Look what turned up....

[Paul J]

..... at work over the last few days:

and overnight last night another:

[stevehnz]

Rolls Royce or GE, they look like RB211s to me but I'm not expert on large tubofans & 'pect I'm well out of date.

Steve.

[Paul J]

Both are CFM-56 by the way.

[Truro Model Builder]

If that goes on for much longer you'll soon have the rest of the aeroplane.

[Paul J]

Well, there are thousands of other parts various ancillary parts around the warehouse, and of the external airframe parts winglets, engine cowls, flaps and slats turn up.

[Truro Model Builder]

What's the song about the guy who smuggles enough parts out of his car factory that he's able to build his own one over several years?

[Darby]

There looks like a lot of aftermarket and PE has gone into that. Wonder what the rest of the build will look like.

[Wez]

What's the song about the guy who smuggles enough parts out of his car factory that he's able to build his own one over several years?

[RMP2]

Ah, we got one in at 1/24...

[eng]

Pretty sure it's a CFM56-7 for New Gen 737's. Have spotted quite a few differences between this and the -3C1's that BA's 737-436's had fitted. Changed more than a few in my years and a bloody robust and reliable wee powerplant, only had one minor stall in 12 years of ground running these.... And a minor, but self inflicted jet pipe fire!

Eng

[Paul J]

What's the song about the guy who smuggles enough parts out of his car factory that he's able to build his own one over several years?

One piece at a time...Johnny Cash.

I had the same thoughts .

[XV571]

Pretty sure it's a CFM56-7 for New Gen 737's. Have spotted quite a few differences between this and the -3C1's that BA's 737-436's had fitted. Changed more than a few in my years and a bloody robust and reliable wee powerplant, only had one minor stall in 12 years of ground running these.... And a minor, but self inflicted jet pipe fire!

Eng

These are definitely the CFM56-3, there are 38 Fan blades, a number that is burned into my memory; I must have done over a hundred fan blade plots during my stint as a powerplant engineer. The -7 engine has 24 wide chord blades without the mid span clappers. The other CFM56 types (-2 and -5) have the gearbox on the bottom of the engine.

In fact if the label on this picture shows the Serial Number, this is an ex-British Midland engine! If my memory is correct, I believe 725126 was delivered with G-OBMG our third 737-400 in 1988! If it is, it's great to see it still going strong. Any chance of pictures of the dataplates - these are on the Fan Case just above and to the right of the oil tank on the right hand side of the engine?

I agree with Eng, the -3 version of the CFM56 is a superb engine, it's tough as nails and just keeps going - especially on the 737-500. With the combination of a light airframe and a reduction in thrust from 23,500lbs to 18,500lbs it could easily achieve it's cyclic life limits on-wing if outside influences didn't cause a removal. We used to swap the older ones fitted to the -400s on to the -300 and -500 fleets before the summer charter season to extend their lives. The compressor could take a lot of punishment, there were several instances where a routine borescope revealed several missing compressor blades and we'd never noticed a loss in performance or had any problems reported by the crews! Eng, you must have been really unlucky to get a stall, it may have been a VSV/VBV issue or a big tailwind gust.

If I remember rightly, the BA 737 was fitted with the VSCF (Variable Speed Constant Frequency) electrical power generator instead of the separate Constant Speed Drive (CSD) and Generator set up shown in Paul's first photo. We inherited some with the ex-Linjeflyg/SAS 737-500s; they were hopelessly unreliable and Muggins here was given the task of working with the manufacturer trying to improve their on-wing life even though they were supposed to be the domain of the Avionics guys. Although we increased the reliability significantly in the end we gave up on them and did a deal with Sundstrand to exchange all the VSCFs for CSD/Generators. In the photo the engine starter and pipework normally installed above the CSD are also missing. These could be the differences Eng is thinking of.

Jonathan

(ex-BMA Technical Services Engineer)

[eng]

These are definitely the CFM56-3, there are 38 Fan blades, a number that is burned into my memory; I must have done over a hundred fan blade plots during my stint as a powerplant engineer. The -7 engine has 24 wide chord blades without the mid span clappers. The other CFM56 types (-2 and -5) have the gearbox on the bottom of the engine.

