It’ll be the Continental IO-550, of course . . . but does anyone (Clyde? Marty?) know whether it will be Continental’s “Special Edition” IO-550.
New Bonanza A36s (since 1999) get the Special Edition. Owners love them. They are smoother, quieter, rated to 2000 hours (not 1700) . . . and most pilots would say the Special Edition pushes the A36 about 5 knots faster.
But it’s unclear to me whether the Special Edition is a Raytheon/Bonanza-spec or is an improvement Continental made on its own.
but does anyone (Clyde? Marty?) know whether it will be Continental’s “Special Edition” IO-550.
I don’t, and more than likely Cirrus don’t know yet either. That’s probably not a decision they have to make yet, since for certification purposes they are the same engine.
But it’s unclear to me whether the Special Edition is a Raytheon/Bonanza-spec or is an improvement Continental made on its own.
There was an article in one the aviation print magazines a few months ago on these engines. What happened, IIRC, is that Contintental saw people buying new engines, then sending to them to places like Victor to have them balanced and generally cleaned up. In the motor racing world, the process is referred to as “blueprinting”. Individual parts are closely matched, e.g. pistons and conrods are weight-matched to within much tighter tolerances than factory specs.
Anyway, Continental decided to get in on this market, and now offer the special-edition engines, which are essentially factory-blueprinted engines, at a premium price. They will run more smoothly, and may develop more power due to better breathing, though a 5 knot increase in cruise is probably wishful thinking.
The engine on the SR22 test aircraft has crossflow heads and tuned intake runners and exhaust like the IO-360-ES - a better design.
The “improved” engine on the Bonanza is just the same engine it had previously but built with parts which match better in weight and size - no change in design.
This does make it smoother and longer lived but probably not as smooth as the IO-360-ES on the SR20 because it still doesn’t get as near to equal charges to each cylinder.
An interesting tidbit from the engine manual - the -ES model has a normal oil consumption only two thirds that of the other IO-360- models.
I assume this is from some improvements in tolerances or perhaps different piston rings.
Very interesting . . . here’s hoping Cirrus offers the Special Edition, at least as an option. The Bonanza crowd, a discriminating bunch, loves it.
Pilots flying the new engine are reporting higher speeds . . . Private Pilot reported the 1999 Bonanza max cruises at 184 KTAS and goes 176 KTAS at 75% power.
but does anyone (Clyde? Marty?) know whether it will be Continental’s “Special Edition” IO-550.
I don’t, and more than likely Cirrus don’t know yet either. That’s probably not a decision they have to make yet, since for certification purposes they are the same engine.
But it’s unclear to me whether the Special Edition is a Raytheon/Bonanza-spec or is an improvement Continental made on its own.
There was an article in one the aviation print magazines a few months ago on these engines. What happened, IIRC, is that Contintental saw people buying new engines, then sending to them to places like Victor to have them balanced and generally cleaned up. In the motor racing world, the process is referred to as “blueprinting”. Individual parts are closely matched, e.g. pistons and conrods are weight-matched to within much tighter tolerances than factory specs.
Anyway, Continental decided to get in on this market, and now offer the special-edition engines, which are essentially factory-blueprinted engines, at a premium price. They will run more smoothly, and may develop more power due to better breathing, though a 5 knot increase in cruise is probably wishful thinking.