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Viking engine....Any pireps?

William

Well Known Member
I'm interested in hearing any first hand experience of the Viking engine. I'm looking at a aircraft project that has a Viking 110hp engine in it. The engine is from 2012 and does not have the tubular intake, not sure if this is a deal breaker or not, I believe Viking upgraded to the tubular Intake but I don't know why? I contacted Viking engines and they stated they do not have the tubular intakes in stock for the 110hp engine, and don't plan on selling them any longer.

Thanks
Bill
 
The original intakes were a mess and strangled the engine output to well below the published figure. There were various other mods made over the following years to address other issues which cropped up over time.
 
The original intakes were a mess and strangled the engine output to well below the published figure. There were various other mods made over the following years to address other issues which cropped up over time.

Hi Ross thanks for the reply. Would any of the aftermarket intakes for the Honda Fit be better? What were the other mods?

Thanks
Bill
 
With the engine sitting on its side and other things in the way, not sure if something off the shelf would fit, also depends on cowling space. I don't follow the developments too much on these engines any more since Jan does not allow people to participate on his forum very freely.

If I recall there were some crankcase breather redesigns and something in the gearboxes. There were also numerous issues with their ECU, especially with cold starting. I believe they had at least 4 iterations of those.

We have sold a few ECUs to dissatisfied Viking owners and quite a number more to other Fit users who are doing their own conversions. The engines are quite popular in the 100hp range these days.

The latest Viking engines stand upright and have the factory direct injection in place I believe. Not sure what ECU they use to control that.

The basic Honda Fit engine is very sound but all the new systems added to the outside need to be reliable to make the whole package so.

There was not enough testing (as usual) on the early engine packages before they were released for sale, hence a number of issues quickly came to light.
 
With the engine sitting on its side and other things in the way, not sure if something off the shelf would fit, also depends on cowling space. I don't follow the developments too much on these engines any more since Jan does not allow people to participate on his forum very freely.

If I recall there were some crankcase breather redesigns and something in the gearboxes. There were also numerous issues with their ECU, especially with cold starting. I believe they had at least 4 iterations of those.

We have sold a few ECUs to dissatisfied Viking owners and quite a number more to other Fit users who are doing their own conversions. The engines are quite popular in the 100hp range these days.

The latest Viking engines stand upright and have the factory direct injection in place I believe. Not sure what ECU they use to control that.

The basic Honda Fit engine is very sound but all the new systems added to the outside need to be reliable to make the whole package so.

There was not enough testing (as usual) on the early engine packages before they were released for sale, hence a number of issues quickly came to light.



Thanks Ross for your insight.


Bill
 
Vinking

Is this another eggenfaller boondoggle where they let everyone do the test flying for them then bail out on everyone like last time? :eek:
 
Is this another eggenfaller boondoggle where they let everyone do the test flying for them then bail out on everyone like last time? :eek:

I would say no. We have a local who prefers to keep a low profile who seems to have had a reasonably good experience with the Viking. He was one of the initial adopters and got sufficient factory support to work out any issues encountered. More recent engines incorporate the learnings from his and other's experience.

Overall, the engine seems to have worked out reasonably well.
 
Some people, especially later customers, are apparently quite happy with their engine packages but quite a number of early adopters were not. Engines were well down on claimed power and heavier than they expected plus experienced lots of cold starting issues in cooler climates.

Additional testing would have uncovered many of these issues.

There are people more knowledgeable than me on all the mods these engines went through in the past several years.
 
I would say no. We have a local who prefers to keep a low profile who seems to have had a reasonably good experience with the Viking. He was one of the initial adopters and got sufficient factory support to work out any issues encountered. More recent engines incorporate the learnings from his and other's experience.

Overall, the engine seems to have worked out reasonably well.


Hi Kyle any chance you know the mods done on your friends engine?

Thanks
Bill
 
Yes!!!!

Is this another eggenfaller boondoggle where they let everyone do the test flying for them then bail out on everyone like last time? :eek:

Yep! Another round of "Got your cash, now I dash". Snake oil and swamp land are better investments.
 
Hope is not a business plan

I was really hoping the Viking would set the standard for an auto conversion; but alas, it seems to have fallen into the same trap as the Suburu. Its seems there is never enough time or money to properly engineer these auto conversions. Sorry to offend anybody, but just my opinion.
 
Here we go again...

The original intakes were a mess and strangled the engine output to well below the published figure. There were various other mods made over the following years to address other issues which cropped up over time.

Very sad. Not for Eggenfellner tho. Just hope he finally figures it out for the sake of the customers who have all the fixes.

The litany of problems that Ross has mentioned sound familiar from a decade or so prior.

Jerry
 
John,

You're right to be frustrated. But could I suggest a slight rewording? 'The owner set the same traps that he set when using Subaru engines.' As you're probably aware, the same guy that gave Subaru conversions a bad name is the one running 'Viking' (wonder why he quit using his name on his products....).

I really wish that people could separate the core engine (any engine; not just Subaru or Honda) from an incompetent or corrupt marketer.

There are lots of successful conversions, using multiple sources for core engines. Unfortunately, when a vendor takes advantage of trusting customers, or an individual without the necessary skillset fails in a conversion attempt, the basic concept of using an alternative takes another hit. I do find it interesting that when 'certified' products go through similar, and much more expensive failure processes, no one seems to blame the aircraft engine (congenital defects in crankshafts from both Lycoming and Continental come to mind as just one example).

Charlie
 
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