Aero Newbie here, but not a newbie with Honda Engines...by far.

Let's preface this, with I havent met Jan, ever...but I'm planning a Kitfox 7 with 'A' Honda Engine.

Being completely Objective...the only engine I'd ever trust my Life too...would be a stock Naturally-Aspirated Honda Engine. You'd really have a hard-time burning it up, tbh...I have no idea why he runs Catalytic Converters? I'm assuming it's because he doesn't have complete ECU control\knowledge.

In my perfect world, Jan would just sell me his FWF Mounts and PSRU to me.

Then I would develop the engine combo on my own, custom wiring and tune the Motec M170 ona Loading Engine Dyno for MBT...the Honda L15 engines are basically just scaled down version of the Honda K series...which is basically one of the best and highest hp\most efficient 4 Cylinder Engines ever made.

To put things in perspective, an Air-Cooled Airplane Engine's bsfc #s, etc make a Rotary look good. A Water-Cooled, DI Honda is on the completely opposite end of the spectrum on EVERY level. Variable Valve Lift, and you can manipulate cam phasing to bump the midrange torque. Honda's are underrated from the factory, BY FAR.

I did one of the first K20 Type R Swaps into a EK Civic back in the early 2000s.

Running on the Stock ECU was like ~205whp\150 ona DynoJet with a inconsistent torque curve.

Switching to Hondata and a decent 4-1 Header net'd ~215whp\155, picking up everywhere.

While building a 2.5L Race Motor...we put the short stack Jenvey ITBs and Motec M400 on the stock K20...235whp\160tq, stock longblock.

Point Being...without Turbos ever being involved, just a dialed in stock L15 NA, 'could' make more than pretty much anything out there without trying hard.

If you change the oil and don't overheat it, TTBO could be predicted with a compression and leakdown tester. It's literally never gonna catastrophically toss a Rod or something...

I wouldn't even build the bottom end unless I put a Turbo on, which is much easier...obviously. The L Series Engines all share the same Shortblock...so the 'build' is super-cookie cutter.

There's really only a couple ways to kill one of these engines...

1 - Run Engine without Oil
2 - Run Engine without Coolant
3 - Mechanical Over-Rev (Impossible in Airplane)
4 - Horrific EFI Calibration (Really hard to do, NA)

Turbocharged, you could easily melt one on takeoff with a bad Calibration.

But, NA? I literally can't see a scenario that you can possibly burn it up unless #1 or #2...

Heat Management is key in all scenarios involving Honda Engines...

If you can keep Coolant and Oil Temps, under 185F...that engine will run indefinitely...period.

Regardless of his past business practices, Jan is onto a hot-ticket.

Personally, the Engine side of things makes me more stoked...because I know what's possible, development-wise...and we also benefit from the R&D already done. Example being the Honda K-Series, which has been developed up to 500hp NA and 1500hp+ Turbo.

I'm personally going to give Jan a fair shake when the time comes, and hopefully my further development of the package helps us all.

I felt compelled to post, although unplanned.