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Mattituck TMX-IO-540?

Auburntsts

Well Known Member
I am starting to refresh my SA on the available engines in early prep for OSH (I might buy while I'm there this year). Mattituck has always been on my short list, but when I went to the Mattituck TMX website, all mention of the 540 has disappeared from the brochure, order form and FAQs. Did I miss something? Mahlon?
 
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No you didn't. While the TMX line is alive and well, we no longer offer the TMXIO-540 series engines.
Good Luck,
Mahlon
 
I must have gotten one of the last ones - picking up from the trucking terminal today!!

What's the reason for discontinuing the IO-540 line?


Phil
Salt Lake City
 
I must have gotten one of the last ones - picking up from the trucking terminal today!!

What's the reason for discontinuing the IO-540 line?


Phil
Salt Lake City

Our business relationship with Lycoming changed and we no longer offer the Lycoming part based TMX engines.
Good Luck,
Mahlon
 
Barrett? What's the story there Bob? Man I'm out of the loop. Van's airshow special is starting to look better and better.
 
Barrett? What's the story there Bob? Man I'm out of the loop. Van's airshow special is starting to look better and better.

They had a falling out with Lycoming a little over a year ago and they weren't allowed to sell new kits. They were still doing overhauls.

I haven't kept up on the situation, since I purchased my IO-540 through Van's. I suspect that Alan or Rhonda will add their two cents if the situation has changed.
 
so with Mattituck and Barrett out of it, is Aerosport the only reputable builder of note who has a demonstrated track record of excellent customer service?

Is Lycoming doing this to expand their thunderbolt offerings?

Phil
Salt Lake City
 
pity,

so we got lucky then, with our mattituck-lycoming-eci mix engine, which performs flawlessly so far!

lycoming never had the best image IMHO and appears not do anything to help it either...
they disregarded the experimental market for years, ignored customers/builders requesting higher precision/balancing/quality/innovation in general, demands for electronic ignition/auto fuel compatibility etc...
then come late to the game with their off the shelf X-/Thunderbolt offerings to compete at least in the same ballpark on price and are apparently now trying to push reputable competition (which incidentally based some of their offerings on purchased/sourced lycoming parts) out of the market on policy/legal/business grounds. typical arrogant elephant-in-the-house behaviour.

if someone else can do better with parts i designed/manufactured, the first things i'd ask myself was "how can that be? why are we not doing better ourselves?" and then let innovation, price, service, etc... speak for itself... and there would always be niches left for independent shops anyway.

well go figure, things like that are waiting to happen when slowly but surely the RV-scene and companies in its dust cloud approach a market share in the region of 25% of the total SEP sales market while the rest of the economy is tanking... victims of success...

in a way this reminds me of that flightplan patent episode... only in hardware this time...
time to vote with your feet and credit cards...

bernie
 
While we no longer offer the Lycoming kit engines, we do still offer both Superior and ECI kit engines for the experimental market. We do still build the IO-540-Experimental engines from cores as well, and we can build the IO-390 from cores. Our overhauled engines are built to Factory New Limits with all of the value added services that you are accustomed to from our shop.
 
Hmm, I thought BPE was gone because their website was gone. Rhonda, where do we go for info these days?

Edit: On a related note, did ECI ever get around to offering a 540? I can't tell from their site. I'm not wild about ordering from Vans because I can't really tell what equipment is on the OEM engines or whether I can customize them without buying the stock engine and then tossing a lot of stuff. My goal is AFP injection and Dual LSE Plasma III ignition. Last question: how well does the 90 degree oil filter adapter coexist with the Vans mount?
 
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Hmm, I thought BPE was gone because their website was gone. Rhonda, where do we go for info these days?

I just checked the website and it's online. However, it talks about the shows they're attending in 2008.

Edit: On a related note, did ECI ever get around to offering a 540? I can't tell from their site. I'm not wild about ordering from Vans because I can't really tell what equipment is on the OEM engines or whether I can customize them without buying the stock engine and then tossing a lot of stuff. My goal is AFP injection and Dual LSE Plasma III ignition. Last question: how well does the 90 degree oil filter adapter coexist with the Vans mount?

