No such thing as too much horsepower. Too much weight, yes, hp, no.
Figured. I put one in my 180 and flew it wheels and amphibs. Had an 86in McCauley wide-chord 3-blade. Pulled really well. However, I would not do it again. The biggest plus of the carb engine is starting. The bad, to me, was the horrible induction system of the O-470. Had horrible fuel distribution. The 6cyl engine analyzer showed EGT spreads of well nearly 200deg at TO, with the accompanying CHT's. I ended up running a very small amount of carb heat ALL THE TIME, yielding better atomization and creating a little turbulence in the induction, all of which resulted in much more even fuel distribution. Was able to get CHT spread less than 50 on TO. So I probably ended up with slightly less max HP, but likely saved a couple of cylinders from burning out. FI is the way to go, which also allows running LOP. YMMV. The 50's 180/182 were light, so the added HP with the new props is a lot of fun.
