231LV

yup...my experience as well...1980 231 with Merlyn and Intercooler...running LOP at 10 gph....higher running ROP

Here in the US to be legal, that would require an STC or Field Approved modification through local FSDO...both would likely be very expensive and time consuming

I have a question. Recently, my son-in-law sent me a link on Facebook Marketplace for a Porsche Mooney for sale up in Canada. The asking is $140,000k. I thought the Porsche Mooney has an orphaned engine? Porsche, as I understand it, gave up the Type certificate for the engine back in the 1990's and announced they would no longer supply engine parts. I realize ModWorks out of Florida owned the STC to replace the Porsche engine with a Continental in the M20L until they were destroyed by a hurricane. I am unaware of anyone else picking up the STC from ModWorks and consequently, all the remaining M20L's were destroyed? In any event, I cannot understand how this airplane would be worth anything other than to scrap out for parts

As many 231 owners have already said, a 231 is not going to give you a useful load above 1000 lbs. Mine is 960 lbs. Full tanks takes 432 lbs leaving 528 lbs for passengers and baggage. They are not load haulers but they are the most efficient airplane out there.

The intercooler makes a significant difference...A previous poster claimed the intercooler lowers temps by around 100 degrees which is what I have seen in my plane. A turbo setup without an intercooler is like a beefed up wrestler with one arm tied behind his back. The Merlyn boosts critical altitude over the fixed bolt that comes from the factory but it really requires a higher workload, IMO....especially during takeoff with a heavy load...extremely easy to overboost the engine which mandates you pull back the throttle all while trying to accelerate...a vernier throttle helps (and I plan to install one at next annual).

wow! that is a sweet panel! I have the Aspen 1000 Pro and am looking to pick up the MDF for redundancy. Who did your panel? I also fly a 231 with everything you have PLUS an intercooler and love it! Putting a vernier throttle in at next annual

Thanks for all the suggestions...looks like Scheme Designers....

So we are now at a point where we want to put new paint on the plane. We plan to use Arizona Aeropainting in Eloy, AZ but want to engage the services of a good scheme designer. We are looking for any recommendations.....

I havent tried this yet but my daughter and son-in-law are heading to Ft Rucker, AL for my son-in-law's Army flight training. My wife and I plan to visit with the plane but wondered what some have done about flying their pets? Noise? O2? crates?

I'm not sure whether it is appropriate to post here but this is neither avionic nor aircraft catagories. I'm selling a never-used RAM yoke mount. I bought it thinking it would work in my plane but it won't give me the solution I am trying to get to......So....anyone want this for $50? Buyer pays shipping. If not, I will throw it on Ebay and see what it's worth.

It’s molded into the cowl for the intercooler air intake

Not exactly......he stripped everything out of the plane, repaired, reinforced and covered the plastic with ultra leather. Replaced all the foam and put new leather on the seats and new carpeting plus a newly covered dash and yokes. Obtaining replacement plastic parts is getting pretty tough. During one of the Mooney bankruptcies, they threw all the molds out for the earlier models including J’s and K ‘s. Hector tried to get in and retrieve them from the dumpsters but couldn’t get permission. Mooney quoted $8000 for a new built seat frame.

A brand new interior from Hector at Aero Comfort. He does beautiful work...a couple of pics... work was done at Kerrville, TX. The factory sits basically empty...a sad testimony to the faded golden age of Mooney. next year is a new paint job....

I just had my engine OH'd last year at Ly-Con in Visalia CA. It was upgraded from the TSIO-360-GB to the TSIO 360-LB1B new service limits. Great customer service. After all the worn and broken parts were replaced, the cost came out about the same as if I had done a Continental Reman. Of course, a Reman would have saved me consdierable time as the plane was down for about 5 months.

