More interesting reading by Mike Busch
- Over the past two years, ECi and various other interested parties (including me) have been on a campaign to educate pilots and aircraft owners about the critical importance of controlling CHTs, and of installing modern digital engine monitoring equipment with high-CHT alarms. It is interesting to note that there have been ZERO reported separations involving ECi cylinders in the past 18 months. A Weibull analysis calculated that there should have been a half-dozen separations during this period. This strongly suggests that the ECi separation issue is operational in nature, and that the problem is resolving itself through pilot/owner education without the need for FAA intervention.
- Head separations are very rare, and when they happen the result is generally pretty harmless. The head separates from the barrel by less than an inch, the cylinder goes to zero compression, and the engine continues to run on five cylinders and make roughly 80% power. (FAR Part 33 requires that all certificated piston engines must continue to operate safely with one cylinder shut down.) The engine runs rough, and in a single-engine airplane the pilot makes a safe precautionary landing at the nearest airport (which is exactly what happened in every instance). In a twin, the situation is even more benign—and the lion’s share of reported failures of ECi jugs occurred in Cessna 340s and 414s.
- Something rotten in the state of Texas ? My comment. RA