Eyrie From the Raaus engine survey..
Typical engine types included in the response consisted of about one third Jabirus, one third Rotax 4 strokes (912/914) and the remainder comprising Lycoming, a large number of Rotax 2 stroke engines along with auto engine conversions such as VW and Subaru.
Interestingly, for ongoing discussions about the availability for MOGAS at airfields, over two thirds of respondents used MOGAS.
More than half the members completed their own maintenance and very encouragingly, the overwhelming majority of members adhered to the manufacturer maintenance schedule. Also encouraging was the vast majority of members reported completion of all Service Bulletins (SBs) and Airworthiness Directives (ADs) for the engine types.
And the failure part..
Almost one fifth of members who responded had suffered an engine failure, which may have been a trigger and motivation for them to complete the survey. Of these engine failures, just over half were as the result of a mechanical failure.
To summarise these failures, the majority of mechanical failures for Jabiru engines related to piston/ring, exhaust valve and through bolt failures, while Rotax issues included sprag clutch issues, CDI or electronic ignition failures and gearbox problems. General failures relative to all types include a large number of fuel or carburettor related issues including a surprising number of fuel contamination issues, electrical failures of various types including charging issues, cooling system issues and propeller issues.