My 231 is heading to Hector at Aero Comfort early next month for the Executive interior....plan on almost $20k for that and close to that for a new paint job....upgraded panel? The sky is the limit....glass is really, really expensive and quickly becomes yesterday's "old" technology. You can easily drop $100k into your plane and have a beauty for years to come but don't plan on recouping most of that if a flip is in the near future.....planes are "toys" and should never be confused with an investment.

no the quote was from a GB to LB configuration BUT I had a bunch of broken or worn parts inside the engine which evened everything up....I think the initial difference was something in the neighborhood of $20k but that gets eaten up pretty quick when so many parts need replacing or overhauling....all in.....I thnk the final bill from firewall forward was just north of $60k

Ly-Con....as to economically....the cost for the rebuild by Ly-Con considerably exceeded the estimate (as did the time to do it) but comparing the reman quote from Continental against the final bill from Ly-Con....they were essentially equal.....Only reason I went with Ly-Con (other than the hope that my engine wouldn't need too many replacement parts) was I wanted to keep my crank and lower end....didnt really trust a reman crank.....time wise, I would have been 4 months ahead with a reman. All said, Ly-Con did a great job and corrected a couple of issues and reimbursed me my costs incurred to deal with them.

Duh-oh! OK, now I'm seeing it......been a "few" years since I was sitting in a college classroom, Professor! Makes perfect sense...essentially I am synthetically dropping a mag by running leaner and leaner which triggers higher EGT's which runs into the TIT.....got it! Thanks

to answer a couple of posters....I do this to simply experiment and try to learn the limits of my engine....no reason to run deep LOP during cruise for me....running 35MP is not possible as I would have to lean so far that my TIT climbs....again....the problem I was referenceing in my OP I'm still liking the initial explanation that leaner means slower burn means heat escaping into the turbine but that doesn't explain why all turbo drivers are not experiencing this... finally, iginition system was overhauled with the engine.....less than 50 hours on it so I don't believe that is the culprit... I will pull a Savvy record and see what lurks there...

ahh......so for us turbo drivers, there is a boundary between too rich and too lean and we have to exist within that boundary.....FADEC would be nice to have at this point!

OK...this question is for those of you who are very well aquainted with the physics of LOP. I have been flying my 231 for 16 years and always run LOP. I am very comfortable with what is happening in the cylinders as I lean past peak EGT and have explained it to a couple of A&P's who were clinging to the old wive's tale of cooking the cylinders, ect, ect......however, I am stumped with what I am observing when I run deep into LOP. Recently, I upgraded to a Merlyn when I had my engine overhauled. It has an intercooler, Gami's and was a GB rebuilt to a new service limits LB. As I was getting used to the Merlyn, I was pushing deeper and deeper into the LOP realm and noticed that at a point just before the engine starts stumbling the TIT climbs rapidly forcing me to enriched. Now, I normally fly a cruise power configuration when LOP of about 10 gph, 2500 rpm and about 32 inches MP....this yields the hottest jug at around 330 degrees and a TIT of about 1610ish...as I continue to lean...the FF drops as does the MP BUT TIT will start climbing toward 1650 degrees and I can't figure out just what is happening. It should not be seeing hotter turbine temps as I lean and effectively lose power unless I am missing something?

Agree with the shop times...that will become your bottleneck...everyone is starting to race to comply with the 1/2020 mandate and shop slots are filling up pretty fast...

I have the Turboplus intercooler and it is an absolutely "must have" for the 231 but I have never seen the speeds they quote...I can get 175 KTAS at 18k feet.....at 10k feet...maybe 150KTAS...

thanks guys..absolutely correct and thats what I do next time

As an interesting adjunct to this discussion, I have a TSIO-360 LB with an intercooler and Merlyn. Recently, I went out to do an IPC with my CFII. As we know, IPC's are not necessarily representative of real world IMC approaches since the CFII usually throws several approaches at the pilot during the flight. At least, this is what happened to me. A problem I found (and was pointed out to me by my CFII) was that I was spending too much time on engine management after each approach. A Merlyn requires a "deft" touch on the throttle as it can easily get over boosted and I am transitioning from ROP during final approach to a Missed then reconfiguring to setup for the next approach flying LOP. Moving from ROP to LOP while getting the correct Approach loaded and buttons pushed while under "foggles" is a big load on the pilot. I am thinking that the next IPC (and all the rest after) will be done ROP so I dont mess with the engine at all other than prop. What techniques do others use?