Engine - M14
The M14 makes the Lycontinentals look terrible pricewise, shows what a lack of money hungry lawyers can do. different engineering to what we are used to, but pretty smart when you learn about it. Re. swing out engine mounts, why do we all have longitudinal bolts through the firewall? Yaks definitely,and Sukhois I assume, use tongue type bolted connection at the firewall. Other points in M14 favour - 1. Supercharged giving even mixture distribution without fuel injection. 2. Altitude compensating carbie, meaning no manual leaning required. 3. Designed to run on poor quality fuel, no need for 100 octane.
Lets see if Van would put one on an RV-10....?
If you like nice engineering, look at the LOM inverted in-line engines from the Czech Rep. Cast magnesium crankcases, hemi heads, overhead valves, some supercharged, direct drive (but 'wrong' way), fuel injection standard, alt. comp. carbie again, excellent P/Wt ratio and again designed to develop rated power on 78 Octane fuel. Pity their marketing is non-existent, with prices comparable to Lyc. in the common HP range.
Grant
RV-4
VH-PIO