Ive thought about the Powerflow but I don't think its going to do much vs the Accorn. The extended exhaust pipe of the Accorn makes taking the cowling off a real pain, and I have a 3 blade on top of that! Its horrible taking it off.

Bill,

I'm sure I can't tell much you don't already know, but I also have the 3 blade prop on my 182 P., plus the Knots 2 U nose scissor fairing on the bottom of the cowl, but taking that off gives more wiggle room. Having skinned up the the cowling before with the prop, now the inner portion of the blades get shop towels taped around them to keep from skinning up the cowl paint with the blades.

Re the Power Flow , my shop tells me they add time to the annual, taking them apart for ; required inspection , so does any extra speed or fuel savings exceed the extra maintenance costs?

So, finishing up the annual on my 182 and had an oil leak that was hard to track down. The oil was running along the bottom center line of the oil pan from the accessory case forward and dripping on the muffler shroud. Not a lot of oil but just enough to piss me off. All of the push rod tube seals were not leaking and of all things we finally found it. Turned out to be the oil galley plug behind the right rear cylinder that has an AN900 crush washer under it.

We had to remove the exhaust manifold, intake manifold, and push rod tubes just to get at it with a crows foot. The rear engine mount is so close to it there's no hope of getting a socket on it as the points on the hex have about .020 clearance from the mount. All this BS for a $.99 washer! Sheesh... gotta love these engine manufactures.

Dave

Howdy! Thought I'd revive this thread a little.

Installing a new PPonk/XP470 engine next month during my next annual, are there any before/after metrics people are interested in? Working on my CSEL with 868LB's 400 past TBO O470R, while I still got it. I've got another XC to do before annual, so I can get some cruise #s. I typically get around 125kt TAS at 8-9k burning around 11GPH.

For anyone interested, we've put a lot of time/money into 868LB since we picked her up 2.5 years ago (from this forum). Garmin avionics upgrades (Dual 275s, GNC355), vacuum pump removal, new Hartzell 3 blade prop 2 years ago (bought in anticipation of the PPonk). I think we're at the end of the "wants" list now, only thing I can think of next replacing a Trutrak AP with a Garmin (Trutrak is very quirky), and maybe a tuned exhaust.

We have a new xp470 on our 61 182 built by Bill Cunningham at Powermasters. We just had the 20 hour oil change done.

We had a PPonk on it previously but the ECI AD forced the new one. We upgraded the case and some did some minor improvements.

Both engines ran/run great. Nice to get rid of that annoying little oil drip.

Keep in mind that some tuned exhausts need to be fully removed at each annual, which can add 8-10 hours of labor each year.

Keep in mind that some tuned exhausts need to be fully removed at each annual, which can add 8-10 hours of labor each year.

I suspect you’ll love the upgrade. We have a pponked O470 1974 P and I think it’s a great upgrade. 140 kts at 8-9k when light, and 138ish when a little heavier and we don’t have a clean airframe! 3 Blade MP prop which probably takes a knot off

Dave,

The amazing part is that you found an aviation part for $0.99.

Yearly followup, PPonk engine (XP-470) from Northpoint is great! Climb performance is incredible, and we're seeing faster cruise (typically 140kt TAS, with fuel burn 12-14GPH on average). We installed shoulder harnesses few months ago as well, great decision for safety.

We dropped the plane off at avionics ship late October.. GFC 500 with 4 servos, 750xi and In/Out transponder are being installed as we speak. The shop is installing a powerport/cig lighter in the baggage area (circuit breaker on avionics bus) for starlink power as well.

I anticipate next project will be interior.. however that should be considerably less cost than these past 4 years in a row. I'll put up some pics once the plane's put back together.