In fact if the label on this picture shows the Serial Number, this is an ex-British Midland engine! If my memory is correct, I believe 725126 was delivered with G-OBMG our third 737-400 in 1988! If it is, it's great to see it still going strong. Any chance of pictures of the dataplates - these are on the Fan Case just above and to the right of the oil tank on the right hand side of the engine?

I agree with Eng, the -3 version of the CFM56 is a superb engine, it's tough as nails and just keeps going - especially on the 737-500.

Eng, you must have been really unlucky to get a stall, it may have been a VSV/VBV issue or a big tailwind gust.

If I remember rightly, the BA 737 was fitted with the VSCF (Variable Speed Constant Frequency) electrical power generator instead of the separate Constant Speed Drive (CSD) and Generator set up shown in Paul's first photo. We inherited some with the ex-Linjeflyg/SAS 737-500s; they were hopelessly unreliable and Muggins here was given the task of working with the manufacturer trying to improve their on-wing life even though they were supposed to be the domain of the Avionics guys. Although we increased the reliability significantly in the end we gave up on them and did a deal with Sundstrand to exchange all the VSCFs for CSD/Generators. In the photo the engine starter and pipework normally installed above the CSD are also missing. These could be the differences Eng is thinking of.

Jonathan

(ex-BMA Technical Services Engineer)

Jonathon,

I stand corrected, you are absolutely spot on, my CFM knowledge is rusty these days as the last time we had a 737-400 through the Glasgow hangar was back in 2012/2013, G-DOCX. Was gutted to see these go, they were great aircraft to work on, just like the CFM, the airframe was pretty bomb-proof too.

The items that threw me out on this engine were the small unit and orange hose just below the Fuel flow txmtr, and just below the loop of the feeder cables at the top of the fan case there is a small box type unit that I don't recognise. What are these units? Certainly don't recall the BA engines having these, but as I said it's been a while!

With regards the VSCF, we did have several aircraft fitted with these for a couple of years but they were crap! We quickly switched them out for the CSD/genny combo.

I've now got the pleasure of dealing solely with Airbus 319/3220/321, including the ex-BMI Airbus fleet since the BA/BMI merger. The Airbus....these are not as great as the 737 in my opinion, V2500 engines are delicate little flowers that stall far more regularly during ground running if you don't watch the wind direction. We have a couple of ex-BMI engineers with us too.

Rgds,

Graeme

[Paul J]

I possibly can get a pic of the data plate on the uncovered one but not the other at the moment.

[XV571]

The items that threw me out on this engine were the small unit and orange hose just below the Fuel flow txmtr, and just below the loop of the feeder cables at the top of the fan case there is a small box type unit that I don't recognise. What are these units? Certainly don't recall the BA engines having these, but as I said it's been a while!

I've now got the pleasure of dealing solely with Airbus 319/3220/321, including the ex-BMI Airbus fleet since the BA/BMI merger. The Airbus....these are not as great as the 737 in my opinion, V2500 engines are delicate little flowers that stall far more regularly during ground running if you don't watch the wind direction. We have a couple of ex-BMI engineers with us too.

Crikey, that's a real memory test Graeme; I haven't worked with the CFM56-3 for about 15 years! I gave my course notes to a colleague when I moved on to look after the Embraer 145 and never got them back. However I did manage to find some on-line after a search. If we're looking at the same bits the 'box' at the top of the case is the bellows for the T2 sensor; the probe itself is mounted on the Nose Cowl and connected to the bellows by a capillary tube. I think the orange pipe would be for fuel and might be part of the HPTCC Timer tubing. Not all CFM56s were fitted with the timer as I think it was only required if the engine was to be used at the full 23.5K rating. If fitted it was located in the space between the brown generator conduit and the orange fuel hose and was connected to the MEC (Main Engine Control) since it was hydraulically powered by the fuel system, like the air control system. Maybe Paul could take a closer picture of the area to get a better idea of what's there.

