I was reading the gov’t preliminary investigative results of last months aircraft accidents (see www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.htm) and noticed three M20 Mooneys that had gone down with engine failures. We just had an SR20 IO360 fail on the Windy City Flyers’ SR20, which made me curious. Does anybody have a good foundation of the pros and cons of the Continental IO-360? I had heard all good news about the dash-ES that is suppose to go into our birds. aa
three M20 Mooneys that had gone down with engine failures.
Doesn’t the Mooney M20 use a Lycoming engine? I searched the NTSB and could not find any references to failures of Continental IO-360 engines (lots of Lycomings, though).
three M20 Mooneys that had gone down with engine failures.
Doesn’t the Mooney M20 use a Lycoming engine? I searched the NTSB and could not find any references to failures of Continental IO-360 engines (lots of Lycomings, though).
The M20 does use an IO-360, and it is a Lycoming. The I means “Fuel Injected”; the O means “Opposed”; the 360 is the “displacement”, I have been told. Both Lycoming and Continental make IO-360’s. Some are 4 cylinders and some are 6. The suffix is important as it tells you the “application” for which that engine is designed. So, just saying IO-360 w/o the manufacturer and suffix doesn’t tell you much.
Continental website indicates they build 13 IO-360’s. The -ES (SR-20, I presume) is 22.25 lbs lighter than others @ 305 lbs; has a TBO of 2000/12 versus 1500/12 for the other models; and is rated 210 HP (others range from 190 to 210).
To respond to the Mooney reference, most of us Mooney drivers like the Lycoming IO-360-A3B6D we have (in 84-201, for example). But I do have an SR-20 on order and plan to make that move based on what I hear so far. Why didn’t Mooney do this? (Don’t answer that!)