Power Flow Exhaust

[W.J.Langholz]

George

Do you know if Power Flow has done anything yet for the o-300 yet?

Thanks
Willie

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Sorry Willie I know you are asking a question that you are interested in and want an answer or at least our opinion. And I'm glad you asked and do not want you to stop asking.

I'd just like to take the opportunity to say how nice it is that we get new people participating here every now and again so we can revisit such subjects as Power flow exhaust, VGs, STOL kits, and wheel landing verses 3 point. The wonders of Marvel Mystery Oil, MOGAS, tail spring re-arcing and on and on.

OK, let the discussion begin.

[W.J.Langholz]

All

I would like to thank all of you guys for your patience. Just reading as many post as I can on this forum to catch up. I wish I had found this site along time ago. There is a wealth of knowledge here on airplanes just like mine. I do get a chuckle out of some of the post ,reading between the lines, you can almost pick up on...here we go again or didn't we just have this question a year ago. That's ok I have thick skin and I'm mid 50's so I don't think much is going to bother me any more..... if it does I just shut my computer off for I few days and then come back at ya again.

Again thanks so much to everyone for sharing what you have learned over the years...somethings maybe the hard way too, it is much apprieciated.

Just and ol farm boy with hay in his pocket
Willie

[GAHorn]

...OK, let the discussion begin.

In another thread regarding power settings with fixed pitch props I wrote what I consider the gauntlet comment on Powerflow exhaust: "The PowerFlow sytem has a great sales/marketing team. They actually have some folks convinced that their "tuning" helps suck exhaust out of that engine. (I challenge anyone to install a manifold pressure/vacuum gauge plumbed into that exhaust anyplace at all and find a vacuum exists! ) I'd be more concerned about the drag of that huge exhaust pipe they sell and it's affect on my speed than I'd be about backpressures of the standard exhaust system."
Two other discussion threads on Powerflow exhausts are found at:

http://www.cessna170.org/forums/viewtop ... =powerflow

http://www.cessna170.org/forums/viewtop ... low#p18955

I'll bet you'll get plenty of opinions when you read them.

[W.J.Langholz]

Well shucks....you guys had this conversation way back in 05.....I was but a glimmer in my dad's eyes back then.


Interesting reading however and thanks for the reference material. Seems to be some snake oil salemen around the hangar too....

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Willie,

Whether it works or not is one discussion. Another is do you want to hang that pipe out your cowl.

As for whether it works or not I know tuned exhaust works on many other applications and don't see any reason it wouldn't work here assuming the stock exhaust can be improved upon.

I feel pretty safe to say that most of us here wouldn't hang that ugly pipe on our airplanes till it proved to double the horsepower and then there would be a large group that still wouldn't

Checking their site it seems they have no installations on any Continental engines just Lycoming but I could be wrong. So it would seem the direct answer to you guestion is that Power Flow has nothing new for us.

[W.J.Langholz]

Thanks Bruce

This a very interesting topic. I started turning wrenches in 1969 on a 351 cleaver. Did balance and blue print the engine and tuned the exhaust with a custom set of headers. To drive it normal we had to have a mufflers on it otherwise ol pops downtown would pull us over for loud noise. With the muffler on we did loose hp. So when we would ....so called street race, I had made a hanger up under the car to disconect the muffler and hang it up out of the way. However I did find out that this did help but was too short coming right out of the headers and created back presser so we made a 16" extension to bolt on to the header to balance it out. This did cut a 1/2 sec off on 0-60. So all in all I think there is merrit to the idea in general, however I think George makes some pretty good arguments also.

I have not seen a plane with them on so I don't know how ugly it looks.

I do agree on the price v performance thing, It would have to have a good increase in performance b/4 I would look at it hard.

It is refreshing that everyone here feels comfortable expressing there thought freely.

Thanks
Willie

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Well surprise surprise. Just went to get a picture of the Power Flow and it would seem they've cleaned up their design. No longer do they have a 3 foot pipe and muffler hanging from the cowl but what seems to be a balanced header/muffler system. Still only for Lycomings that I could see.

170_mainpic.jpg

Old Power Flow System.jpg

Here is a drawing of their typical old system with the long pipe and muffler hanging out of the cowl.

http://www.powerflowsystems.com/ to see more information

[djbaker]

Since we were installing a MOH engine with a Ram conversion on my wife's 73 C172 I decided to go all the way and install the NEW Powewrflow. Didn't want any Donkey Dink hanging off her plane, so we opted for the latest version. We put 8 hrs on the engine with the old exhaust, waited for a calm, stable day and tried a comparison. The new Powerflow had been measured and dry fitted before the engine was OH'd so the swap was easy. With the old exhaust the plane would climb out at 80 and see 700 fpm climb. Let the engine get cool enough to work on and changed over. Less than an hour total. Climb at 80 was spectacular, I actually had to put the nose down and increase the speed in order to see what was in front of me. Full trottle level floght was no faster than with the old, but I've flown a 172 with a 210hp and constant speed prop and that doesn't fly any faster. You just can make a 172 go so fast and no faster. It looks nice and sounds cool and is cheaper than a Cessna exhaust if you needed a whole system. Anybody want to by a Cessna exhaust?