new and rebuilt engines. Hydraulic lifter failures have occurred at very low time-in-service (i.e., between 5 and 38 hours). When a hydraulic lifter fails, it no longer opens the associated valve, which makes the associated cylinder ineffective. As a result, the engine runs rough with a loss of power potentially leading to a safety of flight issue.
SAIB Attached
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| NE-10-09 .pdf | 21.39 KB |
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It's rather odd to have the FAA issue an SAIB following an Emergency AD. It appears that the purpose of this SAIB is to reassure owner/operators who have the recalled TCM lifters installed that it's okay to replace them with continued-time reground lifters, since that's all there is. TCM presently has no viable source of new lifters, nor any program for testing and requalifying any of the recalled lifters. Let us hope that the supply of continued-time reground lifters is sufficient to see us through until TCM is able to come up with a permanent solution.
One presumes that TCM will be shipping their OEMs brand new engines with reground lifters. While I see no safety issue, this would seem to redefine the meaning of "new."