March 25, 2026 - New Engine for the RV-7

August 8, 2025 was a big day.  I picked up my new Lycoming O360 engine from the Lycoming factory in Williamsport, PA.  Nhu-An and I drove up to Williamsport, PA in her truck, about a three-hour drive.  It was like deja-vu all over again as we had done the exact same thing back in late December picking up her Lycoming O540 engine for the RV-10.

Almost two years ago, on October 2, 2023, I had ordered the Lycoming engine through Vans Aircraft Company.  I wanted a new engine for my planned flight to Alaska next summer.  I also wanted a new engine rather than having my old one overhauled which at the time would take at least six months.  I figured that I would continue to fly with the old engine, and then when the new one arrived, I would slap it on and continue flying with no interupttion.  I thought I would get the new engine in a few months.

My timing was impeccable.  A few weeks after I put down my deposit for a new engine -- a considerable amount of money -- Vans Aircraft Company declared bankrupcy.  It was a bolt out of the blue.  I nor anyone else I knew had any inkling of trouble with Vans.  I had attended Vans dinner banquet at AirVenture in late July.  I wrote at the time "It was a little subdued from last year, perhaps because of the heat, or maybe because Van couldn't attend because of illness, or possibly because the RV-15 wasn't the big news it was last year.  In any event, the food was excellent and it was a fun evening."  There was certainly no talk of financial trouble.

Fortunately, Vans weathered the storm, and stayed in business.  I did have to pay more for the engine than originally agreed to but it wasn't excessive.

I never dreamed it would take almost two years for the engine to arrive.

I'm not sure when the engine backlog started.  It wasn't Vans Aircraft Company's fault.  It wasn't even really Lycoming's fault.  I gather supply chain issues were a large factor.  Also, the engine demand was larger than the new engine supply.  Instead of increasing production capacity, like Vans did and which got them into financial trouble, Lycoming production capacity remained unchanged and customers just had to wait for their engines.

Nevertheless, I did finally get the call that my new engine was ready for pickup.
   
The new engine safely nestled at the back of my hangar.
 
I had made a nice ramp of two by fours to easily slide the engine out of the truck.  Of course, I got the height wrong and the ramp was useless.  Fortunately, a bunch of friends were at the airport and we somehow manhandled the engine box out of the truck to the ground.
   
Some of my helpers at the Skypark:  Chip, Mark, Nhu-An and Don.  The useless ramp is at right.
   
My first look at the incredibly clean new engine.
   

The last week in August I worked on taking apart the old engine.  I started by removing the prop.

The new engine is staged out front, ready for hanging.  It would not happen anytime soon.
   
Time to take it all apart.
   
Baffles are gone.
   
Exhaust pipes are gone.
 
It would take me two full days to remove all the adel clamps,  fittings, hoses and wires.
   
Baffles and exhaust pipes.
   
A good look at the new Lycoming O360.  Carburated.  Dual EMAGs.  Other than that, pretty much your basic stock O360 engine.
   
All the wires, hoses, control cables, CHT and EGT sensors, etc. have been disconnected.
   
On August 28 the old engine came off.
   
We also jacked the RV-7, using big wing jacks, and then removed the main landing gear and engine mount.
 
My two helpers:  Mark and Chuck.
   
It's amazing how much stuff hangs off the firewall.
   
I removed the prop governor from the back of the engine.  I shipped it out for a complete overhaul.
   
Same with the oil cooler.
   
My trusty Garmin GPS496 had stopped working -- it simply wasn't acquiring any satellites.  I had the internal battery replaced in it but that didn't work.  Then I figured it was probably the antenna.  Because the 496 unit is so old, you can't buy the antenna from Garmin anymore.  I found a used one in working condition on E-Bay and bought it.  But since it would be some time before the RV would be coming out of the hangar and powering up, I had to wait to test it.  But when I finally did, the new (used) antenna worked like a champ and the 496 was fully operational.
   
The old Lord engine mounts.  I was going to replace these with new ones, of course.  I found a mail order place that sold them for a very good price.  Unfortunately, they were out of stock.  I waited patiently for two months, but when they couldn't even tell me when I'd be getting the mounts, I gave up on them and cancelled the order.  I bit the bullet and ordered new Barry Mounts from Aircraft Spruce.  They are stupid expensive, but I paid it, and finally had my mounts within a few days.
   
