Top End on the Acclaim begins

[AcclaimML]

well got a good chance to work on the top end today. Unfortunately, my AP is worried about cracks in the wrist pin (that holds the rod to the piston). Very strong evidence that the engine was cooked. the carbon on the end of the wrist pins was so thick they had to make a tool to press the pins out. Its impressive. Ill be adding pics as soon as they get downloaded over photo stream from my iPhone. The other discovery is one place it was definitely making metal the pins inside the rocker arms were heavily worn all the way down to the brass---on every one. I have a pic of the worst pin and rocker or tapet if you will. excuse me if Im not putting the correct terms down. Clearly it wasn't getting lubrication---excessive sit time? And some scoring on the number two Cylinder that was pulled today. The guys want to take it slow, get new pins in and replace the #1 and #2 with all the new hardware before moving to 3,4, and the rest. Something about not wanting to move the cam---which luckily looks great and we got a good look at it today.

Thanks for all the replys and suggestions. Parker, i had fine wires on my 360 Lyc, these massive electrodes dont look too swift on this Continental--ill be swapping them in for fine wires too.

Mike

below piston pin right side has thick carbon build up versus the other side.

[AcclaimML]

well looks like i have run out of space to post pics on this thread. will try to unload some of the previous pics to this thread. in the meantime posted some fairly impressive pics of the tappets and tappet pins on my gallery.

[jetdriven]

Looks like a 50-80 ROP engine with 440 CHT. All well within certified limits, so all was OK.

[AndyFromCB]

The problems is the same as the problems that early TLS had. The attitude is the POH says I can do 220knots (in case of Bravo), or 240knots (in case of Acclaim) and that's what people expect. The truth is that Bravo is a 200knot airplane and the Acclaim is a 220knot airplane in the flight levels. Must keep cylinders under 380 degrees, as simple as that. How you get there is no as important as getting there. I find LOP operations to be pain in the ass and the speed loss unacceptable so I pump between 16 to 22 gallons per hour thru my engine depending how fast I want to go. But that's because I'm running a pain in the ass engine, a TIO540AF1B. If I was running the Acclaim, I'd get GAMIs and cruise LOP all day long and still see 200knots at 14 an hour or so. The problem is the people trying to get 240 on the book burn of 21. That's how you get a top overhaul every 400 hours.

[jetdriven]

Right on Andy. My airplane says 201 MPH but thats at 32" MP and at sea level. Even Bill Wheat woldnt admit it, but that book is printed by the marketing dept. It really does 187. Correction: It does 192.

FWIW my good friend Don Kaye owns a Bravo and he can do 200 KTAS all day. However, like you said, 220 KTAS will kill it in 500 hours. With a 60 grand FWF overhaul cost, best to chill out. You cant run 85-90% power ROP and get awaiy with it for very long.

PS I miss your posts in the Beechtalk Politics thread. Quite a riot there. Rock on.

[AcclaimML]

yeah, thats what it looks like. Hot , hot , hot. and dry , dry, dry. Dont let your baby sit.

Mike

[AcclaimML]

Well the TOH is complete. a few hiccups (off course) added a few parts and the wait for them to arrive. We also opted to change the massives over to the tempest fine wire. It was amazing how bad the massive spark plugs looked at just 250 hours. We added a new valve guide on # 2 exhaust valve--it was nicked a bit. Not sure how that got there. Replace the (and excuse my ignorance) orange red flap air routing thinging inside the right intake opening. The original was pretty badly degraded and was "flapping" in the breaze- pun intended. Actually could hear it at cruise. Surely that wasn't helping with forcing the cooling air where its supposed to go on that right side.

At any rate, the ground run is tomorrow, and if all goes well, i'll be taking her up for the test flight Friday afternoon.

After flying a Saratoga the last 4-6 weeks while my Acclaim is down, I sure do miss 730ML. Put in the updated SD cards for the G1000 in her tonight and even just the smell of the leather in the cockpit got me excited. Cant wait! Course, I'm sure the final bill for all this will bring me back to earth...

[AcclaimML]

well folks, got my baby back today and the test flight was awesome. max spread on cht's was 20 over the 6 cylinders! Much better than before the overhaul!

was pretty impressed. was doing 185kts at 3k feet at 27.5 inches doing circles around the airport. She ran nice and smooth! super excited--even greased the landing to finish off the flight. Can't even begin to say how tickled I am, and the comfort of knowing she's good as new, and knowing it was all done right. Glad I had it done.

[Mcstealth]

Big congratulations. Sorry for the pocket book hit, but your enthusiasm lessens the pain I hope.

[AndyFromCB]

well folks, got my baby back today and the test flight was awesome. max spread on cht's was 20 over the 6 cylinders! Much better than before the overhaul!

was pretty impressed. was doing 185kts at 3k feet at 27.5 inches doing circles around the airport. She ran nice and smooth! super excited--even greased the landing to finish off the flight. Can't even begin to say how tickled I am, and the comfort of knowing she's good as new, and knowing it was all done right. Glad I had it done.

Enjoy,

Take her on a long cross country, like 5 hours, keep the manifold pressure up around 28, keep her cool (I don't know if Acclaim has cowl flaps, but if so, keep them open). Enjoy. My Bravo is down for an annual from hell, but I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Andy

[AcclaimML]

Thanks Stealth, Andy. I plan on heading to Louisiana in a few days. round trip should be at least 4 hours--should be perfect to finish the break in. The cht actually aleardy dropped about 15-20 degrees just with the 30 minute test flight. Was pretty cool. And no she doesn't have any cowl flaps---just gotta use gas to keep her cool. Continental sent specific instructions with the cylinders to break in with 75% power or better ROP until oil consumption stabolizes.

As for the pain of the $. $12k was plopped down by the previous owner at the time of sale. So far, I've put in about $8k more for the additional parts. The only thing lacking now is the labor price tag. Though I have a real good relationship with my AP and he gives me a break on that being I help with the labor. Plus it didn't hurt I gave him a brand new borescope a few months back. "There are 2 people in this world you must absolutely keep happy, your wife and your AP. Failure to do so can result in an off field landing"