A year or two ago, I became aware of an issue with the stock ECI pushrod shroud retainers. These were made of heat treated carbon steel, and suffered from hydrogen embrittlement due to a manufacturing issue. There have been a few instances of these breaking in service which causes the pushrod shroud to push out from the crankcase leading to a loss of engine oil.
I had been planning on replacing these with Lycoming parts before my first flight, but ECI recently issued Service Bulletin 12-1 acknowledging the issue and offering free replacement parts. I got the kit in the mail today and replaced all of the retainers. Here’s the old one that I pulled out of the engine. These are 0.032″ thick.
Here’s one of the new ones installed. These are 0.040″ thick stainless that is not susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement. The nuts are torqued to 96 in-lbs and then the safety clips are bent up to prevent the nut from turning.
