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  #11  
Old 01-23-2016, 07:03 AM
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Low Pass Low Pass is offline
 
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Location: Houston
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How sure are you that your guy knows more/better than a successful, large scale aircraft cylinder enterprise? Just a factor to consider. Along with the small, but very real chance they'll go back in wrong.
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  #12  
Old 01-23-2016, 07:30 AM
Robert Anglin Robert Anglin is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: houston, texas
Posts: 900
Default Your call

Out of the thousands of engines of all kinds I have sent out to be reworked or replaced in part or as a unit. We would check the ring gaps and bores inspect the parts before we made the final assembly of any of it. I can not tell you how many parts we have seen or installed brand new and used that had faults.
Now having said this. I like ECI, their people and have had very good luck with their engine parts. Most of their people have been at this for a long time and know their stuff very well. I would do the same thing with my lawn mower motor. If I am going to spend the time and money to do the job, I really don't want to do it twice. It is more cost effective to spent a little bit more time and cut down your odds of a problem. But this is just my thoughts on this it is your engine. Yours, R.E.A. III #80888
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  #13  
Old 02-11-2016, 12:31 PM
scarter770 scarter770 is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: fort worth,Texas
Posts: 22
Default ECI Quality Control? NOT!

My engine is now at LyCon's shop in California (last four months) after I installed 6 Brand new steel barreled ECI cylinders with forged 10 to 1 pistons that were supposedly "fitted" by ECI, with new rings "also fitted". After 34 hours I had a piston failure and melted one due to piston wall clearance being too tight. Of course, there was metal throughout the entire engine after 5 minutes of this.This has cost me several thousand dollars(not counting the 12,000 I gave ECI) and ECI says too bad. Great Warranty huh? They do not check the piston wall clearance nor do they verify anything in the assembly of their brand new cylinders. Ask for a build sheet and see what you get. Maybe you need to disassemble the whole friggen cylinder(valves and all) prior to use? NO MORE ECI PRODUCTS FOR ME ! No wonder they sold out! If you buy ECI's brand new junk, consider yourself forewarned.
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  #14  
Old 02-11-2016, 01:29 PM
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DanH DanH is offline
 
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Location: 08A
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Coolant line removed from an auto engine. Look close inside the spigot facing the camera. Somehow it made it through the manufacturing inspection process without anyone noticing that there is no connecting passage through the wall of the main line...

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  #15  
Old 02-11-2016, 07:11 PM
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FasGlas FasGlas is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Prescott, AZ
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scarter770 View Post
My engine is now at LyCon's shop in California (last four months) after I installed 6 Brand new steel barreled ECI cylinders with forged 10 to 1 pistons that were supposedly "fitted" by ECI, with new rings "also fitted". After 34 hours I had a piston failure and melted one due to piston wall clearance being too tight. Of course, there was metal throughout the entire engine after 5 minutes of this.This has cost me several thousand dollars(not counting the 12,000 I gave ECI) and ECI says too bad. Great Warranty huh? They do not check the piston wall clearance nor do they verify anything in the assembly of their brand new cylinders. Ask for a build sheet and see what you get. Maybe you need to disassemble the whole friggen cylinder(valves and all) prior to use? NO MORE ECI PRODUCTS FOR ME ! No wonder they sold out! If you buy ECI's brand new junk, consider yourself forewarned.
Something doesn't sound right here.. Where did these 10:1 pistons come from, who exactly installed them in the bores, who installed the complete cylinders on the engine and who told you the piston clearance was too tight from ECI? ECI cylinder kits are not available with 10:1 pistons. Someone retro fitted these pistons on the 8:75 kits.

Last spring I bought 4 brand new ECI cylinders, removed the stock pistons and installed 4 new forged 10:1 pistons with the pre fitted ECI rings, everything fit perfect. They hardly burned any oil during break in, maybe a few quarts in 50 hours.

There's got to be more to this story....

