Re: Viking 150 on M7 STi
There's a guy in... I think Alaska making carbon fiber Kitfox parts, but I don't know if he'll make a custom cowling for a non-standard engine. A local friend bought some stuff from him. Alex, do you have that guy's contact info?Originally Posted by Hardwood
Better quality than what, and how do you come to that conclusion? Kit completion rates and engine-related accident statistics don't argue in favor of automotive conversions.
I spent considerable effort looking at several automotive conversions. I was given some advice that I think was sound, so I'll pay it forward below.
Part of the price premium for an "aircraft engine" is the redundancy in engine management, ignition and fuel supply, and the bespoke, un-spliced wiring harness. To take Rotax as the obvious example, their iS engines use a dual-channel ECU with dual power supplies. The ECU is sourced from Rockwell-Collins, a company with decades of experience in airline and military avionics. The Rotax wiring harness is a work of art. There are thousands of examples of Rotax aircraft engines in service worldwide, with millions of hours of flight experience. Rotax TBOs have steadily increased to the current 2,000 hours for all models. Also, Kitfox has firewall-forward installation kits and cowlings for them.
Unlike many modern purpose-built aircraft engines, automotive conversions are often managed by a single-channel ECU with a single power source (if not the OEM ECU, then a unit from the auto racing world). The OEM wiring harness will probably contain multiple splices to adapt it to aircraft use. Auto engines have one spark plug and one coil pack per cylinder. Many rely on a timing belt and will catastrophically self-destruct if that belt breaks. There's no redundancy because cars don't need it and because auto engines are built to very stringent performance, emissions and price targets. Yes, they're extremely reliable... in cars, where they spend most of their lives loafing along at low RPM and a fraction of their rated output.
That said, given Viking's website and YouTube marketing about sourcing engines from shipping-damaged new cars with 5-10 miles on them, if I were buying an engine from them I would demand nothing less. I wouldn't accept an engine from a car that was sold, driven and crashed (possibly by a thief who bounced it off the rev limiter for 20 minutes -- just for the lulz! -- before wrapping it around a light pole).
Anyway, there's my unsolicited input. Very possibly worth what you paid for it.
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