The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I am in the process of deciding which cylinders to put on my C145. My engine shop says his cost is the same for all three makes. With price out of the way which cylinders would you choose? I am leaning toward Continental. I am told that their support for warranty claims may currently be better than ECI or Superior.

Do any of you have experience with Continental's new style push rod tubes? My old style ones leaked. Im told they will all leak but it is much easier to fix the leaks in the new spring style push rod tubes.

thanks Ken

The spring tensioned push rod tubes alone would be my convincer, although I had excellent service with Superiors.

My post is a bit repetitive after a cylinder thread just two weeks ago, but there was no talk of the new style Continental cylinders. Thanks Blue, one vote for new push rods. I have read many posts about Real Gasket push rods. I am hoping the Continental ones are just as good.

I had the "new style" cylinders installed when I had my engine overhauled. After more then 500 hours all is good. I have some minor oil leaks but none from the cylinders or the push rod tubes.

blueldr wrote:The spring tensioned push rod tubes alone would be my convincer, although I had excellent service with Superiors.

The 3 sets I have installed all leaked after the first 100 hours.
They are easy to fix, but your fixing them continually.


The swaged ones are easy to fix.

The swaged push rod housing leaks are easy to fix if the housing is leaking at the top end. The bottom end is another story.

I installed a set of ECI steel cylinders on a C120 I used to own- they broke in easily- never leaked anywhere and only used a few ounces of oil between changes every 20 hours- Using Phillips X/C 20-50. The leak down compressions when the new owner did the pre-buy inspection last fall was 80/80 all 4 cylinders! about 400 hours on them now.

I also understand ECI uses exhaust valve rotators and the other manufacturers don't.

ECIs have exhaust valve rotators which keep valves from sticking when using 100LL, bayonet sockets for cylinder head temp probes, and with RealGasket push rod tubes do away with the leaks there. My ECI nickel carbide steel cylinders broke-in in 3 hours and after 275hours, virtually no oil consumption and all compressions are high 70s.

This thread is a virtual repeat of one recently posted elsewhere... I still prefer Superior and have had only good experiences with them.

hilltop170 wrote:ECIs have exhaust valve rotators which keep valves from sticking when using 100LL, bayonet sockets for cylinder head temp probes, and with RealGasket push rod tubes do away with the leaks there. My ECI nickel carbide steel cylinders broke-in in 3 hours and after 275hours, virtually no oil consumption and all compressions are high 70s.

This is very typical customer report on ECI cylinders,

T. C. Downey wrote:

hilltop170 wrote:ECIs have exhaust valve rotators which keep valves from sticking when using 100LL, bayonet sockets for cylinder head temp probes, and with RealGasket push rod tubes do away with the leaks there. My ECI nickel carbide steel cylinders broke-in in 3 hours and after 275hours, virtually no oil consumption and all compressions are high 70s.

This is very typical customer report on ECI cylinders,

I'll go so far as to swear by the ECI nickel carbide cylinders. I bought that particular type because I know my flying can be sporadic. I'm in the middle of an annual inspection and did the cylinder leak test yesterday. Five 78/80's and one 79/80. COLD. That's the WORST I've seen in 7.5 years and 300 hours, even after sitting for 13 months at one point. Probably the best $4200 (late 2005 prices) that I've ever spent on the airplane. It may just be my style of engine operation, but by the time I had that many hours on two Superiors, one had already required valve work. (Aryana, you got the good one... )

Aryana wrote:Someone in NC has them now Miles. I sold all 6 for $300. That one cylinder did look really good compared to the others.

Took me a couple seconds to figure out what kind of crazy exhaust pipe you had on that thing!

Aryana wrote:It's a one off Super Bartone Powerflow unit.

When it rains out here in Half Moon Bay, CA piping some warm air into the engine cowling really cuts down on condensation and surface corrosion on the cylinders.

I live in what is considered a relatively dry area... central Texas, where it's semi-arid. I have two used cylinders sitting on my hangar floor, one is plain steel, the other is channel-chromed. After 10 years the channel-chrome has absolutely no rust in it's bore. The plain steel has an even coating of rust which will require grinding/chrome-plating before use (if it's salvageable at all.) It's been interesting to watch the degredation of an unprotected steel cylinder.

I'm not sure piping air, warmed or not, is good for an engine. I guess time will tell. I can only imagine an increased volume of air will expose it to more possibilities.
I close my exhaust with "Dixie" cups when the engine is inactive to reduce airflow thru the cylinders. (Perhaps an opposing argument might be that I capture "stagnant" air...but I'm aware of what ambient has done to that cylinder sitting on the floor.)

The "B" type club recommends opening the oil filler cap to allow hot gases to escape after each flight, until the engine cools down. Again, my active imagination sees hot (relatively dried) air floating upwards ...sucking cool, moisture-laden air into the engine thru the breather, thereby increasing the possibility of internal condensation.

I close my throttle and plug my exhausts when not flying. It's worked out OK for me for the last 40 years.

gahorn wrote:... The "B" type club recommends opening the oil filler cap to allow hot gases to escape after each flight, until the engine cools down. Again, my active imagination sees hot (relatively dried) air floating upwards ...sucking cool, moisture-laden air into the engine thru the breather, thereby increasing the possibility of internal condensation.

Gettng a bit off topic, but...

Actually the air in crankcase right after shutdown, even though hot, is quite moisture laden; think sauna... That said, I'm not sure opening the filler cap will change that much, and will leave the crankcase open to dirt contamination. If you really want to go overboard, set up a nitrogen bottle to provide a slight purge.

gahorn wrote:...I close my throttle and plug my exhausts when not flying. It's worked out OK for me for the last 40 years.

Certainly can't hurt. Even when I lived near the Gulf Coast I never had a cylinder to rust while it was mounted on the airplane. Of course, I seem to have flown more often in those days. Which brings us back on topic; now that I don't fly as regularly I'm glad I have the Nickel+Carbide™ coated cylinders.

Yeah.. the key word I used was "relatively". I guess that depends on the local atmospherics. Certainly the byproduct of fossil fuel combustion includes water vapor.
I have a hydrometer. I think I'll check the relative humidity of the crankcase after next flight just to satisfy my curiosity.