Over the last couple of days, I’ve been pondering engine choices. I really like Jan Eggenfellner’s Subaru H6 package. I trust his judgement, and he has several happy customers who have installed it on their airplanes.. I’ve seen one fly. It makes neat sounds. The thing I don’t like about it is the price. I know all about how important it is to stay in business to continue to support the product and develop new things, and I realize he’s probably not making money hand over fist on this. Problem is, by the time you’ve put the Egg H6 on your firewall, plumbed everything, and bought what you need to make it work and work safely, you’re into about 28 kilodollars and that’s WITHOUT a prop.
I’m the worst.. I’ll oversimplify a complex problem, then not understand why it falls apart, which is surprising, given my line of work. However, I do know a complex problem when I see it and I’m well versed in learning from the mistakes of others. But here’s how I see it: Eggenfellner doesn’t open his engines. Gets ’em right out of the crate, new or barely used (5k price difference in the package), strips off the garbage that you need in a car, puts on a bell housing and PSRU, modifies YOUR engine mount, assembles it, along with the necessary cooling plumbed and mounted, then crates it up and sends it to you. Well, hell.
A quick search of car-part.com turns up an EZ30 for about $3500 and below. I can’t find a price on a new crated one, but a JDM EZ30R with the aggro cam, plastic intake, and AVCS goes for $1700. No ECU, but you can get that fairly easily too. Maybe, just maybe, by doing this myself, I can save enough for that electric constant speed prop.
Because the days of finding a mid-time lycoming for 8 grand that’ll be worth a damn are pretty much over.
More later. Sushi now.
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