All you have to do is ask the right people. I got AFP on my 540 that I ordered through Van's. Gus was able to answer any questions that I had, along with their Lycoming rep. The AFP was a no charge option from Lycoming. I'm not sure that Van's will entertain options that impact the price, but it can't hurt to ask. If you get Ken Scott, just hang up. The answer will be no. Lycoming seemed to be willing to do just about anything. I think Van's didn't want the hasle from tracking and ordering multiple configurations.

The B&C 90 degree filter mount works just fine with the Van's mount.
 
If you get the B&C 90 degree filter adapter it requires their 1.4" spacer for the filter to clear the cross bar on the engine mount. If you want the B&C SD-20 alternator on the vacuum pad to co-exist with it later you'll need to get the version that moves it aft about 3/4". Bill B. at B&C knows all about it although last time I looked it wasn't shown on their website. Sorry, I don't have any info about other 90 degreee adapters.

Bob
 
Say what?

Sure you dialed the right number :rolleyes:?

I don't call Vans Tech folks very often but, over the last dozen years or more Ken has ALWAYS treated me like a million bucks. ALWAYS very knowledgeable and ALWAYS very courteous. ALWAYS takes time to make sure the customer gets the help they need. I've built more RV's and Rockets than most guys but I still can't hold a candle to Ken Scott's knowledge, I perk right up as soon as I hear his voice on the other end.

All you have to do is ask the right people. I got AFP on my 540 that I ordered through Van's. Gus was able to answer any questions that I had, along with their Lycoming rep. The AFP was a no charge option from Lycoming. I'm not sure that Van's will entertain options that impact the price, but it can't hurt to ask. If you get Ken Scott, just hang up. The answer will be no. Lycoming seemed to be willing to do just about anything. I think Van's didn't want the hasle from tracking and ordering multiple configurations.

The B&C 90 degree filter mount works just fine with the Van's mount.
 
Sure you dialed the right number :rolleyes:?

I don't call Vans Tech folks very often but, over the last dozen years or more Ken has ALWAYS treated me like a million bucks. ALWAYS very knowledgeable and ALWAYS very courteous. ALWAYS takes time to make sure the customer gets the help they need. I've built more RV's and Rockets than most guys but I still can't hold a candle to Ken Scott's knowledge, I perk right up as soon as I hear his voice on the other end.

Ken's attitude was we offer one engine with a pre-defined configuration. Take it or leave it. He wasn't interested in even talking about options. Fortunately, there were others at Van's that were willing to listen to my request. As I said previously, Lycoming was more than willing to add other options to the configuration. I was given the impression that they were willing to sell any configuration through Van's. To give Ken the benefit of doubt, I'm sure his thoughts were to limit the options that they have to support or deal with the hassle of custom engine orders.
 
I just checked the website and it's online. However, it talks about the shows they're attending in 2008.

Really? The one in Rhonda's sig, www.barrettprecisionengines.com, takes me to a Network Solutions ad page. Are you using a different URL? Thanks for the other info, by the way. I guess I'm going to have to call ECI, though, to find out about the offering; I'd really rather build my own than have one made up for me (but I'd rather a new kit than refurbishing a used engine).
 
Lycoming

While I know they aren't the "hottest" engines out there as far as performance goes, I've been very happy with the 5 or so factory lycoming's I've had experience with since they went to roller tappets. It almost tempts me to go that route for my little O-320 when it's time rolls around (2400hrs so far).

It's really unfortunate that the best engine builders on the market (no one specifically, but BPA and TMX are up there) aren't able to build with whatever parts they want these days... what are we coming to? I wish the business models and products were both good coming from a company like Lycoming...
 
We are here. It looks like our web forwarding has expired, and I need to renew it another year. We are in the middle of a redesign of the website and had hoped to have it launched prior to that date. I apologize for any inconvenience.
 
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