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O-235 life expectancy towing banners

Farmboy

MEMBER
Middlebury, VT
Anyone want to opinion-ate on the life of an O-235 used for banner towing? I'm assuming it's been worked harder longer than one that hasn't been hauling a drag-rag through the sky for a number of summers. More tops or bottom issues?

Thanks,
Peter
 
In what plane, towing what size banners, in what ambient temperatures? Most likely the cylinders are toast, unless it was operated in an "open cowl" Cub. In that case, it's probably no worse than any other engine, as the cylinders run at reasonable temperature in that configuration. In the dark ages, (aka good old days) we ran extra oil coolers and kept the oil cold, but were blissfuly ignorant of the fact that the cylinders were being fried. It's all about the particular installation, the operation, and how the cooling was modified - or not. When I asked my dear old dad about a CHT gauge, he replied snorting... What are you going to do if it's too hot? turn around and go back??
 
I towed in o290 powered J3s, open cowl, it would do ok with small banners but an o235 man it is probably toast. Most of the banner Cubs had o320s up front which is plenty of power, but I couldn't imagine flying a banner with 115 horse, have to have it firewalled all day.
 
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