What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Wentworth & IO360 B1E

JackW794

Member
I've never bought an engine and want advice from those more experienced.

Has anyone had recent experience getting a used engine from Wentworth?

I have photos from them of an engine (IO360 B1E) with the spark plugs removed and with good light so I can see the cylinder walls which look good (no visible rust). They also sent me the engine logs and a video of the engine running at idle and at 1800 RPM. Does this sound like it could be a good engine?

The engine has been sitting for about a year and I am wondering if there could be rust on the camshaft. It seems that the engine has been near Calgary during this time.

Has anyone put a B1E engine in your RV? Is this model a good fit for an RV6?
 
I've seen a number of perfectly repairable airplanes locally, one as recently a week ago that Wentworth somehow manages to win in insurance auctions. They come in, take anything of value (engine, prop, avionics) and leave the rest to be auctioned off on ebay. IMO its a disservice to GA.
 
My friend bought his IO-360 from Wentworth. He swears by them. He's had really good luck with that engine.

He said he bought it after looking at pics and copies of the log book.

I think the B1E is a rear induction. You'd have to change the sump. And, I don't know if you could use any of the induction tubes with a front facing horizontal induction. Here's another thread on that engine.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=40248
 
Last edited:
Buying a salvage engine is always a crapshoot, as the logbooks may not tell the whole story. First and foremost was the overhaul done properly and documented. At the very least the applicable Service bulletins should be researched such as SB505 & SB569, a crank runout check and boroscope inspection. What was the source of the engine? Why was it removed. If the engine was overhauled by a repair station, contact them and obtain the details of their work.
Good luck!
 
I have been flying behind a used (75 hr SMOH) B1E engine for five years and it has been very good for me. But, be careful what you pay for it, I had to buy a new sump and finally gave up on making the old Hartzell governor that was on it fit and bought a new governor also. Finally, I replaced the old Prestolite starter so my good deal didn't seem so good after all.
 
I bought an IO-540 V4A5 that I used in my RV-10 build from Wentworth.. They had a big ad in Trade a Plane advertising it as an "RV-10 Special". It was a late model out of a 2001 Maule that had a light prop strike with only 291 HTTSN. It came around at the right time for me. By the time I was done with the tear down and mandatory prop strike inspections and crankshaft flange straightening that had a .006" flange runout, AND purchasing 6 brand new Millennium power cylinder assemblies, I was still way under 1/2 the price of a new motor from Van's. My experience with Wentworth with the purchase was very positive, but YMMV. I have a friend building a highly overpowered Cozy MKIV and he also purchased his IO-540 from them a couple years after I bought mine. He did the tear-down in my shop and he also got a good core at a good price and was satisfied with his purchase.
39115779642_5823e3fd86_z.jpg
[/url]DSC01568 by David C, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
My experience:
I think the key is to expect to do a tear down and inspection of any used engine you buy unless you have specific knowledge of the engine history. I live close to Wentworth so I drove up with a borescope, dial indicator and tools to buy an engine. They were very patient and helpful. I will say very easy to do business with, but - every engine that I looked at would require a tear down and inspection. Adding up the cost of the purchase price and rebuild came to very near the cost of a new Titan engine. So I purchased a new engine. I think the used engine asking prices are related to new certified engine prices, but are high in comparison to new experimental engine prices. Having a new engine built to my specifications and run for 6 hours on their test stand was worth the difference in price. It certainly builds confidence for that first flight.
 
My experience:
I think the key is to expect to do a tear down and inspection of any used engine you buy unless you have specific knowledge of the engine history. I live close to Wentworth so I drove up with a borescope, dial indicator and tools to buy an engine. They were very patient and helpful. I will say very easy to do business with, but - every engine that I looked at would require a tear down and inspection. Adding up the cost of the purchase price and rebuild came to very near the cost of a new Titan engine. So I purchased a new engine. I think the used engine asking prices are related to new certified engine prices, but are high in comparison to new experimental engine prices. Having a new engine built to my specifications and run for 6 hours on their test stand was worth the difference in price. It certainly builds confidence for that first flight.

That is pretty much my experience. I purchased an O-320 from them in the previous century and had to overhaul it the following year due to a shot cam. Total cost with complete "certificated" overhaul was not far from what I could have purchased a new engine from Vans but it has been a good engine since. I suggest any engine purchased from a salvage yard to be considered a core engine....you might get lucky but you might not.

Like the old Fram commercial......"You can pay me now or pay me later". :)

There are a couple of local RVers who bought engines locally out of aircraft with known field history and those engines have given good service.
 
I've seen a number of perfectly repairable airplanes locally, one as recently a week ago that Wentworth somehow manages to win in insurance auctions. They come in, take anything of value (engine, prop, avionics) and leave the rest to be auctioned off on ebay. IMO its a disservice to GA.

Hard to blame wentworth. They wouldn't be able to do that if the price of new parts weren't so stupid expensive.

Larry
 
My experience:
I think the key is to expect to do a tear down and inspection of any used engine you buy unless you have specific knowledge of the engine history. I live close to Wentworth so I drove up with a borescope, dial indicator and tools to buy an engine. They were very patient and helpful. I will say very easy to do business with, but - every engine that I looked at would require a tear down and inspection. Adding up the cost of the purchase price and rebuild came to very near the cost of a new Titan engine. So I purchased a new engine. I think the used engine asking prices are related to new certified engine prices, but are high in comparison to new experimental engine prices. Having a new engine built to my specifications and run for 6 hours on their test stand was worth the difference in price. It certainly builds confidence for that first flight.

+1

I bought a salvage engine, but did so planning a full overhaul. Very happy with results. In my case, salvage plus overhaul was less than half of new; Each case is different (I did the overhaul). I would not buy a salvage engine without having the case and crank inspected and magnafluxed, especially the crank. No way to know if it was a prop strike or have other hidden problems. Prop strikes can create invisible cracks in the crank and only magnflux type testing can find them in many cases.

Larry
 
Last edited:
i bought my 360 from them 20 years ago. no logs, no info but it was at core price. they told me exactly what they knew about it. I figured even if i had to overhaul it, if the crank was good, it was a good deal. its never been apart and is still running great. I just borescoped it today for the CI, cyls and valves look great still.

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB
 
I have bought two engines from Wentworth. Dave is a good guy, and won't sell you a pig-in-a-poke. Both of my motors were from storm damaged airplanes, no prop strike. The O-320-E2D was at 750 SMOH, and I ran it to 2400 SMOH. The O-360 A4M was 380 SMOH when I got it, and is now 1500 SMOH and still on the airplane, running strong
 
Back
Top