Cracked exhaust flange on a 737 at 2am, glad I caught it before pushback

Was doing a quick walk around before an early red-eye out of Denver International and spotted a hairline crack on the #2 engine's exhaust flange. Pulled the cowling and sure enough it ran about 4 inches along the bolt hole. Grabbed a borescope to check the rest and found it was starting to separate. Took about 90 minutes to swap the flange with parts from the on-site store. Anyone else run into these cracking more on the newer CFM56s or is it just the cold weather cycles?

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matthewgonzalez15d ago

Man, is it just me or do those newer CFM56s seem extra sensitive to the cold? Had almost the exact same thing on a -800 out of MSP last winter, same spot on the #2 exhaust flange, maybe 3 inches of crack. Took me longer than 90 minutes though, had to wait for a runner to grab the part from the warehouse. What got me was how clean the break was, like it just gave up in the cold, not even any corrosion or stress marks around it.