CAF B-26 blew an engine

[GregP]

Well, $60k will get you a running R-2800 engine.

You can buy a running Merlin for maybe $85k. The overhaul may run $200k - $250k depending on what needs replacement.

An Allison overhaul will run from $50k - $90k, and you can buy them for $25k on up depending on condition. If you want a "fresh" Allison, it will be from $85k up to maybe $120k depending on how proud you want to be of it.

 

[BiffF15]

Greg,
What are the driving factors to the cost differences between the two? Is hard to find versus plentiful?
Cheers,
Biff

 

[Shortround6]

Perhaps. The R-2800s were built, at least in small numbers, into the early 60s and with a sizable commercial fleet of aircraft needing spares in addition to military transports/support aircraft the spare parts and overhaul situation lasted a lot longer. Talking commercial operations and not specialty shops.

The post war commercial engines shared few, if any, parts with the wartime military engines but for the most part can be interchanged in installations.

 

[GregP]

One of the driving factors is availability. One of the most important in the real world is the aircraft they went into.

For instance, you can buy a Marcel Jurca kit Spitfire that uses an Allison and is made of wood and steel tube fuselage. It LOOKS terrific, and the general public will never know the difference bewteen the two, The Allison (a good one thaht is freshly overhauled) will make the Spirfire replica, in whatever mark you want to complete it as, faster at low altitudes than the Merlin, and it will have 90 - 95% of the Merlin unit's performance up to about 14 - 16,000 feet, after which the Merlin will walk away if the Merlin is a 2-stage unit.

But the purists will say, "It isn't a Spirfire!" and they're right. So it's worth less money. The Allisons went into the P-38, P-39, P-40, and early model P-51's. If you put one into anything else, you will have an interesting time doing it.

So my take on it that the Allison-powered warbirds seem less valuable to the people with the money to buy them. That's one factor.

Then there's the fact that they are flying Merlin parts today that would have been thrown away 25 years ago. They are running out of Merlin parts, which makes the surviving ones more valuable. You can still buy a very FRESH, newly-overhauled Allison V-1710.

These days a set of P-40 engine mount adapters is worth it's weight in Gold! They are very hard to find! SO is an original propeller synchronizer setup for a cowl-mounts gun (early P-40's).

Many variables ...

 

[BiffF15]

Greg,

Thanks! I didn't know if there was some influence from the unlimited boat races, or the engines being used elsewhere and therefor driving up the prices.

Simple economics: More Allison motors / parts built and available than the Merlin means one is cheaper than the other...

Cheers,
Biff