www.brantly.info

Wow awefully quiet on the board lately. Well I'm still crawling along on the rebuild on N2195U.

Got the new instrument panel built up, all the instruments are back from refacing and repair and I have the a set of Nulites for them all. It looks awesome! Quite a change from the old panel. I can't wait to get it installed in the cockpit but first I have to finish painting the interior and putting in the new wiring.

Engine is torn down and all the parts are out for inspection. I was concerned about the cam and crank but after talking to the engine shop today turns out the crank is still in factory new specs and the cam and lifters are good and out for grinding. The rods had a little pitting so they are out for grinding and rebushing too. The S.B. on the crank gear was due and it turns out that mine was carborized so it can't be machined. Lycoming wants $750 for a new one however I talked with my cylinder guy and he thinks he has a new one on the shelf for half the price! Bad news on the cylinders is that the valve guides are $110 each, standard ones from Superior are $15, what a rip-off! Anyway, I highly recommend Sal at Sal's Cylinder Repair. He's been around a long time, works out of his house, has an excellent reputation and can usually beat most people's prices on repair work and engine parts too. I dropped off my cylinders last week and he immediately picked out several things that were illegal or wrong: wrong pistons, exhaust valve keepers, exhaust valve spring retainers, wrong size exhast valve, ect. My engine was overhauled in '96 and I'd guess why a lot of those things were left in instead of being modified per the manual - cost. I'm sure there are a lot of machines running around with the same things in them. I'm sure I could have saved a little money and taken it to certain people and probably never would have been the wiser and it probably would have run a long time like that but it's nice to know what you've got when you're cruising around up there

Thanks for the update. Good luck as you continue your rebuild. Sounds like you'll have quite a nice machine when you're done. Keep us posted, as it really has been pretty slow on the board for a while.

Ron

Hey J-nut:

Hang in there... it'll come out OK.

When I did my cylinders 3 years ago, I found out my engine was a VO-360 that had been converted to an IVO by someone who didn't dot i's and cross t's.
My jugs were un-fuel-injected, nitrided P/N's which had been legally chromed, they were NOT however legal P/N's for a fuel-injected IVO.

My AI, through his contact at the FSDO, and backed up by a "Letter of No Engineering Objection" from his contact at Lycoming, got the cylinders 337 certified on THIS
engine, on the basis that they had been working perfectly for twenty years and over 1000 hours without problem.

The incorrect cylinders P/N on my IVO was only revealed when I ordered rings for the jugs I had, and the rings came chromed. Chrome rings/chrome jugs...BADBAD! I had to get nitrided rings for the chrome cyl's. The chrome rings were of course the wrong P/N for my Cylinders based on the cast-in part number. BUT they were correct since the bores had been legally chromed.

VO-360's came with nitrided bores and chrome rings. IVO-360's came with chrome cylinders and nitrided rings.

Bryan,

Do you have a copy of that letter and any other info that you can send me? I talked with Sal tonight and he tells me the cylinders are the right ones but he's interested in knowing more about the differences between the two.

Sal actually built up cylinders for Lycoming and Continental when they were behind when he worked for Airmotive Engineering back in the day. He was saying he doesn't recall ever seeing a cylinder come chromed from the factory but he's curious if he might be wrong about that. Always something to learn on these things