AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2014 - 38

PILOT BRIEFING
AOPA sweepstakes coverage sponsored by BANK OF AMERICA

A CONTINENTAL IO-550 engine

undergoes dynamometer testing
on Genesis Engines' test stand.

ON THE

WEB

THREE WAYS TO WIN
ONE OF 76 PRIZES IN AOPA'S
DEBONAIR SWEEPSTAKES

Join or renew your AOPA
membership and you are
entered to win in AOPA's
Debonair Sweepstakes. AOPA
is giving away a completely
restored 1963 Beechcraft
Debonair B33 with an all-new
ergonomic interior, the latest
avionics, and up-to-date
airframe as the grand prize.
You could also win one of 75
other great aviation prizes.
Visit the website (www.aopa.
org/Membership/Sweeps.
aspx) to enter.

Powering up
The sweepstakes Debonair gets a big bump in horsepower
BY THOMAS A. HORNE
ALL WAS NOT WELL with the
D e b o n a i r 's I O - 4 7 0 - L C K
engine. A borescope exam of
the cylinders revealed pitting
and corrosion, which explained
the high levels of iron in the airplane's oil analyses. Basically,
the engine had sat idle for so
long under the previous owner
that the steel cylinder walls
had rusted, and that rust wore
away as I flew it over the past
year. Now it was showing up
in the oil as tiny iron particles.
Were those particles damaging the camshaft, crankshaft
bearings, and other internal
components? We didn't know,
and didn't want to risk it.

Although Bonanza/Baron/
Debonair expert Adrian
Eichhorn pronounced the
cylinders fit, we knew deep
down that we had to do the
right thing. No way were we
going to give away an airplane
with a questionable engine.
So once again D'Shannon
Aviation stepped forward with
a bold solution: do away with
the existing 225-horsepower
engine and replace it with a
260-horsepower conversion
of the IO-470. In engine designator terms, we're moving
from a Teledyne Continental
IO-470-LCK (the -LCK means
that it started life as a -L engine

and was changed-hence the
"-C"-to a -K model during its
last overhaul) to a Teledyne
Continental IO-470-N.
I flew N75YR to Aero
E n g i n e s o f Wi n c h e s t e r,
Virginia, in mid-January. Aero
Engines, a renowned engine
shop in its own right, will
remove the bad old engine, take
it to the Lake Norman Airpark
(14A), then install and apply
the finishing touches to the
Debonair's -N upgrade.
The big news here is that
all of the original cylinders
will be chucked, and replaced
with brand-new ECi TITAN
cylinder assemblies featuring

cylinder bores with the company's Nickel+Carbide internal
coatings. It'll be goodbye to
rusty steel cylinder bores, and
hello to more durable, longer-lasting ECi cylinders. ECi
cylinders have come under fire
by the FAA, which wants to slap
an expensive AD on certain ECi
cylinders for the Continental
IO-520 and IO-550 engines
and built between 2002 and
2009-a proposal that AOPA
aggressively opposes. Bottom
line: we're giving ECi a vote of
confidence by using its -N cylinders on the Debonair.
EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org

D'SHANNON AND THE DEBONAIR
D ' S h a n n o n Av i a t i o n h a d

and gap seals. But since then,

and upgrades. And fittingly

of the prominence that so many

already been involved in

D'Shannon has initiated a new

enough, the Genesis shop is

engine- and race-related com-

the Debonair project. Back

business venture called Genesis

located in Mooresville, North

panies bring to the area. Not

in late 2012 it provided the

Engines by D'Shannon. This

Carolina, in the heart of Nascar

coincidentally, Genesis employs

airplane's tip tanks, new wind-

arm of D'Shannon is exclusively

country. In fact, Mooresville is

six technicians with Nascar

shield and windows, and flap

devoted to engine overhauls

called "Race City USA" because

experience.

38 | AOPA PILOT March 2014

-TAH
http://www.aopa.org/Membership/Sweeps.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Membership/Sweeps.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Membership/Sweeps.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Membership/Sweeps.aspx
AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2014

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