Engine upgrade - from P Jones

If any of you are interested in any engine upgrade options for your late model Cessna 182 S or T mode! aircraft at anytime, or ever have the need or requirement to do any in service cylinder removals or repairs, then please consider the following information as portrayed below.

This first web link :- http://alamoaerospace.com/182S,htm  is for a upgraded 260HP engine & this engine has a more standard cylinder set up that can be easily oversized down the track if need be & also has the standard style & stronger pistons etc...Plus this engine will bolt pretty well straight into your airframes as it is pretty well physically the same as the original engine.

Then here is another one for a 310 HP TCM engine, of which is currently not fully certified/STC’d as yet, but it will be at some stage soon & is more intended for someone wanting some serious HP or for the likes of parachute operations etc:- http://www.txskyways.com/310HP Skylane.htm

As sadly the standard engines currently fitted into these late 182 S & T mode! aircraft have the same style of cylinders as what the likes of Bruce Rhoades Maule aircraft has, that we sadly had to renew all of the cylinders on recently, as you can’t oversize them if the bores get worn or rusty as they also have a odd ball & lightweight piston in them that no one has bothered to make as yet in any oversize. Plus due to the fact that the piston skirts are some .070” thinner as a consequence of these weight saving measures than the standard styles of pistons, we have also found that these lightweight pistons are also prone to crack up their skirts if the bores & skirts get worn in service thus developing excessive piston slap. This internal wear is generally externally portrayed by excessive oil consumption, say at a level of a quart per four hours or so of usage.

So if any such engine ever gets down to those levels at all & hopefully they never will, then do not persist with operating the engine & be prepared for the expense of potentially renewing al! the cylinders like what Bruce recently had to do.  Or then ideally put the money into such a replacement engine as portrayed above.  Of which the current respective costs to renew these types of cylinders can end up being around $16000.00 AUD + GST or so including their removal & installation.

The added benefit of the additional HP of these replacement engines will also help drag all the additional weight around that these new model aircraft suffer from with the additional gear in them

If any of you have any queries regarding these matters raised here, then please do not hesitate to contact me at anytime?

Regards

David Paynter . CEO

Brisbane Aero Engineers

Ph 07 3875 1555 Fax 07 3277 4116 0

Return to the Flinders Ranges By Rob T

Recently I asked my brother in law, Peter T and an old work friend Peter H (who I ended up calling PH Factor to save confusion) to join me on a 4 day fly-away to the Flinders ranges. The plan was to fly to Goolwa and meet up with our C182 Association friends Andrew & Jane, John & Elaine. Together we were to fly to Arkaroola for a couple of days before heading off in various directions.

Murphy's law in concert with la Nina messed that plan up from the start. On the day we departed from Canberra, Goolwa was anything but VMC thanks to a significant cold front. So the Pete's and I stopped overnight in Swan Hill. The next day conditions were no better at Goolwa so we decided to fly direct to Arkaroola. Unfortunately conditions at the Murray mouth didn't improve over the weekend so the reunion never happened. In the meantime we borrowed Dorothy, the Arkaroola Toyota 4WD, and had a great time bush-bashing around the place. We managed to fit in a quick flight to lake Eyre before heading back.

The SA coast weather improved sufficiently to make it an interesting return trip. We flew to Wilpena Pound and continued on the the Murray Mouth after a fuel stop at Renmark. Our esteemed presidente Andy met us at Renmark with some lunch and  assistance with fuel. We followed the Coorong to Kingston where I was encouraged by the low cloud to drop in and stay the night. The following day the Great Ocean Road with a pit stop in Warrnambool. John and Elaine met us and in true C182 Association hospitality provided morning tea in their Hangar. From there we tracked to Ballarat then home. Here are some pics;

EGT and CHT

I must admit I get a little fixated on EGT when CHT is a better measure of engine stress. Would love to get members views on this article: http://www.gami.com/articles/egt_myths.pdf
Cheers, Rob

Robert and Janine's Gap year

We  recently returned from a great trip to the Kimberley. The trip took 17 days all up and visited all but 2 Australian States and Territories. Here are some of our happy snaps;

White Cliffs

The Dig Tree

Bocce game at the Birdsville Pub

Chanel country meets the Simpson desert

Adels Grove

Lake Argyle

Emma Gorge (near Kununurra)

Bungle Bungle

King George Falls

Fishing Kalumburu

Buccaneer Archipelago

Cape Leveque

Broome

Waiting for the tide

Wolfe Creek crater

Lake Eyre

Uneven Fuel Feeding

Have you been flying along and watched your fuel gauges show that your left tank is going down while the right tank remains full even with the fuel selector on "Both"? This is a common problem with Cessna 182 Skylanes before the 1979 model year. And the real shocker is that while the right tank is remaining full the engine is actually running off of fuel from the right tank!

What causes the situation is the way Cessna designed the fuel tank venting system. When fuel is used from a tank it must be replaced with something, otherwise a vacuum is created which will either cause interruption of fuel to the engine or cause the bottom of the bladder tank to be "sucked" up. To avoid this in almost all fuel systems, whether they are in an aircraft, a car or a lawnmower, fuel that is used from the tank is replaced by air from the outside.

In the Cessna 182 Skylane this venting occurs by connecting the upper outboard portion of the left tank to the "L" shaped vent tube underneath the wing behind the left wing strut. This allows air into the left fuel tank as fuel is used. To vent the right tank, a vent inter-connect line is run from the upper inboard area of the left tank to the upper inboard area of the right tank thus, in theory, venting the right tank to the vented airspace of the left tank.

Unfortunately, wing dihedral, where the wing tip is higher than the wing root, was not sufficiently considered. When the wing tanks are full, the vent interconnect line is actually submersed in fuel and thus as fuel is used from the left tank, the air coming in from the vent pushes fuel from the left tank through the vent interconnect line into the right tank, thus replacing fuel that is used from the right tank. And even after enough fuel is used from the left tank to bring the fuel level below the vent interconnect line the condition will continue as fuel sloshing in the tank periodically gets into the interconnect line and pushed through to the right tank.

In really severe cases fuel usage from the right tank might not be indicated on the gauge until the fuel level in the left tank is as low as 1/3 capacity. The positive thing to keep in mind when experiencing this condition is that fuel is actually being used from the right tank and that fuel being used from the right tank is merely being replaced by fuel from the left tank. This means that even if the left fuel tank should go to empty you will not experience fuel flow interruption as long as there is fuel in the right tank and the fuel selector is on "Both".

This condition can be minimized somewhat by adjusting the position of the fuel vent behind the lift strut on the left wing, making sure that fuel caps seal tightly so that the "head pressure" in one tank is not altered by a leaking cap, and assuring that the wing strut fairing is sealed against the strut, thus avoiding burbling air right in front of the vent. However, in the end the design of the system does not allow for complete resolution of the problem. The Cessna Pilots Association has a handout available to its members that discusses this situation in even greater detail.

Beginning with the 1979 model year the Cessna 182 Skylane went to an integral bay "wet wing" fuel system with vents under both wings which went a long way to reducing the problem.

From http://www.cessna.org/store/buyers_guides/182/182_guide_excerpts.html

New blog account for the Cessna Association

Welcome to our blog page. What is it? It's an opportunity for members to make comments, tell their stories and generally communicate with other members with this on line diary.