High CHTs

[Lance Murray]

For those of you that haven't read these articles take a good read of these.

http://www.avweb.com/news/pelican/182179-1.html

[BlackMammoth]

Looks like p/n D41-7166-11-00_2 is $522.85 from my mechanic.

Don't know about the labor for install yet...

[Steve]

Phil - When the new part initially came out (2003), Diamond provided the improved part at no cost. All you had to do was return the original part. If by some oversight, your airplane wasn't modified (say, it lived in Maine and never felt summer heat), I would expect Diamond to honor the same deal. Labor is another issue, but it took only an hour to do the job for me.

Steve

[Lance Murray]

I don't know about that. When I called them they had no memory of the Arizona Baffle or any change.

Phil - When the new part initially came out (2003), Diamond provided the improved part at no cost. All you had to do was return the original part. If by some oversight, your airplane wasn't modified (say, it lived in Maine and never felt summer heat), I would expect Diamond to honor the same deal. Labor is another issue, but it took only an hour to do the job for me.

Steve

[Lance Murray]

That sounds high. I think I paid significantly less than that. Like 2 or 3 hundred.

Looks like p/n D41-7166-11-00_2 is $522.85 from my mechanic.

Don't know about the labor for install yet...

[Steve]

I don't know about that. When I called them they had no memory of the Arizona Baffle or any change.

Phil - When the new part initially came out (2003), Diamond provided the improved part at no cost. All you had to do was return the original part. If by some oversight, your airplane wasn't modified (say, it lived in Maine and never felt summer heat), I would expect Diamond to honor the same deal. Labor is another issue, but it took only an hour to do the job for me.

Steve

Well, Lance, I'm looking at the emails and part return credit form right now and my statement is accurate. The two Diamond personnel involved were Bill Scott and Kent Billingham and this occurred in September of 2003. It was handled as a warranty repair, even though the aircraft was out of warranty. Perhaps they no longer worked for Diamond when you enquired.

At any rate, this was a major issue for the early Diamonds (pre-mid-2003), and a topic for discussion on the precursor to the other forum. As I mentioned earlier, there is an engineering change: D41-7166-11-00/2a which folks can reference. I don't know if Customer Service will honor the 2003 arrangement, but it wouldn't hurt to ask if, for some reason, the mod was not performed. The worst they can say is - No.

Steve

[Rich]

I don't know about that. When I called them they had no memory of the Arizona Baffle or any change.

Phil - When the new part initially came out (2003), Diamond provided the improved part at no cost. All you had to do was return the original part. If by some oversight, your airplane wasn't modified (say, it lived in Maine and never felt summer heat), I would expect Diamond to honor the same deal. Labor is another issue, but it took only an hour to do the job for me.

Steve

This is absolutely true. Seems as if "institutional memory" at Diamond has failed. But it was a long time ago. When we ferried our plane back from the factory in May 2002, we learned that we had to run what we considered high fuel flow settings at cruise to keep #1 cylinder head temperature under control and a pretty wide range between the hottest and coolest CHTs. We informed the factory and and nagged them from time to time (I used to converse rather regularly with Peter Maurer). In 2003, they released (at no parts charge) the "Arizona baffle" and it was installed in our plane in April of that year. According to my aircraft logbook, the mod kit was P/N 400950. It had two effects. It not only greatly improved the CHT situation in the #1 cylinder, it brought all 4 cylinder temperatures down and resulted in much less variation among them. It remains so to this day.

Contrary to the above post, this is a right-side baffle modification, not left. I remembered it as being such and the logbook entries confirm it.

BTW, our plane has never been to Arizona. In fact it's never been further South than perhaps the 39th parallel. All DA40's that have the old baffle system need this mod, which became the standard somewhere along the way. It may be that the kit to do the modification is no longer be an easily assembled item. I believe it was more than just the inlet piece.

[Lance Murray]

When I installed the baffle, it was a simple remove and replace the existing baffle, cut the cowl opening to fit with a sanding drum on a Dremel tool. Put a new rubber seal on the baffle. Put the cowl back on and have my mechanic that was supervising make a minor alteration entry into the logbook. I would say that this is realistically a one hour upgrade. Your mechanic may charge two including the research and paperwork.

I wouldn't say that it made a huge difference but there was a difference.

[Charles]

Wow, this place is a fantastic source of information. Thanks to all who posted in the thread, I'll follow up on the baffle thing and pirep.

Charles

[Charles]

At any rate, this was a major issue for the early Diamonds (pre-mid-2003), and a topic for discussion on the precursor to the other forum. As I mentioned earlier, there is an engineering change: D41-7166-11-00/2a which folks can reference. I don't know if Customer Service will honor the 2003 arrangement, but it wouldn't hurt to ask if, for some reason, the mod was not performed. The worst they can say is - No.

Steve

"No" is what they said, claiming that it's not a defect because the old baffle is a certified configuration, and that my plane is way past warranty anyway (I have a 2003). It wouldn't be so frustrating if others hadn't gotten the part for free and if it didn't cost the $523 I was quoted for it...

Got a nice drawing out of those discussions though: