20240325005209A

On 03/25/2024, the pilot of the accident aircraft contacted san antonio ATC declaring an emergency due to loss of engine. He advised ATC that he would attempt to glide into the gonzalez airport (T20) for landing. Houston center later advised that they were in contact with the pilot and there were no reported injuries. The aircraft landed short of the runway and sustained substantial damage to the left wing, left aileron torque tube, left elevator and collapsed the nose landing gear. Primary field investigation revealed that the engine still contained approximately five quarts of oil. The normal operating range is 4-6 quarts. However, there was presence of an oil leak that resulted in an oil puddle between the #2 and #4 cylinders. Additionally, the #1 and #3 cylinders had no compression. An engine teardown was conducted later and revealed the left idler stud mount for the gear that drives the engine driven fuel pump was shimmed and the studs in the engine block for the hold down nuts were not tight. This allowed movement of the idler stud leading to abnormal wear and eventual failure of the hardware. Once this occurred, the gear mounted on this idler became disengaged with the magneto drive gear which also drives the cam. This caused the valves to stop being driven when the cam was no longer turning.