Baron motor replacement

About 8 years ago,I had special motors built for my Baron58. IO520s over bored, ported, cam, etc. I used Superior cylinders. Those cylinders are now subject to an AD, and it's expensive. I made a deal with Ly Con and my mechanic to sell my motors, and replace them with special Ly Con 550s. Those will be ported, cam, etc. My old motors made approximately 300HP on Ly Con's dyno. The new ones will make 340-350 HP.

So the idea was to have them installed early November. Didn't happen. One motor got dropped, and they needed to replace the crank and cases. Should be done middle of December.

I'm hoping that the climb and cruse speed will improve dramatically. I'll report when installed. Should also help with take off, and my home field is only 2100 feet.

Art

 

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.

 

With these changes, the single engine service ceiling should let me fly away if I lost a motor going out of Truckee. I would think it would be 13k. The old motors raised that single engine service ceiling to 10K over the standard unit's 5-6k density altitude.

Safest plane is one with good motors and great maintenance, so they don't fail, and a pilot that is very cautious. Listening to your motors is the best insurance.

Best safe way in and out is a G4, but they are out of my price range.

Art

 

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

 

It's going to go up. But I can always throttle back and get more range. I've got a 3 hour blatter, so that's my longest leg. 166 gallons, so range isn't a consideration.

Art

 

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?

 

They allow .015 over. Worth about 3-5 HP bY itself.

I'm told the engines Dino 342-345HP.

Art

 

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.

 

It is a different cam. There is an STC for the 550, and the Ly Con engine apparently qualifies. The .015 over bore is allowed. Did it on the 520, which had 300 HP. Remember the 550 is 300 HP +5% per manufacturer. So what we"re talking about is an increase of 30HP over a perfect 550. Or 45 over what I had.

Art

 

Do not like cannulas or oxygen masks. The 58P weighs over 6000 so won't qualify for no medical when the third class requirement is removed. And with only 2100 feet a pain in and out.

Art

 

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

 

I did. But it's pretty heavy, and at 60k per expensive motors. 300 mph is quick but you've got to go pretty high to see those numbers.

I'll have these engines soon and I'll see how quick the plane is. If it's not quick enough, I can turbo normalize them. If turbo'd with 520s they claim 240 kts. So I might get 250 kts or 285 out of it, but I'll see next week.

For west coast travel that fine, long distance, the citation works. (I am not admitting to an ownership of any jet.)

Art

 

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...

 

Getting close:
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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.

 

One is on but not totally done.
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Nice looking engines and plane!

 

Who did your engine work ?

Edward

 

Ly Con in Visalia.

Art

 

The panel:
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