October 10, 2025

At long last we have a “Good News” update for you on our new exhaust systems for the PA 18 and PA 20/22 aircraft.

We have successfully completed two PA18 and three PA20/22 exhaust system installations at our facility in Daytona Beach.  We acknowledge that the process we followed to verify the fit and function of these new systems was long (some would say excruciatingly so) for all concerned, including Power Flow.  

As detailed below, however, we think the issues and potential problem areas that we discovered and subsequently resolved during this process make the resulting end-product a much better value for our Customers and a more easily installed system for their mechanics. 

We were really fortunate to have both a PA18 and PA20 in our hangars at the same time and each of them had original, Alaska produced, Leading Edge exhausts installed.   The PA18 happened to be owned by the President of the Sea Plane Pilot’s Association, Steve McCaughey.   As we removed his exhaust system to test fit our new production exhaust, we discovered a number of previous fit issues that caused rubbing on his headers in a couple of areas, plus some cracks developing on his muffler.  

The PA20 that was in our hangar was brought here by the new owner who specifically wanted us to address fit issues on the muffler assembly where it was coming into contact with his engine mount.  

Fortunately our new production version of the exhaust system for the PA20 is tweaked ever so slightly to provide additional clearance to the engine mount, as well as improved SCAT hose connection angles.   We shot some video of the PA20 installation where we talk about some of the improvements we have implemented.  You can view it here: https://youtu.be/35FaGvF_sU0?si=_XQXIWgGp2CdqElY 

We have also shipped two PA20/22 exhausts and three PA18 exhausts to our “BETA” installation testers.  Our BETA installers all understand that we might have an unexpected issue and we’ll work to resolve it as rapidly as possible if they do encounter a problem.   As of this writing, we have one minor issue on a PA18 with the O-360 that we were able to resolve with a fixture modification.  The PA18 owner was very happy with the end results - here is his PIREP and pictures: 

“Just got to fly it for 30 minutes this morning. The Cylinder Head temperature looks like it's down about 25 to 30 degrees, Exhaust temperature down about 50 and runs really good, lotta power. It only used to turn about 2500 RPM, now it's turning 2700 and right where I want it.” Tommy B. South Florida PA18-360 

We shipped another three PA18 “Beta” installations in September and if all goes well with them, we expect to initiate shipments to our deposit holders starting in November at an initial rate of 3-4 units per month with that rate to increase as rapidly as possible.This month (October) we’ll be reaching out to each of our deposit holders to confirm the exhaust order configuration, engine size, ship to address and an expected ship date for planning purposes.  

As a reminder, once we have a firm expected ship date, we’ll need an additional $750 deposit to reserve that date for you.  The balance will be due 14 days prior to shipment.  The good news is that despite several price increases in the meantime, the price in effect at the time you placed your deposit will be the price you pay. We will be quoting shipping charges as we get closer to your ship date.

What about the PA12?

We will be working on the PA12 aircraft next in early 2026.  This exhaust system model has a different set of fixtures for the headers / risers and we have not seen a PA12 at our facility to perform the very important fit testing.  If you have a PA12 and would be interested in coming to Daytona Beach, FL or would be interested in working with us on a fit test, please let us know.