Hot Engine? Are ECi Cylinders Installed?

[RV7ator]

All,

"ECi cylinders run hotter than Lycos" is a common belief in the experienced builder and professional community around my neck of the woods. If you have a hot running engine - let's say CHTs hover around 400 vs. 350 as "cool" - kindly pipe up. Speak up, also, if you have one that runs exceptionally "cool". Yes, this is all non-rigorous, but there's too much smoke to ignore the possibility of fire.

My personal experience is bearing this out. The "tapered fin" ECi engine on my latest RV-7 runs hotter than a place you don't want to spend eternity. Do I have company?

John Siebold
Boise, ID

[RV6_flyer]

ECI has two different cylinder barrel bores on their cylinders. When talking about ECI cylinders, most people think of the Nickel+Carbide? Bore Coating. ECI also makes a THRU HARDENED steel cylinder. The Nickel+Carbide cylinder bore also comes in both a CERTIFIDED and EXPERIMENTAL version. When asking about temperatures on ECI cylinders, it is a good idea to report on the barrel that you are using.

I am presently flying ECI STEEL cylinders. I previously had SUPERIOR Investment Cast head cylinders. The Superior cylinders flew over 2,000 hours on my RV-6. CHT are just about the same between the Superior and ECI steel cylinders. The big difference was that #2 was my coldest CHT with Superior cylinders with optional temperature riser. With the temperature riser, it was my hottest cylinder. After removing the temperature riser, the ECI cylinder #2 is within 10 degrees of my other 3 cylinders. One other RV pilot has reported to me that his #2 CHT went up with the ECI Nickel+Carbite cylinder but removing the temperature riser brought the temperature in line with all the other cylinders.

One data point (from 2 different aircraft) that I have is that ECI steel cylinder #2 on a 320 RV-6 and a Nickel+Carbite cylinder on a 360 RV-6A ran hotter than the Superior cylinder that was on the 320 RV-6 and the Lycoming cylinder that was on the 360 RV-6A. Removing the OPTIONAL temperature riser that was installed on both aircraft to get the #2 cylinder head temp up to where the other cylinders were brought the #2 CHT down to the temperature of the other cylinders.

Yes it gets confusing and difficult to compare.

ECI may have three diffent cylinders for your engine.
Titan Nickel+Carbite cylinder
Titan Nickel+Carbite taper fin EXPERIMENTAL cylinder
Titan Steel cylinder barrel

The SUPERIOR thru hardned cylinder was advertised by Lycoming as being a SOFTER wall than the Lycoming Nitrited barrel. I ran my SUPERIOR cylinders over 2,000 hours. (1,700 of those were with 10:1 pistons) When the cylinders were removed, you could still see the cross-hatch pattern in the barrel. The shop I sent them to said the barrel was still new stock spec including the taper / choke. My question is: "How hard do the barrels need to be?" I had excellent service from the thru hardened steel barrel. IF I lived where there is humidity or did not fly a lot, I would want the Titan Nickel+Carbite cylinder that has the BEST corrosion resitance in the industry.

[vlittle]

I had chronically hot ECI cylinders (Cermanil) until I cleaned out the flashings on the cooling fins between the spark plugs that were blocking cooling air flow.

This dropped the indicated temperatures at least 35 to 40 degrees in cruise.

Vern

[Guy Prevost]

I have ECI cylinders and have no cooling issues. Cylinders at about 350 in cruise on a warm day.

Originally Posted by Guy Prevost

I have ECI cylinders and have no cooling issues. Cylinders at about 350 in cruise on a warm day.

No issues here either. Just today on climbout at 120 kts at gross weight with a surface temperature of 100F, I never saw a cylinder temp over 380. In cruise at 7500 feet running LOP, they ran around 320.

I still want a bigger oil cooler (the oil temp peaked at 218 at top of climb), but I've never had a CHT issue. I saw some temps over 400 during engine break-in, but I've never been over 400 since.

[LifeofReiley]

335-350 temps here... no issues at all. Never even seen 400.