"Kelvin Gurney" wrote in message
...
I am building an Smith Aviation Tundra Boss, (a experimental stretched
tri-pacer derivative) for use in Alaska's back country. It will have a
Beech 215 84" prop on it. My question concerns installing a pre-oiling
system. I was thinking the oil pressure fitting on the left crankcase
might be a good place to install the accumulator. My concern was with the
1/8" hole, assuming the oil is a decent temperature, can I flow oil
through the 1/8" hole fast enough to pre-oil the engine? Or would the oil
follow some path of least resistance and just flow into the scavenge
system?

I would love to hear any other suggestion about the E-225. I am
looking to keep this engine low compression, light, and reliable.


Kelvin,

The E-225 eventually grew into the Continental O-470, which is the same
basic engine with many detail improvements. The older O-470 in the 230 HP
class such as were found in the earlier Cessna 182's are low compression,
run well on mogas, and have proven to be extremely reliable. Except, of
course, for the cylinders. The lower end on these is usually good for over
three thousand hours but the cylinder assemblies seem to give serious
problems after about 1000. They were used in everything from Barons and
Cessna 310's down to Ryan Navions and early Bonanzas. It is a pretty much
bulletproof engine and there are many available for reasonable prices on the
used engine market.

Another excellent engine in that category is the derated O-540 Lycoming used
in the early Pawnees. They derated it to 235 HP so they could run it on 80
octane fuel. These earlier O-540's are also a bulletproof engine that chugs
on forever and are available relatively reasonably priced on the used engine
market.

Using the E series Continental engines these days is comparable to useing
the Lycoming O-290 or O-435 series engines. They are good and were
excellent in their day, but the newer engines that have replaced them are at
least as durable and a lot easier to find parts for, making them less
expensive to overhaul. I say that, and I have an O-290 Lycoming in my
hangar for one of my homebuilts and am helping a friend install a Lycoming
O-435 into his Bellanca. :-)

Highflyer
Highflight Aviation Services
Pinckneyville Airport ( PJY )