I have a 55 180 and did a complete new panel with a G500, G5, GTN750, Garmin AP, EI 30P and replaced the motor with a Lycon XP470 0-520 lower ported flow balanced with the Voyager 86" 3 blade and doing Monarch extended tanks in the spring. It trues at 158-162 mph with 31" tires. If I changed anything it would be maybe the garmin G3x instead of the G500. I have the G3X in the Legacy and love it. Top of the line would be the TXI 500. Willie Stene at Stene aviation did all the work and I love the new capability. We had already put a sportsman on it. I do have a 470 and 88" prop for sale that I took off it. I just made the decision that a new engine would give me the flying I want to do now(Idaho and Utah Backcountry) and would last til I am not doing that kind of flying. I am 58. If I was younger I may have waited til I ran the motor out but at my age I wanted to get the most out of my flying. Really love the ADSB traffic and AP. Would highly recommend Stene for any work. You can fly into Polson and then catch a commercial bird out of Kalispel.

Hey Pinecone, quick question,

“If or when you need to do an engine change, I just changed an IO-520 TP an IO-550 and MT three blade. I'm going to assume that you'll be on wheels, not floats. Buy the 550 factory reman. Put the MT two blade prop on it. Stick with the factory engine mount. The performance gain that I've seen has been amazing. My cylinders had been cleaned up by Lycon. I'm having a hard time believing the difference it made, I can't rationalize that porting could make this big a difference”

Just curious, you put the three blade prop on but are recommending the two blade, just curious as to why? Also to clarify you felt the port and polish job WAS worth the effort?, thinking about rebuild on my 470 and having the cylinders cleaned up. Worked well on hot rodding cars, should on a plane…

Don’t fall for the it’s been sitting line, I’ve seen those go ether way, make sure you take a good look with a unbiased and experienced eye before you can the engine.


If you need a new engine.

This is one very old post.................

Mark Y. wrote:This is one very old post.................

Speaking of which, I see that Pilotryan started it back in 2016.
Haven't seen him post in quite a while...
I wonder if he ever got his grandpa's 185 squared away?