Question for Paul McBride, the General Aviation News engines expert: Hi Paul, I’ve read several of your columns on how to tell the difference between a wide deck and a narrow deck engine.
I was wondering if can you fuel inject a narrow deck by converting an O-320-B3B to an IO-320-B3B?
Bob Johnson
Paul’s Answer: Basically, the answer is yes.
Fuel injection systems have been used on both narrow and wide deck configurations.
However, converting an O-320-B3B to fuel injection may be a bigger mountain to climb than you’re up for.
There has never been, to my knowledge, an O-320-B3B converted to a fuel injected configuration. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done, but it would require a tremendous amount of research.
The actual fuel injection system wouldn’t be a problem, but deciding which oil sump and induction system would be the difficult part.
Several of the O-320 series engines use different oil sump configurations depending which carburetor is used for a particular airframe application and I honestly have no idea which sump would be the correct one for making the conversion you’re asking about.
Needless to say, it would not fall under a certified engine category.
Bob, I’m sorry if I ruined your good idea, but I truly believe it would be an overwhelming challenge to make this conversion to a fuel injected engine.
