Before I purchased my Legacy kit, I talked to several
A&P mechanics about engines. I was trying to decide whether or not to
get a Lycoming or a Continental. One of the things I kept hearing was
that I was going to see a top end overhaul right around 600 hours in a
Continental. Well, I wanted an engine that was going to last and so I
flirted with going with a Lycoming. However, the Lycoming had less power,
and frankly, I’m addicted to money and power, so that wasn’t going
to do.
Knowing that this was probably a typical Ford vs Chevy
argument (Okay! I must confess, I won’t own a Ford), I started
asking why the IO-550 had this reputation. Several folks told me that the
Continental engine usually came out of the factory with important parts already
close to service limits (in respect to tolerances), and that their Platinum
engine overcame many of these problems. Well sheesh, now I was looking at
about 60k instead of 50k for an engine. The factory re-manufactured
engine was somewhere in the neighborhood of $42k.
What does a guy do. Well, what if someone could do a
semi-overhaul and bring a Factory re-manufactured engine into spec? I
wonder how much that would cost….
Knowing that I wanted Gami injectors, I went to their site
and they had some listings of folks that did engine work that they
recommended. Barrett was on that list. I started calling around and
eventually called Barrett engines. He spent the most time with me
answering questions and discussing what I wanted to do. His price was
also perfect (no, it wasn’t free). The price of the factory
re-manufactured engine plus the price of his touch ups made the cost of the
engine equal to the cost of a stock new TCM IO-550.
Hey, I’ll give it I shot, an engine that runs better
and is closer to tolerances than a brand new IO-550 for the same cost, new
injectors, etc. I’ll try most anything once. He asked if I wanted
10:1 compression, I said ‘no’. I just wanted stock
compression.
So now the engine is done. I asked them to run it for
4 hours on the test stand (the 1st hour is free) so that added to
the cost, but it’s worth it as I’m going to abuse it during testing
of my new Legacy and wanted to give the rings a fighting chance to seat well. During
the run, they measured the power produced, and it came in at 323hp.
I know horse power measurements can be dubious, you have to take
into account a lot of factors, but it is encouraging to see that they took an engine
with 310 HP rating and took it to 323 HP by cleaning it up and balancing it. And
yes, Gami injectors were also installed….
If you went to Oshkosh
this year, this was the motor on display, I wasn’t there, but I’m
told it was the red one, alone, without an airplane for a home, near or in the
Lancair tent? I don’t remember where it was displayed.
Hopefully, over the next year or so, I can talk with more
authority about what was really under that red paint job. But for now, it
is most definitely off to a great start.
I would like to publicly thank all those at Barrett engines
for the great work they did, and for enduring my presence on the phone over,
and over and over and over again. I would highly recommend to new buyers
that they use the Reno Edition Engines offered by Lancair and Barrett. It’s
a great combination.
Disclaimer:
I was not offered any discount, gift or bribe for this
posting.
Kevin
L2K-291