Dawley Aviation PIREP, or: Atlas is BACK

We were grounded last week, after discovering a cracked exhaust pipe and
rotted muffler baffles during routine maintenance.

Amazingly, we discovered that Dawley Aviation (*the* exhaust repair station
in the Midwest, and the place my A&P recommended) is located in Burlington,
WI -- literally on the road to Racine -- which was where we were headed for
"Xmas II". So, we ripped off the old system and tossed it in the back of
the Subaru with all the luggage and presents.

Four hours after leaving Iowa City, we were at Dawley's VERY impressive
offices. They are clearly a well-established business, with a large, clean
factory floor, and a nice, clean front office area, housing half a dozen
office workers in private offices. It looked more like a bank than any
aviation business I'd ever had the pleasure of seeing before -- quite
different from most of these kinds of places.

Steve, their VERY knowledgeable sales manager, was there to greet us. It
was obvious that he (and the staff) weren't used to having customers drop
stuff off (a steady stream of UPS and FedEx trucks flowed in and out while
we were there), but he took it all in stride and seemed genuinely pleased to
actually SEE someone for a change.

It turned out that Steve had trained with the same CFI as I did, over in
East Troy, Wi, so we were instantly fast friends as we traded "Old Bob"
stories back and forth. He took the cruddy old parts from me, identified
what could be re-used, and said that I could pick the new system up on our
way out of town the next day. It was as easy as that, and we were soon off
to Racine for Xmas with Mary's family.

The next day we swung back into their office, and it was all ready to go.
Dang, they literally replaced EVERYTHING except one flange on both the
triple pipes and the muffler. Everything else is brand-spanking new.

Steve wished Mary and the kids a happy new year, gave each of us a bag of
peanuts (which they apparently always throw in the box -- it's a Dawley
tradition that goes way back to their beginning), and charged us $620. Not
cheap, by any stretch, but still way cheaper than new.

All in all, a very pleasant experience, and a real pleasure to work with a
guy that's so knowledgeable. In answer to questions, Steve went on at great
length about the metallurgy behind the work, and the reasons exhaust systems
fail. (Incidentally, he said that the best thing that EVER happened to
their business was everyone running "lean of peak" and driving their EGTs up
above 1500 degrees. As temperatures approach 1600 degrees, the metal simply
starts to fail, and you end up saving pennies on gas, and blowing dollars on
exhaust systems.)

My A&P put everything back together yesterday, and Atlas is now snug back in
his hangar, with a new exhaust, new oil/filter, new Iridium spark plugs, and
(hopefully) no more oil leak. Now all we need is some flying weather!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Sounds like my A&P too my bag of pranuts

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:ywRtf.692885$xm3.601961@attbi_s21...

Steve wished Mary and the kids a happy new year, gave each of us a bag of
peanuts (which they apparently always throw in the box -- it's a Dawley
tradition that goes way back to their beginning), and charged us $620.
Not
cheap, by any stretch, but still way cheaper than new.

Jay Honeck wrote:
(Incidentally, he said that the best thing that EVER happened to
their business was everyone running "lean of peak" and driving their EGTs up
above 1500 degrees. As temperatures approach 1600 degrees, the metal simply
starts to fail, and you end up saving pennies on gas, and blowing dollars on
exhaust systems.)

Done improperly LOP will start to melt exhaust systems. If you're
getting over 1500 EGT then you're not LOP, you're at peak. 75 LOP is
the same temp as 75 ROP.

Newps wrote:



Jay Honeck wrote:
(Incidentally, he said that the best thing that EVER happened to

their business was everyone running "lean of peak" and driving their
EGTs up above 1500 degrees. As temperatures approach 1600 degrees,
the metal simply starts to fail, and you end up saving pennies on gas,
and blowing dollars on exhaust systems.)


Done improperly LOP will start to melt exhaust systems. If you're
getting over 1500 EGT then you're not LOP, you're at peak. 75 LOP is
the same temp as 75 ROP.

Not the same. It is better as you have the same EGT with much lower CHTs.


Matt

Matt Whiting wrote:

Done improperly LOP will start to melt exhaust systems. If you're
getting over 1500 EGT then you're not LOP, you're at peak. 75 LOP is
the same temp as 75 ROP.


Not the same.

It is precisely the same. 75 LOP is the same as 75 ROP. We are talking
EGT's not CHT's.


It is better as you have the same EGT with much lower CHTs.

Well yeah.

"Newps" wrote in message
...


Jay Honeck wrote:
(Incidentally, he said that the best thing that EVER happened to
their business was everyone running "lean of peak" and driving their EGTs
up above 1500 degrees. As temperatures approach 1600 degrees, the metal
simply starts to fail, and you end up saving pennies on gas, and blowing
dollars on exhaust systems.)

Done improperly LOP will start to melt exhaust systems. If you're getting
over 1500 EGT then you're not LOP, you're at peak. 75 LOP is the same
temp as 75 ROP.

The PROPER way is not so much running ROP or LOP but rather the transition
from full rich to LOP - it has to be done quickly, like 3-4 seconds ("The
Big Pull" as Deakin describes it).

Where jus about everyone gets into trouble is running near peak (i.e., just
a few degrees either side).

Jay is merely parroting the OWT and misinformation that has been running
around out there for _years_.



--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

Jay is merely parroting the OWT and misinformation that has been running
around out there for _years_.

Jay quotes an expert in the field and you accuse him of parroting
misinformation? LOP is good when properly done, but I think the statement
from Dawley says it is NOT being properly done for the most part. The
company I work for overhauls 400+ aircraft engines a year. Our teardown
shop can tell you which ones have been ran LOP and which have not.

Allen

"A. Smith" wrote in message
. net...

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

Jay is merely parroting the OWT and misinformation that has been running
around out there for _years_.

Jay quotes an expert in the field and you accuse him of parroting
misinformation?

And expert on...what?

LOP is good when properly done, but I think the statement from Dawley says
it is NOT being properly done for the most part. The company I work for
overhauls 400+ aircraft engines a year. Our teardown shop can tell you
which ones have been ran LOP and which have not.

Really? How?

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...
"A. Smith" wrote in message
. net...

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

Jay is merely parroting the OWT and misinformation that has been running
around out there for _years_.

Jay quotes an expert in the field and you accuse him of parroting
misinformation?

And expert on...what?

An expert on repairing aircraft exhaust. Isn't that what Dawley does?

LOP is good when properly done, but I think the statement from Dawley
says it is NOT being properly done for the most part. The company I work
for overhauls 400+ aircraft engines a year. Our teardown shop can tell
you which ones have been ran LOP and which have not.

Really? How?

I suggest that if you are really interested in this you get with Lycoming or
TCM and see what they suggest for your engine. There are only a handful of
engines that were designed to be ran LOP.

A. Smith wrote:
"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

Jay is merely parroting the OWT and misinformation that has been running
around out there for _years_.


Jay quotes an expert in the field and you accuse him of parroting
misinformation? LOP is good when properly done, but I think the statement
from Dawley says it is NOT being properly done for the most part. The
company I work for overhauls 400+ aircraft engines a year. Our teardown
shop can tell you which ones have been ran LOP and which have not.

I think the point is that it is the temperatue seen by the exhaust pipe
that matters, not whether it is LOP or ROP. And the temps mentioned by
Mr. Dawley sound more like runnint at peak, rather than either side.
People seem to automatically blame running on the lead side and that
simply isn't supported by the data. It is an old wives tale pure and
simple.


Matt