Narrative:

During the initial taxi out to the end of the runway; plane was running at near idle. Sounded like back fires; which was not normal. I performed a run up while holding short; and the back fire sound went away. I pulled throttle to near idle; and back fire noise came back. I told the jump master that this isn't normal; and taxied back to the ramp. Owner of the aircraft came out; and called an a&P mechanic about the situation. Mechanic said everything was in the clear. Being a low time pilot; I thought that maybe it was normal for older planes to do this. I taxied back to the end of the runway; still hearing the back fires. I did another run-up; and back fires ceased (at least the sound did). Throttle went to idle again and back fires came on. I taxied on the runway for takeoff; and put throttle to full. Full power developed and at around 20 knots indicated; the first cylinder blew and tore through the cowling. It took some of the crank case with it as well. The engine is a horizontally opposed carbureted 6 cylinder. Not sure about the brand; but I will find that out. Recoil shook the plane to the right. I performed a shut down on the runway and pushed the plane off the runway with the help of the skydivers. Engine had about 300 hours on it. After the whole situation; I am thinking the back fires I was hearing was a crack developing in the crank case; and on the power stroke the compressed air was escaping through the crack. As PIC; I thought I did a great job handling the situation; and absolutely nobody was hurt. Only damage was to the engine and cowling of the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C182 pilot experienced what sounded like back fires during taxi at idle RPM and returned to the ramp for maintenance to check the aircraft. Maintenance determined the sound was normal but when takeoff was attempted a cylinder separated from the crankcase and tore through the cowl.

Narrative: During the initial taxi out to the end of the runway; plane was running at near idle. Sounded like back fires; which was not normal. I performed a run up while holding short; and the back fire sound went away. I pulled throttle to near idle; and back fire noise came back. I told the jump master that this isn't normal; and taxied back to the ramp. Owner of the aircraft came out; and called an A&P mechanic about the situation. Mechanic said everything was in the clear. Being a low time pilot; I thought that maybe it was normal for older planes to do this. I taxied back to the end of the runway; still hearing the back fires. I did another run-up; and back fires ceased (At least the sound did). Throttle went to idle again and back fires came on. I taxied on the runway for takeoff; and put throttle to full. Full power developed and at around 20 knots indicated; the first cylinder blew and tore through the cowling. It took some of the crank case with it as well. The engine is a horizontally opposed carbureted 6 cylinder. Not sure about the brand; but I will find that out. Recoil shook the plane to the right. I performed a shut down on the runway and pushed the plane off the runway with the help of the skydivers. Engine had about 300 hours on it. After the whole situation; I am thinking the back fires I was hearing was a crack developing in the crank case; and on the power stroke the compressed air was escaping through the crack. As PIC; I thought I did a great job handling the situation; and absolutely nobody was hurt. Only damage was to the engine and cowling of the aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.