I believe Paul McBride may have given some bad advice regarding not pulling the prop through on engines that are not being used regularly (“Ask Paul: Prepare your plane for winter,” Nov. 9 issue). Unless Teledyne Continental Motors changed its policy recently, it “requires” the prop be pulled through every seven days or the warranty is void. Lycoming may have a different policy.
GEORGE JOHNSON
via email
Paul McBride replies: I called an old friend at TCM to check the company’s current view on this issue. He was kind enough to check through TCM’s publications and found a current SIL 99-1, issued in 1999, that states in bold letters “Do Not Turn Prop.” Perhaps Mr. Johnson is looking at outdated material.
Will someone give a good reason for not “pulling a prop though”. I can think of several reason to do it. It spreads the lube around the crank journals. Isn’t that what you want?
I consistantly get far more than TBO on my Lycomings. If my plane sits a week or more I always pull the prop through at least two compressions strokes of each cylinder before starting the engine.
There sure seems to be a lot of superstition about airplanes and engines. Like the one that says, never fill your engine full of oil because it will sling the first quart out in the first hour of flight. No engine that I’ve every owned did that.