Matt:

While I had my engine apart after my prop strike last summer I had Lycon port, polish and flow balance my heads and install 10:1 pistons. So far I'm very glad I did, as my engine runs very strong. Lycon says with the mods they did I should be making 180-185 horses in my IO-320. I gained about 9 knots top speed and about 7 knots cruise with a 1 gph increase. I'm seeing cruise speeds right at 200 kts. at 25"/2500/100 ROP/10.5 gph with CHTs in the mid-300s. Rate of climb at 140 kts. exceeds 2000 fpm.

The down-side is I have probably shortened my TBO by 50%, according to my A&P. It's his belief that the case can't take the extra horsepower long-term. He said after about 500 hours I should start watching for cracks in the case around the cylinder studs.  Mind you, this is the same A&P that forgot to put the sleeves in the injectors when he reassembled my engine and spent 20 manhours trying to figure out my RPM problem that turned out to be a binding tach drive cable!

Lee "Moondog" Metcalfe

N320WH - LNC2 - IO-320+ - 506 hrs. (34 hrs. SMOH) - Kansas City