Has anyone ever heard of an STC to put a Lyc O-470 or O-540 in a 180?

There's a '54 on Barnstormers that appears to have one, Field Approval?

Would be an interesting option...

The seller is either mistaken about what he has, or it's an April Fools prank. Or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I do not believe that Lycoming makes an O-470.

Scolopax wrote:The seller is either mistaken about what he has, or it's an April Fools prank. Or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I do not believe that Lycoming makes an O-470.

I totally knew that

I know a fella in Tx. with a turbo'd 540, got it on 1 time stc or field approval quite a while ago. Worked good. He was thinking about selling it awhile back.
Gary

I seen this 180 with a turbo 540 in TX bout 6 months ago, pretty crazy cowl louvers. Really nice plane!

It seems like those vents would be venting air from the wrong side of the baffling...? They go quite far forward.

Battson wrote:It seems like those vents would be venting air from the wrong side of the baffling...? They go quite far forward.

Never seen that type of vent on a modern aircraft cowl. Good for de-icing the windscreen?

The louvers on the top of the cowl are there to vent the heat created by the exhaust which is located on the top of the engine. Once the exhaust reaches the back of the engine it then goes down in between the engine and firewall. It then returns forward below the engine where the turbo is located. This is a very elaborate exhaust system which created quite a bit of heat, cylinder temps generally run above 400F. The engine is actually out of a Piper Navajo and was STC'd for the 185 and 206 by Turbo Tech out of Vancouver, WA.

floatflier wrote:The louvers on the top of the cowl are there to vent the heat created by the exhaust which is located on the top of the engine. Once the exhaust reaches the back of the engine it then goes down in between the engine and firewall. It then returns forward below the engine where the turbo is located. This is a very elaborate exhaust system which created quite a bit of heat, cylinder temps generally run above 400F. The engine is actually out of a Piper Navajo and was STC'd for the 185 and 206 by Turbo Tech out of Vancouver, WA.

Had the same engine in my S model Bonanza, Machen conversion, only aircraft I wish I had never traded off!!
Almost bullet proof engine went to VNE @ sea level, 230 kts true @ 18,000'

And, when you remove that top cowling, you still won't be able to see any part of the engine....there's a plenum UNDER the cowling. As he said, this is a VERY complex installation, and heat or rather getting rid of heat is the biggest challenge. Ones I've seen and one I flew did not have those top louvers.

Lots of power, but HEAVY and fwd CG.

MTV

So went looking for this 180 with a Lyc. and found 3 Canadian Homebuilt 185's, Can these be imported to the States?
Thanks

Years ago in the easy field approval days there was one in MT with O540. They had cut down a Cherokee 6 cowling for it. I only saw pictures but it looked OK.

I had a '69 185 with one of these conversions. The forward cg was never an issue for me, hardly noticed it. Biggest problem I had was slowing the plane down when on wheels to get the first notch of flaps in. It was a true speed demon on wheels, I would regularly indicate 165 knots and have seen ground speeds in excess of 220 knots at altitude. It did have a drinking problem though, at take off with 46' manifold pressure you would burn 49 gph but once settled down you could get 18_22 gph. I've seen the non turbo IO540 300hp installed in 185 as well, I believe Kenmore may have had an STC for it. This was a great mod if you needed that kind of performance but unfortunately Louie who was its' brainchild wasn't alive long enough to perfect the installation.