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A bit slow for a stock E. I take a strong principled stand against the folks here saying to put up with it - you didn't buy this thing to putt along at 143 - 148kts! You wanna be seen getting outrun by my well-modded C??!! How's that for a motivational pep talk? Cheapest speed mods are rigging it perfectly and waxing the wings. Make sure gear doors close fully. Timing advance in cruise from a Surefly will give you a clear benefit also for not too much money. The powerflow helped my C a good bit but may not do much for the E's engine/exhaust setup. The cowl closure looks nice but does nothing. Brake caliper rotation and flap gap seals are cheap mods that actually help a bit. Most other mods do very little. The 201 windshield is hard to find now and is a very expensive way to get a couple extra kts. Same with a 2 blade top prop. The windshield does make the cabin feel more spacious, improves visibility and perceptibly decreases prop noise.

The Hartzell has a shorter lead time with the prop shop I'm dealing with I have no desire to shop around I want to be flying with a new prop as soon as practicable The McCauley prop and blades are nearly 50 years old I don't want to send for a rebuild only to find the hub and/or blades unserviceable I don't know how long the inner bulkhead was cracked, leading to vibration and more cracks Unknown vibration effects on the backing plate bulkhead and a possible undiscovered crack I didn't see a crack in the main bulkhead, but with an unknown duration, I don't want to find it later. Along with the propeller, I get a new polished spinner, bulkhead, and backing plate My wife said get a new prop Finally. I like the way the scimitar looks, and it may be quieter and smoother.

While it wasn't a formation flight, I took a friend to pick up his 75 F after AP work, a bit over and hour away. On the flight home, despite the 3-blade airbrake on my C, I kept his F in sight, and I was on downwind about the time he parked.

No, the base Cherokee, even Archers, is just a Fiesta. The Celica has always had too much get up and go.

Hi Barney, I had also had a shock absorber the same as yours on the nose wheel of my J when I bought it 25 years ago. My Mooney was looked after in those days by Hamish Ramsay (who has since retired) at YWGT and I recall him suggesting he remove it as Cfidave suggested, Mooney considered it to serve no useful purpose and authorised the removal if desired, so that is what Hamish did. I forgot about it until I just read your thread.

I can’t read my own IPC… the AN7 bolt is index 14, the shaved bolt is index 15… Mooney doesn’t list the mil-spec pn equivalent…

Shock Removal.pdf

My first car was an high mileage, 85 Celica GTS coupe. It checked my three major boxes at 16 years old: Manual transmission Rear drive Under $3k

Oh, yours is definitely the coolest setup, elegance and looks-wise, but I don't want to lose an arm... Quote I heard attributed to the astronaut program, "everyone is one switch throw away from being famous".

I know that folks race fwd cars, I’m surprised that they’re setting track records.

Hmmm. Toyota Celica?

If you were really looking for a new prop, is there a reason you went with the Hartzell over a C214?

If I was a potential buyer, I’d rather buy an aircraft that needed an overhaul as opposed to one that just had an overhaul. Assuming it’s priced accordingly of course. As a buyer, I’d look at that as an opportunity to do whichever upgrades I wanted, in addition to knowing exactly how every single hour post overhaul was flown behind the engine, instead of having to worry about how someone may have broken it in too easily, etc.

Yes the terms seem to be interchangeable but you are correct.

I think it is an NAS1304 close tolerance high sheer bolt.

FWD has some exploitable advantages up to about 300hp, then it's just a lot harder to get an advantage out of it. Below that power level a good set of classification rules will level the playing field. Honda Civics have been popular as race cars for a long time, and still are. Minis have been raced effectively forever, too. Note that all three of the cars in the pic are FWD, and the other two are two and three classes above me (I wasn't racing those guys). IIRC that mini wound up taking the championship in his class that year. I beat a couple RWD cars that year including an RX-8, and got beat by a Nissan SE-R Spec-V (also FWD).

Maybe as the OP I will add that whoever guessed Porsche 914 has my vote. That is my fun car Here is a pic of it. Born same year and month as myself. (That is the Porsche for CB's, 1/4 of the price of a 911...)

It can only indicate the hole in our wallets! Actually, I think it may indicate a close tolerance proof tested bolt.

I overhauled the engine in my M20E (also by Zephyr) last year, they were true to their estimate of 6 months. I got some extras from them but the range you're thinking of with $25-30k is accurate, but that's just the engine, not accessories, not labor to remove and replace. Keep in mind for it to be counted an overhaul, Lycoming at a minimum requires all fuel and oil hoses be replaced ($1200 when I did mine). You also have the prop governor, oil cooler, engine mount, engine shock absorbers, scat tubes, etc. to think about to do it right. If you're wanting to sell the plane after an overhaul - you want to do it right, it'll be the first thing a buyer questions if you don't. Zephyr is a well-enough known shop that it carries some weight on it so even if it was a lower 50hr engine, recent and by Zephyr and done by the book, you could maximize the return out of it, but you won't get all the money back. However you're looking at a 6-8 month timeline, and the market for planes is not great right now.

The heads in the two LASAR bolts don’t have the same markings. There may be a material strength difference. Anyone know what the concave depression in the nose gear bolt signifies?

here are some of those photos from august 2013. As ive learned, some 1/2" tall and 1" wide blue foam with this work over it would be much stronger. We built a 3/8" high stiffener from carbon fiber strips. My PA28-1981 Archer has this scheme. The inside of the top cowl has some 1" tall foam shaped into a half moon. With fiberglass over that. Its not cracked.

i put a 1.5" wide strip of unidirectional carbon fiber tape on the lower cowl to replace the aluminum 90 degree stiffener that was riveted into the cowl just forward of the cowl flaps. it was springy and flexible like gluing a fishing rod into the cowl there. I suppose you need the bidirectional cloth and the foam for a square-ish shape to provide real stiffness. We used 10K and 12K cloth for this reinforcement and you can put 80 lbs of force on the top cowl in the middle without any visible deflection.

I believe I have the last Missile conversion which was done in summer of 2001. At the time, all they were working on were JetProp DLX conversions of Malibu's. They told me that it had been about 9 months since they had done a Missile conversion and they were "rusty". They plumbed up my fuel injection lines incorrectly and they had to get the local Continental rep out to straighten it out while I was standing there. 55 sounds close. Less than that now....

I guess I’ve never really considered that one might be able to set track records with a front wheel drive car. It seems fundamentally to be the wrong tool for the job. I’ve enjoyed lots of front drivers as street cars (Cooper S and Fiat Abart in particular) but I’ve never thought of the them as track cars… But then I don’t race, so what do I know?

Thanks for the thoughtful input everyone. Very helpful perspectives. I had been becoming more inclined to sell in the past couple years before any engine issues were known or suspected, but my wife is fairly attached to the plane. So it is a little complicated.