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Spent $300 on a borescope for a Cessna 172 and it found a crack I missed
I was doing the annual on a 172 last week and the owner didn't want to pull the cylinders for a full inspection. I bought a decent borescope for about $300 to check the valve seats and cylinder walls without a full teardown. On cylinder number three, I spotted a hairline crack near the exhaust valve guide that wasn't visible from the outside. It saved us from a potential in-flight failure and a much bigger repair bill later. The tool paid for itself on that one job. What other small tools have you guys found that give a big return for the money?
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coleman.taylor2mo ago
Man, that's wild. So was the crack only visible from that specific angle inside the cylinder? Makes me wonder how many issues are just hiding out of plain sight. What did the owner say when you showed them the video from the scope? Bet that changed their mind about skipping the full inspection real quick.
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Totally get that. Had a similar find with a cheap inspection camera on a car engine, spotted a tiny coolant leak path you'd NEVER see otherwise. Those little tools are absolute game changers for finding hidden problems.
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brooke712mo ago
Yeah, like @dakota379 said, those cheap cameras find stuff you'd totally miss. It's crazy how a tiny crack can hide until you get the right angle inside.
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