I had my heads off a few years ago to put new springs & valves and to just clean things up after 484 hours since new. As everyone knows I think, I bought my KR from Steve Bennett so of course it had his 2180. Three years or so after I got the plane from Steve I had what I thought was a valve failure while overflying the Tampa Class B at 11.5 so coasted to a forced landing at Venice, FL. Thankfully, the problem turned out to be a broken valve spring and not a valve. After replacing the spring, I continued my trip down to Naples, then to Jacksonville, and then back home to KSEE. I took the heads off, bead-blasted them and put new Manley valves in along with new "German made" springs. I specifically asked Steve for German springs and he said that's what he sent. I found another broken spring when I took the heads off. It was broken at the bottom of the coil and wasn't causing trouble.
Anyway, despite what Steve said about the inevitability of cracks forming between the intake & exhaust ports, I didn't find any cracks. The heads are EMPI. Here's pictures. https://tinyurl.com/y4o3oq4s Steve told me he used to cruise at 2900 RPM with the 52 x 52 Sterba that was on the plane. I run the engine in cruise at 3100-3200 WOT at altitude (closer to 3100 than 3200) with my 52 x 56 Sterba. The point is, Steve and I both ran the engine without overheating it. Except for using a rich mixture for cooling when climbing out on hot days . . . or any time I'm pulling more than 75% power . . . I normally run it as lean as possible while still maintaining smoothness. I think the EMPI heads are/were made in Brazil. Mike Stirewalt KSEE ____________________________________________________________ Top Gut Doctor: I Beg Americans To Throw Out This Vegetable dr-pedre-md.com http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5ca24c672ecd14c6632c4st04vuc _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. 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
