Looking to upgrade to a Pponk during the next winter.
Which cylinder option is the best?

Continental remanufactured cylinders
Superior Airparts factory new millenium steel cylinder $1,150 more
Superior Airparts factory new millenium Nickel cylinder $2,845 more
Continental factory new nickel cylinders $,3800 more

Which option is the best bang for the buck?

My vote is superior, don't give any more of your precious money to those creeps at Continental than you have to.

If you're going to keep flying your airplane as much as we've watched you fly it these last few years you should be fine with steel Superiors, especially if you're in a hangar. Camguard is a must in my opinion for a PNW airplane with steel cylinders.

Nickel is great if you think there might be some gaps in your flying and/or selling the airplane. Perceived value of nickel is higher come resell time.

I fly more than 200 hrs per year.
For now no hangar (but #1 in the waiting list)

Have been using Camguard for about 1,000 hrs in this motor so far.

Any thought to overhauled nickel cylinders? With the seemingly endless problems with new cylinders I am leaning on overhauled cylinders that have been nickled. Most overhaul shops seems to do better with valves erc than the factory from what I hear.

Absolutely DO NOT use factory Continental cylinders unless you want to pull them off at around 200-300 hrs for a valve job. The quality of the valve seat machine work is garbage. 5-6 thousands or more runout on the seat to valve face. IMHO- Superior-that would be my choice hands down!

Nickel, not Continental... my two cents.

Larry,

If it was me, I would put Superior Steel in.

Jughead

Going from a 470 to 520 is a great improvement and you won't be disappointed. While it may not come up with your mechanic, if it does, there is the possibility of using the higher compression pistons. There are lots of field approvals out there for the higher compression pistons (Steve at PPonk can give you examples).

I have a PPonk conversion and a couple of years ago I did a top overhaul and switched out my old pistons for the higher compression pistons (I think they were 8.5 to 1).

Saw my gas burn go up significantly but I didn't really feel that I could tell any real difference in performance (anecdotal only, didn't run any before or after tests).

If the discussion does come up, make sure you consider carefully which pistons you will be using. If I had it to do over again, I WOULD NOT have used the higher compression pistons.

Good Luck, L

I don't believe the Pponk STC approves mogas, but lower compression pistons just might make the difference between being able to use 87 octane in a pinch or being stuck somewhere.

Avoid the TCM cylinders. I ended up using the Superior Nickel with the venturi valve modification. I'm pleased with the choice. It took about 50 hrs to completely break in the engine and I love it. It sure runs smooth and the added performance is GREAT. Steve and his crew were outstanding to deal with.

PM me if you have any specific questions.

Rich

Call Steve at Pponk and ask him.

I found him very helpful and incredibly knowledgeable.

albravo wrote:Call Steve at Pponk and ask him.

I found him very helpful and incredibly knowledgeable.

Actually I flew to his shop last Wednesday and asked him, he told me all were good , so wanted to hear some first hand user experiences.

I'd buy Superior cylinders but only because Continentals business practices annoy me. Because of my low hrs/yr I'd buy nickel, otherwise I'd buy steel. I think a lot of what you hear on the internet is anecdotal.

For example; I have a set of high time Continental cylinders off a IO360KB. I had the cylinders measured. All the bores were within service limits and valves/guides measured to new limits except one guide that was just outside new limits. Does that mean all Continental cylinders are good or bad[emoji848]. Personally I don't think it means anything.

A local shop laps the valves on every big bore Continental it does a 100hr on. They say it doesn't matter the brand of cylinders; they all get leaky exhaust valves.

In my experience, Continentals are notorious for leaky exhaust valves and either sloppy or sticky exhaust guides--
kInda like Lycomings being prone to rust / corrosion issues with the camshaft & followers.
Just the nature of the beast.

Judicious use of the throttle handle goes a long way in maintaining happy cylinders. We always had more valve problems with 470's when we babied them too much on climb out and cruise. Maybe they like car gas better. Never did it.

Had ECI steel, Cont nickels, n now Cont steel. I like my LyCon modified Lycoming cylinders the best haha, other than that just make sure a good shop builds everything, that is by far the most important part!!! If I lived where u do, Nickels would be up top.


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