C

Clouddancer

Well Known Member
Does anybody fly a Lycoming built by Ly-Con in his RV? I would be interested in a feedback because I'm looking into an experimental O-360 A1A. I'm not too much interested in much more horsepower, but in a smooth running engine, altough I say never "no" to a few more hp if it's not in trade against TBO.
Ly-Con is not known that much in Europe. But I never read anything negative about the company.
 
Lycon, Mattituck and Aerosport Power are the big three. Any of them will build you a really smooth reliable engine. Get it flow ported also. In addition to increasing horsepower it also contributes to smoothness and fuel efficiency. Don
 
Ly-Con built an 0-360 that was in an RV-9A I had a few years ago. It dynoed at 220 HP 2,750 RPM, and the plane performed accordingly. When I took the plane in to have it dynamically balanced it was .02 IPS. No adjustment needed. Very smooth running engine.
 
It's an O-360-A1A from Lycon, 350 hours to date in an RV-7. Best engine I've ever operated: smooth, powerful, even CHTs and EGTs. What you need to specify is Lycoming steel cylinders, flow matched and polished, and the older "performance" cam. I also specify a Superior sump because it looks like it would flow better, roller cams if you want them. The bottom can be Lyc or ECi.

Lycon will also advance the cam 3 degrees to accompany 10:1 compression if you want it. Many of the builders around here prefer Lycon and order all these features, but the price does start to build. Lycon's strength is extracting horsepower from Lyc cylinders.

ASP will custom build an engine any way you want, and will guide you as to what provides the most bang for the buck.

I always call Mattituck, but they seem focused on assembling the parts and applying some pricey fluff. There's considerable black art in building a good engine, and their reputation is outstanding. But I like tricking out an engine and Lycon and ASP will do just that.

But, doing business with Lycon is very, very, VERY, difficult. Kenny Tunnell is the focus of absolutely everything. Customer communication is poor, and time quotes are smoke. You'll get a good engine, but it will be a frustrating process. That's the reason that two days ago I ordered a custom 375 from ASP (Carb, 9:1, cam, sump, Lyc cylinders w/3-angle grind, rollers). OUTSTANDING customer oriented shop.

John Siebold
 
I'm flying an RV10 with an I0540 putting out ~320 hp; so far, so good but we only have ~7 hours on the airframe. Very smooth engine under power, easy to start (even hot and we have a plenum) but shakes more than any engine at shutdown... she just wants to continue working.
 
Don't forget about Barret (BPA). You may not be familiar with them, but probably are familiar with the RedBull race planes! I always tell everyone that Aerosport, Barret, Lycon, Lycoming & Mattituck are all companies that you can trust and you'd be happy with all of the above. Barret and Lycon are much more known in the specialty world of engines, but all things being equal you'll get more bang for your buck when it comes down to balancing, etc.. with the speciality guys. There are of course a lot of other shops that do customer work and do a great job. Just a bit of caution though, when you see "my engine dyno'd at xxxxhp", those aren't always 100 entirely accurate results and like all statistics they very rarely are the entire truth. Most of the time people are repeating what they were told/sold, not necessarily first hand info from watching the dyno run themselves. Not taking anything away from any of the aformentioned shops, just a word to the wise.

One thing I do know is that Bart at Aerosport, Rhonda at Barret, and the guys at Mattituck are both without equals when it comes to customer support...even after the sale.

My 2 cents as usual!

Cheers,
 
Ditto on Steins comment, My Barretts XIO-540 performs very well, nothing special on the engine, dyno'd out at 263 HP. You can't beat Rhonda & Allen for service and support. Worse thing about missing OSH :( this year is not being able to stop and say hello to them but alas work calls and that's a GOOD thing!!
 
Both Barrett, and Mattituck are active users of VAF, and are very generous with help for forum members.
 
Lycon

This is timely, as just today I got my engine back from Lycon. I cannot comment on how it runs, as it is still a box of parts. I chose to reassemble it myself after they did all of the other work. They have an excellent reputation for worthwhile improvements, including the flow porting and balancing. For their parallel valve Lycoming cylinders they port them by CNC, and no longer even bother to flow test them, because they always come out exactly the same. They balanced my entire rotating assembly, including propeller extension, to much tighter than factory specifications.

I will say that you should take any time estimate they give you and double it, then expect it to be a little later than that.

Also, consider Performance Engines. I am sourcing my cam form them, as it should perform about the same as the Lycon upgraded cam, and I could get it for about $300 less.
 
I'll second that on Performance. They not only do highly accurate work, recommended to me by one who is the world's most demanding and picky, their shop is much more professional than some I've seen. One of those in particular, which is very well known, you wouldn't want to stick your head inside the door! I'm glad you recommended them!
 
Thank you everybody for your feedback!

Yes I'm aware that there are other companies around that do same or similar jobs. I have friends that have engines from Mattituck or Barrett installed. As a new-by I just didn't know much about Ly-Con before...

I just recently met a Swiss guy that maintains the Red Bull Air Race airplane of Hannes Arch. They have Ly-Con engines in their Edhe 540. He's trying to set up a sort of European Ly-Con representation.

http://www.airpower.ch/
 
Well - have a look at how many times Mahlon Russell from Mattituck pops up onto the forums with useful tidbits.

Great people, great product, I will be going back again.

:D
 
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