On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 12:15:26 GMT,
(Corky Scott) wrote:


I found this web site to be interesting. The guy looks like he did a good
job on the conversion for his purposes. I also can't see one item on it
that makes any better than the Franklin. He has the overhaul cost at
$40,000. For a Franklin? Lot's of guys were working on the Franklin's in
Cozy's because they were 3-4 thousand CHEAPER than a 360 Lycoming.

The problem, as I understood it, was that parts for the model of
Franklin used in the Seabee could not be found anymore. Hence the
conversion.

The current Franklin company only supports two engines, a 125 HP
four-cylinder and a 220 HP six. The 165 HP Franklin as used in my old
Stinson 108-3 was NOT one of the engines produced in Poland or currently
supported. We had to jump through many hoops to keep this engine running;
I think one of the main rebuilders even reworks auto piston rings for use
in the 165 Franklin.

According to a SeaBee site, the 'Bee used the 215 HP Franklin 6A8-215-B8F.
The Franklin engines site says the current 220 HP is the 6A-350-C1R. Don't
know what parts commonality there is, but it's quite possible that they're
totally different engines.

However, that said, I suspect it probably would have been easier to replace
the old 215 Franklin with the new 220 HP model with far less work than it
took to convert the Chevy....

Ron Wanttaja