National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

If you can find them, get 8. The 65 series cylinders seem to be getting hard to obtain.

Absoutely correct! The 1st group of 4 are being shipped to me after being overhauled at Gibson. Doc

Whats a set of 4 yellow tagged cylinders worth?

Mike

Superior sold a pile of the A65 kits as you described. The problem is that in order to meet the letter of the STC (as I see it) they have to be installed in 'sets'. That is, you can't have 3 Superiors and one old A65 Continental cylinder. If I remember correctly the intake castings are different. I'm unsure what else...maybe balance(???) so they can't be /mixed-matched. Our old airport club Champ has a set of Millenium cylinder kits on it. Hope they last for the clubs sake or else they're 'SOL'. I think they have a couple of hundred hours on them now.

Doc, I'm guessing the jugs you're getting from Gibson are chromed ...or are they oversize?
MikeB

Mike,
They used O200 heads on A65 barrel size. You end up having to use the O200 intake elbows. I don't know about the ring sets used, as Doc pointed out. They probably are specific to the cylinders. I still have a used set put away for a rainy day. I guess I should send them out and see if they are any good. If one of the set is bad I'll break the set for members in the Aeronca community.
Paul

Aha! That's the deal, 0200 head on a A65 barrel. So, could you (if you had to) put a 'regular A65 cylinder assembly on with the conventional intake elbow? I suppose it might work but would invalidate the STC for what it's worth at that point......paperwork, paperwork .

MikeB

From the Superior Air Parts web site, it appears that they are again making Millennium cylinders for A 65 engines. AERO lists a set of four at about $3800.

Mike,
You could install the stock cylinder but it would put you in an odd situation with the paper work. I would hope that Superior is making the cylinders again or the installed stuff is going to be obsolete. There were some retailers selling off old inventory.
Paul

It would be good news if they did decide to make A65 cylinders again as there's still a lot of A65's running. We have three on our little airport. I've kept a stash of A65 parts (just in case) but not much for cylinders. Some that I have are already .015 over and worn.

I wasn't aware that you had to trade in your old A65 cylinders to get new from Superior (according to Doc) back when they were available. I've never dealt with him but I understand "Woody" up north of me a bit has a pretty good stash of certified A65 parts. He used to advertise in TAP.

MikeB

Mike,
Have them chromed back to standard. They can use channel chrome or nickel carbide coatings. Superior uses some kind of "thru hardened" material for their barrels, what ever that is. And the aluminum is investment cast, which is a jewelry technique for better surface finish but sacrifices some strength. I think the ring sets are specific to the Superior cylinders and I have not seen any information on overbore for these cylinders. It might exist but I haven't gone looking for it.
Paul

I've got a bunch of them I need to look at one of these days. I know I have enough parts to build a spare A65 engine other than I'm unsure about the cylinders. I have some chromes that came with a spare engine I bought once and the chrome is pulled off in spots, scored if I remember correctly. Either from overheating or a poor chrome job. Too bad because guides, valves, etc. are in good shape, but maybe they can be salvaged. Right now my L16/0200 is taking my time and $$$. I should be ready to mount it (the engine that is ) later this week. Then I'm off to San Antonio for another two weeks.

Don't retire.....you never have enough time to get anything useful done and everyone wants a piece of you because "after all, you don't have anything to do, you're retired".

MikeB

I emailed Superior about whether they will produce A65 cylinders here is the reply.

"Not sure if these will be produced yet. It will be in 2012 at the earliest."