Oil from the MT propeller

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Rich
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Re: Oil from the MT propeller

Post by Rich »

The most recent "overhaul" I had done was in 2015, where I got a replacement prop from MT, returning my original one. This came with zero hours in its log, but I believe it was a factory overhaul which zero-timed it. In any case it is remarkably "tight". No detectable blade looseness, no grease leakage, not a single nick in the leading edge after 338 hours. I don't know if this prop has the newer nickel-cobalt erosion sheath

Technically I'm a year overdue for an overhaul, but I'm hesitant to get it done. Partly it's cost - it's super expensive to ship one of these anywhere. But also downtime. It has always taken forever to get this done, with the exception of this last one, where I was shipped the replacement prop and subsequently returned the original. And then the question of whether one replaces/rebuilds something that is giving no evidence of needing it. :scratch:
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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jwx96
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Re: Oil from the MT propeller

Post by jwx96 »

Rich. Based on my recent experience I wouldn’t rush to overhaul the prop just because it’s been 6 years. I’m not going to next time. My prop was fine until I had a local prop shop/MT authorized service center overhaul it. Since then I’ve had a persistent grease leak and a loose blade and I was down for 2 separate repairs. It sounds like you’ve been using MT for your overhauls and I would agree with that. I don’t think the MTV-12-B is an easy prop to repair well without experience.
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Rich
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Re: Oil from the MT propeller

Post by Rich »

John, I'm kind of drawing that conclusion. In reality, only this current one was done by MT. All previous ones were done by Northwest Propeller at Puyallup, The blades for the immediately preceding one wound up in Germany for 3 months but that reassembly (2009) was also done by NW Propeller. That one seemed OK, but I opted for replacement at 6 years due to prior experience and because I had been offered a free overhaul by MT due to very poor service by MT in 2009.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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nathanda40
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Re: Oil from the MT propeller

Post by nathanda40 »

We had one of these 3-blade MT on our plane. It started spitting grease pretty badly from one of the blades and needed a reseal or an overhaul. Reseal was $4k but we had only 3 years until the 6 year overhaul cycle, which was around $6k. Looking back through the logs, our aircraft had already had the MT overhauled twice over something like 800 hours tt (though over 15+ years). I was just not very impressed with the MT. I spoke with MT in Florida and if any oil had made its way into the wooden core of the blade it would require replacement at the cost of $3300 per blade.

It basically scared me off. These prices are crazy for a ~135kt airplane. We traded in our MT for a 2-blade metal brand new Hartzell which is way cheaper to overhaul (~$2k) and less likely to need one in the first place.
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waynemcc999
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Re: Oil from the MT propeller

Post by waynemcc999 »

Simply one additional data point: I got 1800 hours without any issues on my 3-blade MT proper before I sent it out for inspection/overhaul.
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nathanda40
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Re: Oil from the MT propeller

Post by nathanda40 »

waynemcc999 wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 1:04 am Simply one additional data point: I got 1800 hours without any issues on my 3-blade MT proper before I sent it out for inspection/overhaul.
Wayne
I believe the XLS has a different propeller than the one the OP has (and we had). Earlier DA40 used MTV-12-B/180-17F prop which had a 2400rpm continuous limit and the XLS I think uses the MTV-12-B/183-59B which does not have that. I don't know if one is more reliable than the other or not.

It's related to the EASA STC SA06-52 and FAA STC SA02292NY. SA02292NY allows for the 183-59B blades but actually REQUIRES FAA STC SA03281AT to be installed, which is the PowerFlow exhaust.
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Re: Oil from the MT propeller

Post by astaib »

nathanda40 wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 9:30 pm We had one of these 3-blade MT on our plane. It started spitting grease pretty badly from one of the blades and needed a reseal or an overhaul. Reseal was $4k but we had only 3 years until the 6 year overhaul cycle, which was around $6k. Looking back through the logs, our aircraft had already had the MT overhauled twice over something like 800 hours tt (though over 15+ years). I was just not very impressed with the MT. I spoke with MT in Florida and if any oil had made its way into the wooden core of the blade it would require replacement at the cost of $3300 per blade.

It basically scared me off. These prices are crazy for a ~135kt airplane. We traded in our MT for a 2-blade metal brand new Hartzell which is way cheaper to overhaul (~$2k) and less likely to need one in the first place.
Hello,

I'm very surprised with the amounts that were told to you.
For a resealing, I was told me yesterday by MT (in Germany) that this is a very cheap and quick operation.
Despite what were told to me by the local prop shop in France, MT (in Germany) told me that these is absolutely 0 risk to continue flying like this and that the O'Ring will never break, and also the prop is made to operate dry also in case all the grease has gone.
They have multi engine (props on the wings) that are allowed to fly 500 to 1000 hours with grease leaking...
The only counterpart is that I have to clean my plane from the grease spray more often.
My decision is to send it back to MT for resealing during winter downtime...

The operation manual is classifying this as a minor issue if the grease trace is shorter than 18cm after 5 hours of flight (with the blade and spinner cleaned a 0hrs). Nothing about blade replacement.
You are talking about oil in side the wooden core, but are you talking about grease? As the grease is leaking to the outside, I don't figure out how this can affect the inside of the wooden core as it is painted and varnished ?

Arnaud.
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