Wide vs. Narrow Deck Help Please

[niblettda]

I'm in a bit of a quandry here and I need some help from some engine experts out there.

Engine details: IO-320-B1A, S/N RL-1083-55B (Bravo, not 8)

Below is a picture of my engine during disassembly.

The thing is I was pretty sure I have a "narrow" deck engine based on the http://www.sacskyranch.com/lycoming.htm. My cylinders use the hold down plates and the internal hex style hold-down barrel nuts. Lastly, my engine S/N doesn't end in "A" which is supposed to be for wide deck.

However, now that the engine is all apart and I've sent the case off to Divco to be inspected and overhauled if needed. Divco offered to just swap me a case. They indicate that I have a wide deck case?!?!?!

So now I'm really confused, I didn't think you could mount narrow deck cylinders on a wide deck case. Is it possible that I'm missing something else? I have the engine log book and it was a factory reman from Lycoming in 1978, and I know they changed from narrow to wide between 1960 and 1970.

I'd appreciate any advice you can give me. TIA

 

[niblettda]

Well I was in a bit of a panic when I wrote the above. Apparently it turns out that what I have is very rare, but an acceptable Lycoming combination. It turns out that Divco said they have only ever seen about a handful of these in all the cases they've worked on.

Turns out that there were some wide deck cases case specifically for narrow deck cylinders. They said they are perfectly serviceable, all-be-it very rare. So assuming the case is still good I'll get it back yellow-tagged and can put all my other parts back into it. Though my question now is did I end up with the best of both worlds (narrow cylinders and wide deck case, or the worst of both, I'm going to choose to believe I got best of both )

They were in a bit of a panic when I sent them pictures showing that I had narrow deck cylinders, they thought they some how screwed up their tagging and were worried that they swapped cases somewhere.

If anyone hasn't had the chance to work with them, I have nothing but good things to say about their customer service. They are prompt with Email and very friendly. Chuck there has been a great guy to deal with.