Superior Air Parts Cylinders, The Proposed AD

[Brian Abraham]

The FAA has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for specific Superior Air Parts (SAP) cylinder assemblies that may be installed in up to 8,000 aircraft here in the U.S. The engines in question are Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) IO-520, TSIO-520 and IO-550 models. Specific SAP cylinders (identified by part number) installed in those engines may be prone to cracks near the exhaust valve, potentially leading to separation of the cylinder head, structural damage, immediate engine failure, and fire in the engine compartment. The proposed airworthiness directive would require initial and repetitive compression checks for those cylinders that also have acquired more than 750 hours time in service. Some 24 failures have so far been reported to the FAA, half of them by SAP. All of those failures occurred in cylinders with more than 823 hours time since new. The FAA is seeking comments before June 11.
Full info here http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-7711.htm

[IO540]

No wonder SAP terminated their 5 year warranty on all new sales quite some time ago. They must have seen this coming.

[lc_aerobatics]

They terminated warranty because they're owned by Thielert and due to current financial situation of Thielert they can no longer afford it.
Cheers.

:rolleyes:

[IO540]

They terminated their 5 year warranty a long time ago. I recall, 2 or so years ago. I was looking at some SAP cylinders last year and the warranty ended well before then.

I know somebody who got hit by Lyco's SB569 and SAP honoured this under the 5 year warranty! This was pretty good but it must have cost them a fortune (no idea if they got anything back from Lyco).

[Fuji Abound]

Pleased to say Superior replaced two of my cylinders FOC under warranty.