Desert Rat
Well Known Member
Hey guys, I thought I'd have more time to make this decision, but with Lycoming's November price increase looming, I'm leaning forward pulling the trigger on a Thunderbolt engine this month, vs. a "normal" YIO engine a year from now. Knowing that there can be up to a year lead on a Thunderbolt, it seems to make sense from both a $$ and a calendar perspective.
The question now is just which one;
The combo I'm thinking of is a IO390, Hartzell prop, and James cowl. This gets off the reservation pretty quickly as far as Vans parts and engineering coverage, so for the of you who've gone the 390 route, would you do it again?
Looking at the announcement from Vans, plus the research, it seems like at a bare minimum, this combo will require a prop spacer, a bigger oil cooler, maybe different engine control linkages, probably different lube and fuel lines, firewall penetrations...
I get that theres no replacement for displacement, but was it worth the hassle of not having an off the shelf firewall fwd kit and having to rework the cowl &/or snorkel, plus the stuff I probably don't know about? If anybody has this combo with a james cowl, did this eliminate cowl/snorkel fitment problems or just trade them for a different challenge? How much time and $$$ did this add to your build?
The question now is just which one;
The combo I'm thinking of is a IO390, Hartzell prop, and James cowl. This gets off the reservation pretty quickly as far as Vans parts and engineering coverage, so for the of you who've gone the 390 route, would you do it again?
Looking at the announcement from Vans, plus the research, it seems like at a bare minimum, this combo will require a prop spacer, a bigger oil cooler, maybe different engine control linkages, probably different lube and fuel lines, firewall penetrations...
I get that theres no replacement for displacement, but was it worth the hassle of not having an off the shelf firewall fwd kit and having to rework the cowl &/or snorkel, plus the stuff I probably don't know about? If anybody has this combo with a james cowl, did this eliminate cowl/snorkel fitment problems or just trade them for a different challenge? How much time and $$$ did this add to your build?