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Help Me With My ECi Cylinders!

9GT

Well Known Member
Patron
After almost a year hiatus working on my RV-9A due to a family member illness, I am back in the hanger working on my RV-9A project. I am the third owner of this quick build kit which came with a new Mattituck IO-320 Red & Gold engine manufactured in September of 2005. It has 1 hour of test stand running time in the log book.
I finally got around to identifying my cylinders. All cylinders are AEL65102 with cylinder heads P/N AEL85099 and fall under the FAA AD.
After a lot of head splitting research, I have not been able to POSITIVELY identify the serial number location(s) to find out whether they fall under Part A, or Part B cylinder compliance. The ECi web site is now gone of course. Here are a couple photos of where I am almost positive they are located, and the two I can read would place them under Part A cylinders.
49774205783_a4706c576f_o.jpg
[/url]IMG_1111 by David C, on Flickr[/IMG]
49775065892_997017b5a3_o.jpg
[/url]IMG_1112 by David C, on Flickr[/IMG]
If this is the only location of the serial numbers,, I will obviously have to remove two cylinders to get all four SN's.

1. Is there another location for the serial numbers other than the location circled in the photo?

2. If not, can I assume the other two cylinders will have serial numbers that fall in the group A cylinders? The two I can read are #2- SN: 30677 29, and #3- SN: 31828 04. The engine log book does not have the serial numbers recorded, and I am leaning on pulling the two cylinders to verify and record the serial numbers in the engine log book.

3. Are the majority of people flying with the group A cylinders comfortable and confident flying behind them and complying with the every 50 hour inspection procedure, or just replacing them with new cylinder assemblies?

4. If I do replace all 4 with new, is there a market for the old Part A cylinders to help offset the costs?

Thanks for any help or guidance.
 
I have 1000 hrs on the As. All high 70s on the comp checks. 50 hour oil changes. most people will do a pretty thorough once over of everything while cowl is off anyway. Adding a comp check not a big deal.
 
Cant help you with your serial numbers, but I have 675 hours on my ECI Group A cylinders and have had no problems. Everyone has their own level of comfort but my seat of the pants analysis from the internet indicates most folks are living with the 50 hr inspection rather than replacing them. The reality is that I inspect every time I have the upper cowl off. Its not hard or time consuming, so no big deal.

Erich
 
I had group A cylinders on my 6. I spoke with ECI at the time and they said the group A cylinders were having no issues and they felt the FAA bracketed the problem cylinders for no real reason. I would keep them!
G
 
hold on

Do not pull cylinders yet. I used my good friend silly putty on the end of a small flat screw driver to push against the numbers hidden between the cylinders, carefully pulled away, and read in a mirror. Thin line of putty pushed against the numbers works great and have used this method many times.
Silly putty is a favorite tool box item used for checking valve clearances etc.
I have heard many bad things about the cylinders, but am happy with mine.
 
Do not pull cylinders yet. I used my good friend silly putty on the end of a small flat screw driver to push against the numbers hidden between the cylinders, carefully pulled away, and read in a mirror. Thin line of putty pushed against the numbers works great and have used this method many times.
Silly putty is a favorite tool box item used for checking valve clearances etc.
I have heard many bad things about the cylinders, but am happy with mine.

Thanks for the tip T.S. So I take it that the location I circled is the serial number? I will get some silly putty and try it out. If it works for me, you have saved me hours of work. Thank you!
 
worked for me

With patients it was how I read my numbers. I sent every number I could find on the cylinders to ECI and asked them to tell me if the cylinders were effected. Good to have a record of all the numbers anyway.
James K. Ball is now at Continental and has been great at answering questions regarding the cylinders. He is on the Continental site.
Best of luck.
Thanks
 
Do not pull cylinders yet. I used my good friend silly putty on the end of a small flat screw driver to push against the numbers hidden between the cylinders, carefully pulled away, and read in a mirror. Thin line of putty pushed against the numbers works great and have used this method many times.
Silly putty is a favorite tool box item used for checking valve clearances etc.
I have heard many bad things about the cylinders, but am happy with mine.

Today I used your silly putty with mirror method that you suggested and it worked! I had only about an 1/8" clearance between cylinders so I used a tongue depressor to hold the silly putty, then some thin screwdrivers and thin metal machinist scales to press it in. Thank you T.S., you saved me many hours of work!
 
I had group A cylinders on my 6. I spoke with ECI at the time and they said the group A cylinders were having no issues and they felt the FAA bracketed the problem cylinders for no real reason. I would keep them!
G

Yes , this is exactly what ECI told us, don’t worry about them ( two engines new in 2007 0-360 purchased from Mattituck). I would like to have had them in the back seat of the SuperCub when one head blew off on take off on floats at 90 above the lake headed for the woods. Thankfully my friends son made a safe landing back in the water. The person at ECI could have cared less about the incident but I bet he would have , had he been sitting in the back seat.We purchased eight Superior cylinders and changed them all out, you can do what you want, but don’t ask me to sit in your passenger seat with these ECI cylinders.
 
Yes , this is exactly what ECI told us, don?t worry about them ( two engines new in 2007 0-360 purchased from Mattituck). I would like to have had them in the back seat of the SuperCub when one head blew off on take off on floats at 90 above the lake headed for the woods. Thankfully my friends son made a safe landing back in the water. The person at ECI could have cared less about the incident but I bet he would have , had he been sitting in the back seat.We purchased eight Superior cylinders and changed them all out, you can do what you want, but don?t ask me to sit in your passenger seat with these ECI cylinders.

Ron,
Which cylinders would you replace them with?
Thanks,
John
 
Thanks

The pleasure is mine. Feels good to finally give help to others after all the years of taking while building.

T.S.
RV-7
 
ECi Cylinder inquiry

The serial # location on the side of the intake ports is correct and they are Group A so they do not need to be retired from service. ECi had a problem with the machine fitment between the steel barrel threads and the aluminum heads in the Group B cylinders, not the Group A.

Note that ECi did extensive research and destructive testing using a pressure rig at operating temperatures to improve the fitment and durability of the aftermarket cylinder assemblies, both parallel valve like these and angle valve too. Those improvements are incorporated into the cylinder assemblies that are manufactured by Continental Motors now for Lycoming(R) and Titan engines. The trade name for them is "PRIME" and they are available through Availl and other distributors. They are the only cylinders that are available with the NiC3 electroplated barrel surface. Standard thru-hardened steel is also an option.
 
The serial # location on the side of the intake ports is correct and they are Group A so they do not need to be retired from service. ECi had a problem with the machine fitment between the steel barrel threads and the aluminum heads in the Group B cylinders, not the Group A.

Note that ECi did extensive research and destructive testing using a pressure rig at operating temperatures to improve the fitment and durability of the aftermarket cylinder assemblies, both parallel valve like these and angle valve too. Those improvements are incorporated into the cylinder assemblies that are manufactured by Continental Motors now for Lycoming(R) and Titan engines. The trade name for them is "PRIME" and they are available through Availl and other distributors. They are the only cylinders that are available with the NiC3 electroplated barrel surface. Standard thru-hardened steel is also an option.

Thank you for the explanation. I have Group A cylinders with about 500 hours so, with your explanation, it sounds like they are ok to fly with the inspection frequency met without substantial risk of catastrophic failure. Correct? This plane is new to me so I am just now navigating these waters and I appreciate your help.

John
 
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