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"... caused some problems." I know one Malibu owner who had the #4 piston fail in flight. The crack propagated from the cross-bar on the stamped "4" which was over the piston pin (where it is NOT supposed to be, according to the service bulletin.) I have the JPI engine download file from the last flight. The owner did a marvelous job of dead sticking the airplane from about 16,000 feet. Wife was on board, as I recall. The owner hired an engine expert to attend the FAA/NTSB tear down inspection. At the time, TCM was blaming it all on 'leaning' - - until the engine expert hired by the owner pointed out that the crack started at the "4" and went across the piston. The owner had already ordered and installed a new engine by the time of the tear down inspection. At the inspection, TCM said they had "already fixed the problem". They gave the owner a recent date after which the fix had been incorporated. The owner called his shop. The bore scoped his pistons. His new engine had been built before the 'fix' and had the "4" stamped over the piston pin, just like the failed engine. Owner was not happy. TCM had to replace the pistons on his new engine. Regards, -----Original Message----- From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of erosiak@comcast.net Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 8:43 AM To: Lancair Mailing List Subject: [LML] TSIO-550 Critical Service Bulletin Am I the only one who missed the July 2004 Critical Service Bulletin on the TSIO-550??? I was surfing the Continental site Friday when I happened to check out the service bulletin area and there it was.....CSB04-6. If you have a TSIO-550 manufactured or rebuilt between 04/28/1998 and 09/11/2003 this CSB applies to you. It seems that some pistons were "position stamped" above the piston ring bore which has caused some problems. The CSB is written in typical nebulous speak in its description which is vague at best. However, the main issue seems to be engines running hot (excessive heat as they put it). I would estimate that 200 engines are involved (there are serial numbers). The CSB requires a borescope check of the engines "within 25 hours or at the next 100 hour or annual inspection". And, then at each 100 hours thereafter until the pistons are changed out for whatever reason. They are looking for "excessive heat indications or cracking" in a specific area on the piston. I was never notified, so much for being registered with Continental as the engine owner. If you are affected, PLEASE send me an email off list so I can keep track of how many of us there are. As far as I am concerned it is unacceptable that we should have to live with a 100 check to determine if our pistons are cracked! The link to download the PDF is listed below. Ed Rosiak Super ES http://www.tcmlink.com/serviceBulletins/index.html -- For archives and unsub http://mail.lancaironline.net/lists/lml/