Replace one cylinder or all of them?

How to keep the Cessna 170 flying and airworthy.

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mjgardne
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu May 09, 2002 5:34 pm

Replace one cylinder or all of them?

Post by mjgardne »

Hi Everyone,

I recently had a cylinder die in-flight in the White Mountains of Alaska. The good news is that I successfully landed my 170B (0-300-D) and I recently recovered it after replacing, in the field, a dead Continental cylinder with a new Millennium one. Two quick questions…

(1) I’ve been getting mixed opinions about replacing only one cylinder rather than all six, even though the others have decent/ok pressures. Is it true that I should replace all of them because the new one will introduce new stresses into the engine, which may result in more engine problems?

(2) I’ve been told that it is considered bad to mix Continental and Millennium cylinders. In my case, I have 1 Millennium and 5 Continental cylinders on a mid-life engine. Should I replace the remaining Continentals with Millenniums?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Mike
mike.gardner@alaska.edu
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GAHorn
Posts: 21004
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2002 8:45 pm

Post by GAHorn »

Who is telling you all this? The guy trying to sell them to you?
There is nothing "wrong" with mixing cylinders from various mfr's on the same engine. There is no need to worry that a new cylinder in a midlife engine is going to impart harmful stresses to your engine. Go fly it and enjoy it.
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