Larry; it's always refreshing to read an engine success story. Most of them seem to read like mystery movies or horror stories when cases are cracked and the insides are exposed, especially when the engines are older and have passed through several sets of hands since being taken off of a certified aircraft. Yours sounds like what every cared-for engine should be... just a no-surprises, relaxed, by-the-book overhaul.
I enjoyed renting and flying a 182 back when I was in Texas and flying on business trips. The airplane belonged to a group of A&Ps who made their living wrenching on radial-engined cargo planes, mostly military surplus and post-war Curtis C46s, DC-3s, Convair 240s that smuggled appliances and electronics into Mexico at night in the 70s. That 182 was very plain and basic but it could carry anything you could fit into it and it was one stout airplane. When I first saw the logs, I saw that the Continental O-470-R engine was well past TBO, maybe 2500 hrs on an engine that had a 1500-1700 hr TBO by the book, but the owners maintained it and they never felt the need to overhaul it just because of what the tach time showed. The reason is because of what you've found with your engine. By the way, flying that 182 with normally-aspirated O-470 in cruise one fine summer afternoon in warm and humid south Texas, I experienced carb ice in flight for the first time in anything other than a J-3. When the sputtering started, I thought I should grab a pencil and notepad and start writing my last will and testament real quick, but then on second thought I figured I should do something useful like switch tanks, flip on the fuel boost pump, check the oil pressure, and... and... since nothing else worked, maybe pull carb heat? Yessss-!! That smoothed out the engine! Beautiful clear skies, I was between summer cumulus puffies up at maybe 5500-6500 trimmed in level cruise and maybe 65-70% power, and carb ice was forming. I don't know what carb those engines have, maybe a Marvel-Schebler MA-4, but whatever the case- it can happen, and happen quite suddenly. Oscar Zuniga Medford, OR _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at http://tugantek.com/archmailv2-kr/search. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
