It has been done...
Hi Jim,
I had a Catto 3-blade paired with an IO-360 A1A on the RV7 I bought flying last year. Unfortunately, I only flew it for about 25 hours, half of which was flying the plane home from Michigan to Oregon, so I never got a chance to do good testing. Static RPM was low (~2150 if I remember correctly) and take-off performance a bit anemic for an RV, but the consensus from several RV builders was that it had more to do with airflow to the engine intake than the prop. The builder had placed the air filter flush with the sloped cowl versus in the typical horizontal induction location, and the theory is that there wasn't enough pressure. I also discovered recently that the CFM rating for the K&N air filter used was about 1/2 of what is needed for the IO-360. Craig was open to working on adjusting the pitch to help if necessary once I sorted out the air intake.
Sadly, before I could work out the problem, we found metal shavings in the oil at 1st oil change and the plane has been grounded since. Turns out the engine had multiple problems including a cracked crank, so I decided to replace it with a new 180 hp IO-360. Craig re-pitched the prop and added his new nickel leading edges. Hope to be back in the air soon.
Hope your experience with the engine you got a deal on is much better than mine!