O-360 takeoff power fuel flow question

argon39 wrote:

: Putting a CS prop on a fixed-gear bird will not get you any
: appreciable speed.

: The only thing it buys you is takeoff/climb performance, and unlikely
: to have increased your legal gross weight any.

: I never said that the prop did either of these things. What did change
: things was putting a 180hp O-360 in the place of a 150hp O-320. The
: extra 19hp at 65% power does in fact make it go faster. And the new
: legal gross weight per the STC is now 2500.

I wasn't disparaging your decision, just making a point. Lots of people bolt bigger engines on thinking that
it will make a plane go a lot faster. Actually, it's more or less the cube root of the ratio of horsepower.

My plane originally had a 150hp O-320, but it's been upgraded to a 180 O-360. I find that it helps with
load/climb/takeoff, but primarily it lets me cruise at the same speed at a lower percentage power and be kinder to the
engine and burn the same fuel. For me, the 2 gph difference between 60% and 75% and it's 5 kt difference in speed
isn't really worth the fuel burn.

Cool that you got a gross weight increase. Mine notsomuch.

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

On 1 Aug 2005 15:48:13 -0700, "argon39" wrote:


Putting a CS prop on a fixed-gear bird will not get you any
appreciable speed.

The only thing it buys you is takeoff/climb performance, and unlikely
to have increased your legal gross weight any.

I never said that the prop did either of these things. What did change
things was putting a 180hp O-360 in the place of a 150hp O-320. The
extra 19hp at 65% power does in fact make it go faster. And the new
legal gross weight per the STC is now 2500.


I fly a CAP C172P that has also been upgraded with the O-360 180HP
engine. But ours stuck with a fixed-pitch prop. On our 172, it
brought our gross up to 2550. I wonder why the difference???


Chuck
PA28-180

Chuck wrote:

I fly a CAP C172P that has also been upgraded with the O-360 180HP
engine. But ours stuck with a fixed-pitch prop. On our 172, it
brought our gross up to 2550. I wonder why the difference???

Chuck

In this conversion, the prop and prop governor are a bit heavier than a
fixed-pitch prop, so that extra weight may account for part of the
difference.

A second potential factor is that in this conversion (STC by Del-Air of
Porterville CA), the STC holder wanted to have full use of flaps (40
degrees) instead of the 30 degree restriction characteristic of other
conversions. My understanding is that FAA certification required that
the aircraft be able to climb at gross weight with full flaps deployed.
Those extra 50 pounds may have been significant in meeting that
specification.

The aircraft used for certification flight was loaded up with fuel and
sandbags and did indeed climb with full flaps on a hot day at
Porterville (442 MSL) to the satisfaction of the FAA inspector.

You have a later model. My F model does not get a GW increase. I tried
to to find anyone with data to support a GW increase on pre 68 models.

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI


argon39 wrote:
Putting a CS prop on a fixed-gear bird will not get you any
appreciable speed.


The only thing it buys you is takeoff/climb performance, and unlikely
to have increased your legal gross weight any.


I never said that the prop did either of these things. What did change
things was putting a 180hp O-360 in the place of a 150hp O-320. The
extra 19hp at 65% power does in fact make it go faster. And the new
legal gross weight per the STC is now 2500.