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The CAF Rocky Mountain Wing has successfully re-attached their freshly overhauled R-2600 engine to their TBM-3E Avenger. (image via CAF Rocky Mountain Wing)
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The Commemorative Air Force’s Rocky Mountain Wing has good news to report regarding their TBM-3E Avenger (Bu.53503) which has just regained her fully-rebuilt R-2600 engine. A year ago, the aircraft’s maintenance crew discovered that the engine was ‘making metal’, with an internal bearing starting to fail, necessitating an expensive engine overhaul to remedy the problem. But after some significant fundraising, more of which is still needed, the Rocky Mountain Wing was able to have the engine repairs completed, as described by the CAF unit’s leader, Fred Suevel, in a recent e-mail with your editor…
“The engine was returned from Anderson Aeromotive in Idaho in the first week of Jan. 2021. We unloaded it from their shipping cradle and moved it onto our stand. The stand uses the same mounting ring as found on the plane. Once on the stand, we started putting on a few of the accessories which mount on the back end of the engine, ie. the generator, the oil pump, the tachometer, the hydraulic pump and the vacuum pump. It was much easier to do this on the ground than hanging over the side of the plane from a stand. On Saturday, Feb. 13, using a travel lift donated by Weststar (local FBO), we unmounted the engine from our ground stand and lifted it to the plane where it was remounted onto the engine mounting ring. This took about an hour.
Winching the engine off its transport cradle for mounting on the TBM. (image via CAF Rocky Mountain Wing)
Chief mechanic, Dick Maddock, is winching the nose (propellor shaft) up to try and match the angle of the mounting ring on the plane. Dick is watching another mechanic to determine whether to continue to winch up.. (image via CAF Rocky Mountain Wing)
The engine’s mounting post should be positioned between the two mounting posts on the engine mount’s ring. The bolt will then be pushed from the top ring mount through the engine mount and out through the bottom ring mount. The lines show the bottom points. Chief Mechanic, Dick Maddock, is guiding the travel lift operator to move the engine closer to the mounting points. (image via CAF Rocky Mountain Wing)
There are seven bolts which will hold the engine to the plane via the circular green engine mount. If you look closely on the ring, you can see the little arms leaning toward the engine. Those are where the bolts will connect.. (image via CAF Rocky Mountain Wing)
The engine is almost in place. Carson, the guy sitting on the plane has his foot on the mounting ring. In his left hand is the mounting bolt ready to use. Dick is watching the engine close in on one of the lower mounts. He’s ready with another bolt in his right hand. (image via CAF Rocky Mountain Wing)
The engine is finally bolted in place – job well done! (image via CAF Rocky Mountain Wing)
Over the past week we’ve connected all the lines on the lower part of the accessory bay to the engine. This Wednesday we’ll install the big carburetor onto the engine, make all the final fuel line connections and connect the control lines for the carburetor. We’ll also reconnect the propellor pitch control line. That will finish up the engine install.
Anderson Aeromotive also has our oil cooler. They will flush it out, clean it and ship it back to us this week. Once back, it will also be put back on the plane.
Our propellor left this morning for Colorado Springs where Westpac will open it up and inspect it. There is a 60 month AD on all these big propellers and ours is due in March. When it comes back we’ll reinstall it and finally get a chance to fire up the ‘new’ engine.”
Preparing the propeller for shipment to Westpac Restorations in Colorado Springs, Colorado to have its AD attended to. (image via CAF Rocky Mountain Wing)
Many thanks to Fred Suevel and Kevin McNulty at the CAF Rocky Mountain Wing for providing the details for this article. For anyone wishing to help contribute to the upkeep of their magnificent TBM, please do click HERE.
Richard Mallory Allnutt's aviation passion ignited at the 1974 Farnborough Airshow. Raised in 1970s Britain, he was immersed in WWII aviation lore. Moving to Washington DC, he frequented the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum, meeting aviation legends.
After grad school, Richard worked for Lockheed-Martin but stayed devoted to aviation, volunteering at museums and honing his photography skills. In 2013, he became the founding editor of Warbirds News, now Vintage Aviation News. With around 800 articles written, he focuses on supporting grassroots aviation groups.
Richard values the connections made in the aviation community and is proud to help grow Vintage Aviation News.