Baron motor replacement

Sweet! I'm curious what performance gains you experience. Especially the impacts at high altitude fields. If I recall correctly you fly in and out of Truckee regularly. I'm on a never ending quest to find the safest aircraft to go in and out of KTRK and KTVL.

 

What does it do to your burn rate? Or is range not really a concern so much as climb performance and speed?

 

Art how are you legally "over boring" a OEM engine? Are you flying it under and experimental category?

A 40 hp increase on a Continental IO 550 engine would be fairly breathtaking without some sort of turbo normalization. If you are indeed able to do it it would produce somewhere around 8 - 9 knots of increased airspeed (drag increases geometrically to airspeed remember). You probably WILL see greatly increased rates of climb at sea level however.

I would be interested to see how you could do this legally however, have things changed that much in the overhaul industry since I left pistons 10 years ago?

 

Is there an STC?

 

Bladder?

Skip the coffee?

Gatorade bottle?

 

curious why not go to turbo setup, it extends the envelope of capability... shorter TBO and greater cost are outweighed by a better all around flying experience...

 

I was thinking the same thing. Going experimental is probably the only way you can. In addition the higher power effects on the airframe would require an STC that would be hediously expensive to obtain. In addition to performance and cooling testing on the higher power installation you'd have to do a cert test on the engine.

While you can do anything you want if you don't get caught, doing things like changing cam profiles and modifying the engine internally leaves you seriously hanging out there if there is no form 337 in the log books if something goes wrong.

 

Art the only reason they grind .015 over is to re use older cylinders. Generally this doesn't produce any horsepower increase but maybe 3 -4 hp is possible. I suspect the engine people are lying to you about a 40 hp increase. Not possible without cam changes or other unapproved mods.

 

I was wondering about that too. When I hear the word, "Motor" , I always envision o honkin' big electric groaner hooked up to a generator that is hooked up a Diesel engine.

 

Have you ever looked at the 56TC? THAT is one bad ass Baron!

 

it's not about having a P Baron or flying continuously where oxygen is required... turbo charging makes rated power available at all times regardless of field elevation or hot summer days...with higher altitudes available for the occasional times... there is a lot of performance to be gained with turbos while staying in the upper limits of NA engines yet short of requiring oxygen. turbos enhance the enjoyment or experience of flying at altitudes where the NA engines are giving up performance.... I feel like I am missing a lot when flying a non turbo recip... the entire flying experience feels like it is being short changed...spend some time with turbos, you will start to see what is being missed first hand... it's all about the flying experience increased, not just the raw numbers on paper...

 

Nice looking build. If you do go Turbonormalization, utilizing Tornado Alley up here in Ada, Oklahoma is the best of the bunch. They produce some eye popping results.

DO you have the Gamijectors also? They are a must to run lean of peak operations and TA also produces them as well.

The Baron is just about the perfect airplane for upgrades like this.

 

Nice looking engines and plane!

 

Who did your engine work ?

Edward