I agree about the V2500, in fact it was one of the reasons I moved over to the airframe side; had I been given the CFM to look after I might have stayed on powerplants since I knew it so well. I did get sucked back in later (apologies for the pun) as the dedicated engine department was all but disbanded around 2002 and they needed a back-up for the V2500 specialist although I was now part of the 737/A320 structures/systems team. Still I got a couple of nice trips to the US out of it. Even back then, the engine suffered from compressor issues and it sounds as if it still needs a lot of TLC. I liked working with both aircraft types, they are very much the product of the era in which they were designed and each manufacturer's way of doing things. Next time you're working on one of the G-MIDx or G-DBCx aircraft, give it a pat for me.

I possibly can get a pic of the data plate on the uncovered one but not the other at the moment.

If you could that would be brilliant Paul. If you can't manage any photos, does the paperwork give the Serial Numbers? It'll be a number starting in either 7 or 8. I'd love to know if either is one of my old charges.

Jonathan

[eng]

Next time you're working on one of the G-MIDx or G-DBCx aircraft, give it a pat for me.

Jonathan

I don't know about a pat Jonathon, I'll drop you a PM later

Rgds,

Grae

[Paul J]

Another part. Taken a little while ago:

ANd below a couple more of the CFM.

If anyone is interested, I can show other pics that may be of use for modelling purposes of airliner external parts

[Paul J]

XV571.. PM sent re dataplate.

[tempestfan]

Another part. Taken a little while ago:

ANd below a couple more of the CFM.

At first I read "a couple more CFM", and thought your garden modelling project had been upgraded to KC-135R...

[XV571]

XV571.. PM sent re dataplate.

Thanks Paul. I found a list of the engines fitted to our 737s and that one definitely wasn't one of ours. Still scratching my head on the equipment fitted under the fuel flow transmitter though.

Jonathan

[eng]

Thanks Paul. I found a list of the engines fitted to our 737s and that one definitely wasn't one of ours. Still scratching my head on the equipment fitted under the fuel flow transmitter though.

Jonathan

I'm not at all sure what that item is Jonathon, I vaguely remember the small gold item to the right of the fuel flow transmitter. Will dig out my CFM notes on my days off and see if I can find out what the item below it is. BA CFM's defo didn't have this.

Grae

[XV571]

Phew, mystery solved!

Graeme, they're part of the oil pressure indication system. Under the Fuel Flow Transmitter (for those wondering where to look, this is the unit with the blue label just to the right of the big orange fuel pipe) is the Oil Pressure Transmitter and the gold coloured item is the Low Oil Pressure switch. With the help of Paul's photo above, a Google search found this photo which was part of a presentation in Chinese:

Using a translate app on my phone which allows you to draw Chinese characters, I got 'Oil Pressure' and 'Low Oil Pressure Voltage' . Armed with this a second search hit gold - a pdf copy of Chapter 79 of the 737-300 AMM! This confirmed it:

Now this:

Another part. Taken a little while ago:

I think this is the Aft Flap section of the 737 Outboard Flap assembly. The 737 Aileron has a tab on the inboard end which isn't visible in the picture (this should be a left hand part since the hoist point marking is visible - these are usually on the upper surface). The elevator also has an inboard tab, so it can't be that.

Any more interesting bits Paul?

Jonathan

[Paul J]

I've got plenty pics Jonathan. Was thinking of posting them as a kind of quiz. The other day I had a look round the back of our other building and it looked like a mini boneyard. A few engine cowls and wing trailing edge sections. I'll post pics after the weekend.

[eng]

Good find on the oil px switch info Jonathon!

The flight control in the pic is an A320 LH elevator I reckon, no tab on these, and I do agree about the hoist points. The 737 outbd aft flap is of much smaller chord, probably close to the same length. When you compare it to the guy holding it up in the pic that's a huge flight control, Airbus stuff tends to be all nicely rounded at the edges and corners too whereas Boeing tended to have squarer edges on a lot of the controls. Also the Boeing aft flap has 4 pairs of support arms spaced evenly along the leading edge with the flight and deadweight rollers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Indonesia_Flight_200#/media/File%3ABoeing_737_with_flaps_and_spoilers_extended_after_touchdown.jpg

Great fun this part identification game! More pics please Paul.

Eng

[eng]

Plenty bits to name in this lot!

Eng