Atomic 4 with 3 Cylinders?

[indigo]

I have been coaching a new A4 owner as he has been navigating his way down the ICW. It all started with him not being able to make more than about 3 knots and he contacted me to see if there was possibly something wrong with his Indigo prop. After lots of checking and trying various things, we were able to get him up to about 5 knots and it appears his prop is OK after all. We were investigating a possibly restricted fuel filter when he reported that he was getting a tremendous amount of smoke and oil spraying into his engine compartment. After further investigation, he found a hole in his block about the size of an oversize golf ball with what appears to be the lower end of the #3 connecting rod poking out. The hole is just forward of the block drain connection on the starboard side, sort of under the alternator. He was able to block the flow of oil and smoke with the "sleeve of a sweatshirt" and was able to continue making headway of about 4.5 knots to get to a safe anchorage. That's right, the bulletproof A4 was running with the #3 cylinder completely disconnected!! He did say that there was a lot of vibration in the galley area. I have attached an image of the hole in the block showing the end of the conn rod and the exposed crankshaft journal inside. He is currently working to plug the oil supply hole in the crank, secure the conn rod to some part of the engine with wire, and place a temporary fiberglass patch over the hole in the block. This will hopefully allow him to limp back to Oriental NC to figure out where to go next with repairs.

While this is an amazing story unto itself, I started this thread in an attempt to reach out to the Forum following to see if anyone has or knows of a decent running A4 that is available in the Oriental NC (Eastern NC) area that this fellow could purchase and get installed.

[Dave Neptune]

WOW

Tom, that is indeed a great story. Keep us posted as to the progress. How hard is he able to run the engine?

Dave Neptune

[indigo]

Dave, about 1300 RPM and that appears to be limited by fuel.

The current theory on failure suggests that there had been saltwater leakage from the side clean out plate fasteners which weakened the failed area of the block. The thinking is that the block failed first and a piece of it was struck by the conn rod most likely causing one of the conn rod bolts to fail. He has not yet reported finding any pieces of the block.

[alcodiesel]

The A-4 does not know how to quit!

[Surcouf]

this is a great story!

[edwardc]

This reminds me of WWII stories about bullet-ridden DC3s making it home and landing with most of their control surfaces shot off.