Prior to hanging the engine a few odds and ends needed to be completed which are just easier to do beforehand.

One of those things was adding an angle to the top of the oil cooler mount for the oversized oil cooler. The oil cooler itself needed to have some of its flanges cut to fit around the engine mounts.. Then the angle was cut to length and riveted to the the oil cooler mount. I bolted the bottom bolts into place and drilled holes into the angle for the top 3 bolts.

The end result after ordering long bolts and making some compression tubes to the right length with washers.

I also needed to safety wire the coil pack mounts to the mag cover plates.

Then came time to install the engine. I used the bucket forks and my tractor to lift the pallet up high enough to get the hoists legs under it.

Then with the hoist connected, I unbolted the engine ears and flywheel from the pallet and lifted the engine up.

The first 2 bolts (top) are the easy ones..

Then it’s a matter of getting the 3rd bolt in, which was a little trickier, but not bad.. The 4th bolt took a bit to get lined up… after a bunch of playing I was able to get the bolt started through the hole and a socket to keep threading it in. Then the engine hoist was removed..

A couple of pics of me with the engine..

I was supposed to go to Aero Sport Power in Kamloops, British Columbia to help build my engine the week of April 19th, but that didn’t happen with the state of the world and the Canadian boarder still being closed. So instead they built my engine for me and have invited me to come at a later time for the experience when things are better. I plan to take them up on that offer. I won’t be building my engine, but it’ll still be the same engine.

After making the final payment, I received tracking info and had been watching it make its way across Canada and into NY. Seeing this was a freight company and a residential lift gate delivery.. I expected to get a call when the crate arrived at the regional distro center to schedule a delivery..

I’m currently working 50% from home and 50% from the office and it was my turn to be in the office.. I refreshed tracking around 10am and saw the crate was out for delivery… YIKES!! I’m at least 30 minutes away.. I quickly called the company to confirm and they said he should be there sometime around noon.. Fortunately, I had enough time to get home and get the tractor ready with the bucket forks in case I needed them to move the crate up to the garage.

The driver called when he was a few miles out and asked if I was home because he had noticed it wasn’t a scheduled item… I told him I was and what happened and he confirmed that they should have called me..

Happy I caught it in time to be there for the delivery. Seeing the crate was already on a pallet jack, the driver was nice enough to wheel it up my 600+ft driveway and into the garage for me.

Below is a picture of the rear of the engine. Here you can see the secondary alternator in the upper right. The Airwolf remote oil filter adapter in a deep gold color below and to the left of the alternator. I will place the oil filter on the firewall in a more convenient place for draining the oil with hoses running back and forth to here. Note that the round gold covers with 3 holes in the middle cover the standard spot for magnetos to go. I’m using the SDS EFII system and these will house the ignition coils packs instead. Below the left-most magneto cover, there’s a sort of triangular shaped cover for where the engine based fuel pump goes. Again not needed with the SDS EFII system, so it is capped off. There are also various oil connections to and from the oil cooler, breather tube, sensors, and to connect the Barrett Cold air sump.

A top view of the engine. Here you can see the SDS fuel rail mounted on top of the case split and the plumbing to each cylinder injector. I may later decide to move to a fuel block on the rear part of the engine baffling and route the runs to each cylinder from there. You can also see the white electrical wires that are the 2 (redundant) hall effect sensors that sense the location of the crank. This is done with small magnets that have been installed in the flywheel at specific positions so the ECU can know the relative position of where the engine is in its combustion cycle. The unfortunate thing is going with AC, I need to use a different flywheel that has 2 pully grooves, so I’ll have to get a new magnet set, drill holes in the flywheel and install per the SDS instructions.

And a couple of side pics

It is truly a thing of beauty!

Here are the full specs:

Aero Sport Power New Engine Kit IO-540-EXP Includes:

Factory New Lycoming Cylinders (Ported and Polished), SDS High Energy Ignition and Electronic Fuel
Injection with Dual ECU, Harness, Spark Plugs, Sky-Tec Light Weight Starter, Roller Tappet Camshaft and
Lifters, Oil Sump, B&C 60 Amp Primary and 30 Amp Stand by Externally Regulated Alternators, Full Tanis
Preheat System, Connecting Rods, Balanced Counterweighted Crankshaft, Crankcase, Ring Gear, Inner
Cylinder Baffles, Dipstick and Tube, Airwolf Remote Spin on Oil Filter Adapter (without oil hoses), Vacuum
Pump Adapter Housing. The engine was painted a 2 tone graphite and black. Additional upgrades:

• 9:1 Cylinder compression ratio
• Barrett Cold Air Induction sump.

Unfortunately Aero Sport doesn’t Dyno their engines, so I’m not sure how much horsepower this baby makes, but with the 9:1 compression ratio, the Cold Air Induction, and the port/polished cylinders I expect somewhere in the 280-300HP range over the 260HP stock IO-540-D4A5 engine.

Now to finish up the gear pants and leg fairings so I can get this mounted.