Advanced Component Engineering Flies Modified Lycoming 360

An engine modification company has begun flight testing of an engine based on a stock Lycoming 360 burning 87 octane auto gas.

The company, Advance Component Engineering, reports on its blog that on October 2nd the engine made its maiden flight for about 30 minutes.

"The increase in smash on our test-bed Long EZ was amazing," the unnamed test pilot posted on the company blog. "I only used about 22" of manifold press(ure) on take off up to about 1000 feet and saw around 700fpm. Once at 1000' and everything running good I pushed it up to 2600 rpm and saw about 1250fpm. This is a marked improvement over the old 160hp engine. After level off at 4000' I made several power adjustments looking for any signs I didn’t like. Besides the oil temp running around 230 (still need some more work on new baffling or larger cooler) I opened it up and had to stop at 2900rpm, true airspeed was approaching 200knots and it sounded amazing. I then set cruise at 2600 rpm with 22" and the long-ez set in at 184 knots true at 4000 feet. The fastest it would run before was 174 at 2830 rpm."

The company says that it will start logging "serious flight time" after the engine and prop are balanced, and it hope to begin accepting deposits on production cylinders by the end of the year.

(Image from Advance Component Engineering YouTube Video)

FMI: Blog Entry