madhatter

I will purchase a new engine and install it myself. It could take up to 2 years to get my crankshaft changed as I have less than 50 hrs since new. A lot can change in 2 years and I need to get this done. I will sell the engine once it's done. I am disappointed in the fact that I just bought a new engine and now have this issue. Jabiru is a small company and this issue will be very expensive for them so I understand.

All I am looking for is to get the crankshaft installed correctly by competent individuals. I spent $28,000 on a new engine installed by the Jabiru distributor when the aircraft was purchased. There was a serious installation issue found after I received the aircraft which I corrected. I've been in this industry for a long time and people make mistakes, we all do. My only disappointment is that with the low total time they would not exchange the engine. Other than that I am ok.

My opinion on the Jabiru engine is that it is a very well designed engine. Most new engines require a lot of time to perfect them, no one is immune from it. Continental had many years of problems with the IO520, Lycoming took about 20 to 25 years to perfect the LTS 101 turbine, I was there in the beginning and saw many test cell failures, many were catastrophic, one on my watch. Rotax and Continental both had crankshaft issues recently. Jabiru uses some existing automotive parts wth great success. I don't think they are going cheap, just smart.

They cover everything except transportation. I suppose since they are not as large as other primary engine companies they don't have the resources to exchange engines. However I would think it to be more economical to exchange low time new engines. It would be more economical if sending engines to those who could do their own installations.

Jabiru will install the crankshaft but this takes time. This is at the distributors shop. I would rather get an exchange engine and not have to deal with any possible rebuild issues later. I had a significant issue with the current engine when they installed it.

I recently purchased a gen 4 3300 however it now requires a new crankshaft. The engine only has 37 hours total time. I requested an exchange engine but was turned down so it will be torn down to correct the issue, very disappointed in Jabiru over this. I will incur a lot of expense and down time because of this, if this was Lycoming, Continental, or Rotax it would be exchanged. I can install it myself, I've been maintaining aircraft for 52 years. Even with this I am impressed with the 230D aircraft. On another subject: I believe the new E-PROPS propeller being developed would be a game changer on a Jabiru. I was able to perform an analysis on Flight Design with an E-PROPS propeller which resulted in it being approved for all FD aircraft in the US. The performance increase is substantial for cruise speed, rate of climb, vibration, etc. The other important aspect is it has a very low moment of inertia which is less than half of that on the fiberglass prop for the 230D. This significantly reduces the gyroscopic forces on the crankshaft. The E-PROPS propeller and spinner only weighs about 5 lbs. If Jabiru doesn’t approve the use of it within a reasonable time I will convert to experimental and document the analysis like I did with Flight Design.