From the rumor mill via Cardinal Flyers Online

"I have some friends that fly 210's for Flight Express. Lycoming is
providing a new engine at a very modest price to Flight Express and in
return they are debugging and refining the engine for Lycoming. The
engine is an IO-550P3 and produces 325 HP. The engine has the induction
system on top and the exhaust on bottom like the 550 Continental. The
pilots say this is a great engine and runs very cool with no cylinder
cracking problems. Could this be the engine for Cessna's Cirrus Killer?"

Tommy Lee at CFO

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

A Lycoming 550? How many hours have been put on these engines in
real-world use to determine they have no cylinder cracking problems?
Sounds a bit premature to me. What ever became of the IO-580 I read
about a while back?

Dan Luke wrote:

"I have some friends that fly 210's for Flight Express. Lycoming is
providing a new engine at a very modest price to Flight Express and in
return they are debugging and refining the engine for Lycoming. The
engine is an IO-550P3 and produces 325 HP. The engine has the induction
system on top and the exhaust on bottom like the 550 Continental. The
pilots say this is a great engine and runs very cool with no cylinder
cracking problems. Could this be the engine for Cessna's Cirrus Killer?"

Tommy Lee at CFO



Well, a quick search of the FAA database shows no Type Certificate for a
Lycoming IO-550, nor any STC's belonging to Lycoming, or Flight express,
or anyone else, for doing such an installation (both of which would be
required for use in a commercial operation). I *did* see, however, STC
SA00274AT, modified Sept. 29th of this year, for installing a
*Continental* liquid cooled 550 in C-210's, model's "K" through "N".
Perhaps this is what's going on at Flight Express? And if it is, I
doubt it's the engine for the "Cirrus Killer", as Textron owns both
Lycoming and Cessna.

Happy Flying!
Scott Skylane

"Scott Skylane" wrote:

"I have some friends that fly 210's for Flight Express. Lycoming is
providing a new engine at a very modest price to Flight Express and
in return they are debugging and refining the engine for Lycoming.
The engine is an IO-550P3 and produces 325 HP. The engine has the
induction system on top and the exhaust on bottom like the 550
Continental. The pilots say this is a great engine and runs very cool
with no cylinder cracking problems. Could this be the engine for
Cessna's Cirrus Killer?"

Tommy Lee at CFO



Well, a quick search of the FAA database shows no Type Certificate for
a Lycoming IO-550, nor any STC's belonging to Lycoming, or Flight
express, or anyone else, for doing such an installation (both of which
would be required for use in a commercial operation). I *did* see,
however, STC SA00274AT, modified Sept. 29th of this year, for
installing a *Continental* liquid cooled 550 in C-210's, model's "K"
through "N".

That might explain the "runs very cool" part.