First Aircraft purchased, Cherokee 140D
I recently purchased a Cherokee 140D, N2292T. The airplane has been in Nebraska its whole life and was actually out annual since 1990. I am an A&P and worked for a flight school that flew pipers for a while and thought this would be a perfect project. The engine installed is a O-320-E3D, with about 1400hrs smoh. The engine is the original for 92T (3400hrs tt/tte), I came across in the logs that the E3D was converted to a E3H by removing the slick mags and installing bendix (TCM! <- lycoming doesnt like this...), which in fact cannot be done per aircraft tcds. I had done quite a bit of work to get the plane ferried up to my home airport in Omaha. So far I have rebuilt all struts, replaced tires, firewall forward hoses, spark plugs, brakes system completely rebuilt, battery, complied with a few AD's etc etc... Finally got the plane running and was able to get about 2300 static on the ground and leak checked etc... Flew the plane to my home base and did a compression test, came up with 1. 58, 2. 78, 3. 20, 4. 10. I removed the cylinders and found a little bit of rust in 3, 4. I went ahead and pulled the engine to do a major overhaul and 4 new cylinders. I want to put in the 8.5:1 b,d series pistons and heavy wall pins but I have a hollow front crank and the smaller independent front main bearings so that is out of the picture with the E3D (Ram's stc is not appealing to me whatsoever). I do have a O-320-D3G core that was simply timed out I replaced a while back on another 160hp cherokee, it will need 4 cylinders and a carb to put on my cherokee with a couple stc's. The only issue I have is that -D3G has over 5500hrs on it tt though when my E3D has only 3400. I would like to keep the E3D engine on the plane and gain performance elsewhere, however 160hp really doesnt cost me anything other than the stc... I have flown a 160hp 140 and noticed a small increase in climb out (100-200fpm) and about 2-3 mph cruise (plane had no wheel pants, speed mods and a 60" prop).
I have been looking into some new wing tips mainly for cosmetic reasons, K2U wheel pant fairings and the Lo Presti nose strut fairing. Seems like the reviews for gap seals, vortex generators, and prop mods get poor or mixed results. A lot of times I think people feel better saying that that their 5000$ in speed mods added 30mph so they can sleep better at night, HA! I am not flying in the desert by any means and I have never had a issue with runway length the places I fly, but more performance is always a plus!
I have been looking into some new wing tips mainly for cosmetic reasons, K2U wheel pant fairings and the Lo Presti nose strut fairing. Seems like the reviews for gap seals, vortex generators, and prop mods get poor or mixed results. A lot of times I think people feel better saying that that their 5000$ in speed mods added 30mph so they can sleep better at night, HA! I am not flying in the desert by any means and I have never had a issue with runway length the places I fly, but more performance is always a plus!
Comments
My Warrior came with many of the mods you mention, VG, wingtips(lighted), gap seals, pants & a few other things. I'd be sure & work of the essentials of the airframe & engine before moving on to any speed mods. With just the airframe,engine & a few avionics you'll have your hands full for a while. Maybe we will see you at OSH this year as you continue to work on the wish list?