Last edited by FasGlas : 02-11-2016 at 07:20 PM.
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  #16  
Old 02-12-2016, 06:36 AM
scarter770 scarter770 is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: fort worth,Texas
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There is a lot more to the story alright. The owner of LyCon is the one that measured the ECI supposedly "fitted" forged Pistons that LyCon provided to ECI when he disassembled my engine after the meltdown event. These same Pistons were measured by LyCon prior to shipment to ECI. ECI even put the wrong weight (never weighed) on the Pistons. Forged Pistons require more piston to wall clearance on aircooled engines than stock cast Pistons but you would rely on the engine cylinder manufacturer to know that. They never measured or "fitted anything" . If you think an 8130 means anything you are wrong ! Ask for a build sheet (all tolerances/clearances and work done) on your cylinder assemblies and see what you get. You'll get a pencil whipped BS form if you are lucky. I'll never trust anything that comes from them again. Their correspondence says they come with everything fitted and ready to install. I have seen A&P mechanics take them from the boxes and install them on the engine for 30 or so years. There is more to this story as all of this occurred after their (ECI) rings failed on my first set of cylinders after 300 hours. There is more.
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  #17  
Old 02-12-2016, 07:03 AM
scarter770 scarter770 is offline
 
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Location: fort worth,Texas
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There is a lot more to the story alright. The owner of LyCon is the one that measured the ECI supposedly "fitted" forged Pistons that LyCon provided to ECI when he disassembled my engine after the meltdown event. These same Pistons were measured by LyCon prior to shipment to ECI. ECI even put the wrong weight (never weighed) on the Pistons. Forged Pistons require more piston to wall clearance on aircooled engines than stock cast Pistons but you would rely on the engine cylinder manufacturer to know that. They never measured or "fitted anything" . If you think an 8130 means anything you are wrong ! Ask for a build sheet (all tolerances/clearances and work done) on your cylinder assemblies and see what you get. You'll get a pencil whipped BS form if you are lucky. I'll never trust anything that comes from them again. Their correspondence says they come with everything fitted and ready to install. I have seen A&P mechanics take them from the boxes and install them on the engine for 30 or so years. There is more to this story as all of this occurred after their (ECI) rings failed on my first set of cylinders after 300 hours. There is more.
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  #18  
Old 02-12-2016, 08:25 AM
krw5927 krw5927 is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Wichita, KS
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So are you saying that LyCon supplied some pistons to ECi which had different requirements than stock pistons, then ECi put them in the cylinder, then LyCon received the cylinder assemblies and bolted them to the engine without verifying that their custom requirements were met?

Just trying to understand. It's hard to make out exactly what went on from your rant.
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  #19  
Old 02-12-2016, 10:17 AM
scarter770 scarter770 is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: fort worth,Texas
Posts: 22
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Kurt

ECI compression ring failure (delamination after 300 hours) led me to buy six new ECI steel barrel cylinders and have ECI fit them with with 10 to 1 Ly-Con forged pistons that were shipped to ECI to be honed "fitted" and new rings to be gapped "fitted". ECI did not provide the recommended piston to cylinder wall clearance for the forged pistons. They did not even contact or inquire Ly-Con for this. They just ordered the pistons. After installation This led to a piston overheating and melting under full power. This led to metal in my engine. I sent the engine to Ly-Con to be disassembled and measured. This is when they found that the pistons were not properly fitted to .009-.0095. This is also when they found that the weight of the piston was not what ECI wrote on the pistons. Does this make more sense? I hope so.
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  #20  
Old 02-12-2016, 10:25 AM
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FasGlas FasGlas is offline
 
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Location: Prescott, AZ
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I'm not slighting your experience but I think the engine builder has to take the final responsibility for what they install. ECI has had their problems with some cylinders but so has Lycoming and Superior. With that said, LyCon has certainly had their share of failures as well. I find it very odd that LyCon didn't install their own pistons in the new ECI cylinders there at LyCon. I don't think I've ever seen an engine builder send hi performance parts to an OEM and ask them to install them, then send these assemblies back to the engine builder. LyCon overhauls and builds cylinders there at their shop. So if what you're saying is what actually happened at LyCon then they want to shift the whole blame on ECI instead of saying they didn't check the work they farmed out to another shop. That in is self is not responsible. And you're left holding the bag. Seeing as I've done the exact same thing you had done, install new forged 10:1 pistons in new stock ECI cylinders, and have no problems at all that makes me think there's more to this story LyCon has told you. I used Performance Engine pistons and the ECI rings that came with the kits. It's quite possible that there was a tight LyCon piston but there are other reasons that cause cylinder failure, too.
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