No explanation, but I am sure it is. I guess there’s so many factory that influence the final “user experience” … probably hard to tell. But it’s really true, a good IO-550 runs smooth as silk.
Another advantage i see is that the Contis start better cold and hot. I also like that it’s possible to fly LOP with most 550s, not sure about the 540.
On average the Lycoming might last a bit longer though … especially the cylinders.
Can anybody offer an explanation for why a Conti IO550 should be smoother than a Lyco IO540?
I am not disputing it, but wonder why?
Balancing an engine is not rocket science, and both being flat-six should be first order balanced.
What does that tell you about the suitability of road engines for a constant high power application like aviation?
Nothing really only that is not easy to build a modern engine with the same or better in flight shut down rate as Lycoming/Continental. Additional complexity creates additional failure modes. Thielert/Austro have gotten to the point where they are better than Lyco/Conti but there was quite a learning curve.
What does the aggregate number of hours flown incident free by said road engines tell you about the suitability of road engines for a constant high power application like aviation?
As a matter of fact although the "constant high power " mantra is constantly thrown around, you’ll notice the failures Achim experienced have nothing to do with operating at “constant high power” but rather with design and manufacture shortcomings which abound on both Lyco and Conti.
I thought so, too but I’m actually at a point where I wished that my modern electronic common rail turbo diesels from Volvo that I operate in commercial boats were Lycoming engines. The trouble I’ve had during the last 12 months are beyond description. These engines fail in every possible way and there are about 1000 more ways to fail than with the dinosaur engines
What does that tell you about the suitability of road engines for a constant high power application like aviation?
… similar to: “Which dinosaur is better: Brontosaurus or Tyrannosaurus?” … Doesn’t matter: all of them are dead!
A mix of both but the majority of the costly stuff due to very poor engineering on Volvo’s part. The worst of all was a snapped alternator belt which happened to jump into the tooth belt which in turn jumped 2 teeth and then the pistons smashed the cylinder headd. That is such incredible bad luck, won’t be able to reproduce this in 1000 years. Still, using tooth belts and not protecting it completely is poor quality. It’s cheaper and more efficient than a gear driven cam inside the crankcase but a lot less robust. The Mercedes like chains are better but still no comparison to an internal gear like Lyco/Conti and Yanmar in boating.
Or an engine that shuts down because of an intermittent bad ground to the ECU is just a failure mode I don’t need. Neither in an aircraft nor a commercial boat. Of course it happened with 30kt of wind…
Resilience to bad fuel is another topic, both applying to aircraft and boats. If I drive my boat/fly my plane in Northern Europe I’m fine but both are designed to travel the world and outside North Europe / North America, the fuel quality is universally bad.
Any of it linked to operator error or is it all hardware related?
I’d rather have a modern power plant in my plane, but I have to keep up with the 30ties high tech.
I thought so, too but I’m actually at a point where I wished that my modern electronic common rail turbo diesels from Volvo that I operate in commercial boats were Lycoming engines. The trouble I’ve had during the last 12 months are beyond description. These engines fail in every possible way and there are about 1000 more ways to fail than with the dinosaur engines. Maintaining Lyco/Conti requires horse-smith qualification, maintaining a modern diesel requires a sterile environment and following the procedures word by word.
Is this a competition plague vs cholera?
Yes 
. It’s all in the title.
I’d rather have a modern power plant in my plane, but I have to keep up with the 30ties high tech.
My thinking too. Love the smell of Jet-A… Well actually no. But I like those diesels.