These are Barry Mounts installed on the RV-10; now I have the same thing on the RV-7.
   

My brother-in-law Mark sandblasted the engine mount to remove its paint.  Then I had a local shop magnaflux the engine mount to see if there were any cracks.  I didn't think there would be and there weren't.  Mark then repainted the engine mount and it came back looking like new. 
 
   

The repainted engine mount is back on the RV and so are the main gear.  Unfortunately I damaged the mixture control cable when taking off the engine mount.   It took me almost two months to get a new mixture cable. 
 
   
On November 8, we hung the new engine on the RV.  Charlie, who is an A&P, ran the engine-hanging operation.  It was a not easy, but that said it only took a couple of hours.  We used the engine hoist at far left.
   

The new engine is on.  Much work remains to be done.

Unfortunately, I damaged the mixture control cable at some point.  It took me a couple of months to get a new one thanks to supply chain issues.
   
The new carburator on the left;  old one on the right.
   
The carburator is now mounted.
   
The new dip stick tube at left compared to the old one.
   
I found some dents I didn't like in the aluminum brake lines that run down the main gear so I made and installed new ones.
   
I cleaned up the baffles, repainted them and then mounted them.
   
The overhauled oil cooler is back on the #4 baffle.  It looks like new.  Actually, I think it cost more to have it overhauled than I paid for it new 17 years ago.  Same with the prop governor.
   
My B&C alternator wasn't that old so I didn't have it overhauled.
   
Hooking up the hoses and ignition wires.
   
The exhaust pipes are on.  I've started attaching the rubber strips to the baffles.
   

Make sure you remove crank plug before putting the prop on!

The reason Lycoming plugs the crank is because they run the new engine in their test cell for an hour.  They use a wood club prop when they test and that's the reason the crank is plugged.  Of course, you need the plug removed for your constant speed propeller.
   
Baffle stripping is all done.
   

All the wires bundles are laced together, and secured at intervals with adel clamps.  Very time consuming to do that.

The EMAGs required some wiring to the panel.
   
Finally everything is done and the RV is rolled outside.
   

Ready for engine start!

Once the EMAGs were timed when #1 cylinder was at top-dead-center, the engine started right up.  I fired her up for the first time on March 21.
   
In early January I had gone over to Carroll County Airport to look at my friend Mike's RV-7; specifically his Sam James plenum.  But he also showed me the inside of his cowl, which looked fantastic, like new, although he has been flying his RV-7 almost as long as mine.
 
So I looked closely at the inside of my cowl and was horrified.  Parts of the bottom cowl were actually burned and the fiberglass was delaminated in spots.  I cleaned the inside of the cowl well, then repaired the delaminated areas by lying down fiberglass cloth and Marine West epoxy.  Then I coated the entire cowl inside with an epoxy and microballon mix, as pictured here.
   
The top cowl after epoxy-microballoon coating.
   
Next I sprayed the cowl inside with primer, then high-temp white.
   
After a flight or two, I noticed the bottom was discolored from the heat.
   
So I ordered some hear barrier material with adhesive backing from Aircraft Spruce.  This worked great!  My cowl is now so much better than what it was.
   

The first flight was on March 25.  I only flew for 20 minutes, flying a racetrack around Essex Skypark.  The engine ran fine, if not a little hot.

I flew for two hours the next day, spending most of my time making horizontal four-leaf clovers around Massey Aerodrome at 3,000 feet.  Since I'm breaking the engine in, I ran it hard, 2500 squared.  I'm using Aeroshell 100 mineral oil during the break-in period.

As you can see, the RV-7 is missing its gear fairings and wheel pants.  This was probably a mistake.  I could have used the 10-15 mph gained from the gear fairings/wheel pants for engine cooling purposes.

It's nice to be flying the RV-7 again.

It took me six months to swap the engines.  Too long.  In my defense, we were traveling a third of that time.  Then waiting for new engine mounts, followed by a new mixture control cable cost me time.  Most of all, it's just requires a lot of work to install a new engine.  Not to mention a 45 minute (minimum) drive to the airport each way.
   
 
   
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