Any engines out there?

[TomM]

Good afternoon all!

Well, here is my situation. After changing my oil in December and doing a runup, the front engine was leaking a considerable amount of oil. I initially thought I left an extra gasket on the oil filter, but after removing the cowl, the top of the engine had oil on it. When I wiped it off, I was face to face with a very large crack in the case around cylinder #4.

Unfortunately, besides being higher time (1550 hrs) it as a non-VAR crank. In speaking with quite a few engine guys the cost to overhaul including a serviceable case and VAR crank, was the same or more than a factory overhauled engine. To further the pain, most said Continental would not accept as a core (although I have sent in a core waiver request just to be sure) which would add $15k to the price.

This is a 337A and not all that special at that. I really cant see dumping in that kind of money so I wanted to reach out to this group and see if someone was hording an engine anywhere. I have reached out to all the folks into skymasters (still waiting on a reply from Don Nieser) with no luck. Working over 2 people that have running planes for sale, nothing yet.

I worked out all the bugs in this plane, and I dont want to start over with another one.

Let me know if anything is out there, even a turbo as many can be converted to what I need.

Thanks much!!