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I purchased a hybrid Lycoming engine from Ron
Monson at Performance Engines for my Legacy. It took
a lot longer to complete than I had expected. At
times I was disappointed. Let me tell you a few things
though. Ron was always a gentleman to me. I was
asking a lot. I wanted a perfectly balanced, reliable
fire breathing dragon that would shoe horn
perfectly in my tight Legacy cowling space, including an air
conditioning compressor and all the bells and
whistles that go with an all electric installation. I had the
engine independently dynamometer tested by Custom
Airmotive in Tulsa. The results were 387 Brake HP
and an incredible 744 ft./lb. of torque (the number
we should be paying attention to) at only 2500 rpm at the
Lycoming published manifold pressure. This was with
magnetos and not the electronic ignition system that
I hope to have add another 20 or 30 HP. This was
also without the benefit of dedicated cooling air to the
intercoolers or any ram air effect whatsoever.
Now I would like to tell y'all about after the sale
service. My installation was the first of a kind. Lots of
complications to say the least. I had a problem
when I hung the engine and started to complete firewall
forward. There was a conflict between the nose gear
strut and the fuel servo. I called Ron. Ron and his
friend Michael Apodaca flew to Front Range
airport in their Cherokee 6 last week to meet me. After
poking, prodding, scratching, and
crawling around in general, Ron said: "O.K., let's get it unbolted and into
the
Cherokee". I was dumbfounded. Most folks would have
said "it's your problem", or at best, been willing to
talk it through on the phone and helped long
distance to a solution. Here is a guy that showed up on his
own
dime, flew my engine back to his facility to make
the modifications necessary to work for me and is going
to fly it back over the Rockies. Go figure. This is
a stand up guy. A hybrid engine isn't for everybody. The
engine I ended up with would have been unaffordable
for me in a new configuration. Custom Airmotive
indicated that my engine was one of the smoothest
running engines they had bolted up to the dynamometer.
Draw your own conclusions. If you want to quiz me
about my motor, I am at: 505.344.3232
Steve Williams Legacy
#206
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