-
The advice about 55 horsepower is absolutely true. My PA-15 which is powered by the Lycoming just can't keep up with the essentially identical PA-17 powered by an A-65.
Couple of concerns:
- The front oil seal is almost impossible to find.
- It uses three gaskets between the steel cylinder and the aluminum head to deal with unequal expansion rates of the metals and the copper/asbestos inner gasket has been very hard to find.
- The original exhaust sleeves to which exhaust headers attach are prone to rust-out and are hard to replace.
- I think I paid over $200 per exhaust valve when they needed to be replaced.
- You'll need to modify a wrench so that if will fit the nuts under the cylinders. It is completely necessary to “snug” those head nuts regularly.
The good news:
- The carb hangs from the oil pan and stays toasty for winter flying.
- It is cheap to feed.
- It is wonderfully smooth and mine has been completely reliable since 1987.
- If I recall it has more main bearings than the Continental too.
- And, there is almost always one sitting in the back of someones hangar. I've seen them sell on eBay for almost nothing.
- When you are done with it, a museum will be happy to take it off your hands.
Best of luck.
-
Good to see there are some people out there who still know things about these engines. I'm in the process of picking up an O-145 powered aircraft. Very excited to get a more original aircraft, as it seems that many were converted off of O-145 power.
-
The man who owns the license to the o-145 lives in Montrose Pa. He just built me a new engine for my Luscombe 8B. He has a number of parts, and acts as a clearing house for the engine. He is the go to guy for this engine. Google J P Hackenburg aviation in Montrose Pa.. Be aware this engine uses mineral oil not modern oils, The previous owner of my plane did not know this and damaged the engine!
Joe