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Newbie question

Eric B

Member
As they say, the only dumb questions are the ones not asked. Looking at price of a new 912iS and comparing to the Powerplant Kit purchased from Van's, there is about a $12,000 difference. I'm guess it boils down to one being an engine and the other being a kit, including prop, engine mount, etc? I listened to a YouTube video that was basically a podcast about the engine. It was stated that at TBO, it would nearly be as economical to core charge the engine and get a new one. Opinions? Looking at the -12 as a short crosscountry/trainer platform for my young family.
As always,
Thanks!
 
The 912iS is of course electronic fuel injected so fuel metering is very precise. The main components of the engine are virtually the same as the carbureted 912ULS which has a fantastic reputation for long TBO. The US military worked with Rotax to improve reliability of the 914 engine used in the Predator drone. The 914 is basically a larger displacement variant of the 912ULS.

Actually I wouldn?t worry too much about TBO. Lots of engines are at several thousand hours and I have heard that the factory has engines running on test with as much as 8000 hours with no disassembly.
 
As they say, the only dumb questions are the ones not asked. Looking at price of a new 912iS and comparing to the Powerplant Kit purchased from Van's, there is about a $12,000 difference. I'm guess it boils down to one being an engine and the other being a kit, including prop, engine mount, etc? I listened to a YouTube video that was basically a podcast about the engine. It was stated that at TBO, it would nearly be as economical to core charge the engine and get a new one. Opinions? Looking at the -12 as a short crosscountry/trainer platform for my young family.
As always,
Thanks!

Van?s gets OEM pricing on the Rotax engines that allows the to sell them at as good of a price as you could buy one anywhere else (just like factory new Lycomings).

As you guessed, the rest of the power plant kit is all of the stuff that doesn?t come in the engine crate (prop, exhausts system, oil cooler, radiator, mounting brackets, hoses, fuel system components engine mount, etc, etc, etc).
 
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