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What engine did you buy?

What engine did you buy for your -14?


  • Total voters
    35

Av8rRob

Well Known Member
Curious to those who have already bought your engines for -14's what your choosing and why?

I'm really curious as to the difference between the -390 and -400? (Besides 10).
Another question is what does lycoming say about the hp difference between the standard IO-390 and the Thunderbolt?
 
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The Thunderbolt allows for more customization and the parts are balanced to tighter tolerances. More HP is not really expected and per my conversation with Lycoming at Sun N Fun any HP gains are probably nominal (2-3HP).
 
I elected to go with the Thunderbolt option. I felt the uplift for the options was worth the money. The engine will have the Pmag/Slick combination with the Airflow Fuel Injection.

The engine is due in early November. Getting excited ....

Jim
 
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IO-390 Thunderbolt; one p-Mag, nothing on other side - added additional P-Mag from Emag. Airflow Performance fuel injection w/ purge valve.

Modifications needed were significant alterations to the intake air snorkle (had to be shortened approx 1/2" and different connection to the throttle body), fabricate mixture cable bracket to attach to engine near the throttle body, needed longer mixture control cable (+approx 10").
 
IO-390

I ordered the stock 390. Carefully considered the T-bolt option, but couldn't make the cost and value compute. Stock engines are pretty smooth; the balancing aspect would have had the most value to me. Porting and polishing sounded really good, but this is a 2,700 RPM engine and it just seemed to me that the benefit would be much less than on a high-RPM race car engine. I really tried to find a way to quantify the benefit of doing it, but couldn't. Few are going to see the enhanced paint job. And there are a lot of other places to spend the extra 3,600 bucks. So I'll take my chances that the stock engine will be smooth enough. Ships mid-October. The T-bolt rep agree that dynamic prop balancing should be done with either engine, so I will do that. Prop is already here.

My engine is coming with one p-mag and a slick magneto. I will likely fly it that way before deciding to replace Slick with a second P-mag due to the high incremental cost of switching.
 
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I went with a slightly different route. I dropped in a 400XP Superior with duel E mags and a Air Flow Performance fuel injection. I had Barrett do the engine for me and I am so far, very happy with the performance.

The fuel burn is less than 9 GPH at cruise and it runs surprisingly cool. Even the hottest days this summer I was just a bit over 300 deg F.

I had to modify the cowling slightly to accommodate the fuel controller. Although when I talked to the chaps at AFP, they said that if you just tell them ahead of time when they set up the unit for install, they will shorten the bottom elbow and the modification necessary will be minimal. The snorkel had to be modified too, so that it would slide over the outer part of the fuel controller and make a nice fit.

Steve
 
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