More Horsepower

Any DA40 related topics

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rwtucker
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More Horsepower

Post by rwtucker »

Other than the fantastic supercharger project we have watched develop here on DAN, has anyone modified or is anyone planning to modify our IO-360M1A engines to produce more HP? Is it not unusual to see these engines producing 225-235 HP with high compression heads and other modifications and they seem to hold up well.
Antoine
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Re: More Horsepower

Post by Antoine »

Rob, from my own experience: don't bother.
Apart from the legalities of putting an experimental engine in a certified airframe, this will not change your flying life.
If the DA40 is no longer fitting your expectations, what you want is a quantum leap. Get yourself a 300 HP plane and if icing protection is relevant get that too. OMG! Did I just sell you an SR22????

Since making this move (not SR22!) I no longer worry about weather - I do instead worry about horrendous maintenance bills instead and spend many days in the shop... No free lunch

But really the message is: the DA40-180 is a very nicely balanced package and if you need more (which is very understandable), you should sell it (and make some money on it these days) and get another plane...

Honestly, there is a lot of upside to be had and while I loved my 2 DA40s, I must admit that the Extra 400 makes them look like toys...
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krellis
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Re: More Horsepower

Post by krellis »

Diamond should build an IO-390 DA40-215 with the higher gross weight of the DA40NG.

Now that Christian Dries is gone, maybe there is hope. On the other hand, Diamond won't even provide upgraded G1000 software for older planes, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
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rwtucker
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Re: More Horsepower

Post by rwtucker »

Great points all Antoine.

For me, the DA40 is a perfect aircraft 80-90% of the time. Most of my flying consists of short runs of less than an hour where I might veer off course to look at an Elk run or drop into a small rural strip for a local breakfast, punctuated by an occasional 900 mile trip to visit family. I have some time in the C400 and it would be great for the longer visits to family but it doesn't like low and slow that much, and most of my hops are too short to climb to an efficient altitude. Plus, the price of mail and hamburger runs would easily double. Further up the scale, I have had fun taking longer hops on the Eclipse these past few years. It would be fantastic for those longer family runs but getting a detailed look at the maintenance books as I have, I could not justify the cost of even a VLJ. Even more important, I have been disappointed to see firsthand how little hand flying one gets to do in a VLJ, and how little of that is under pilot discretion. Autopilots are required above FL290 (which is where you spend most of your time) and recommended at all times other than T/O and landing. Hamburgers and sightseeing as we DA40 pilots know it is not possible.

I don't need the extra knots on the short runs but an extra 10-15 would be great on those occasional long runs! :) Pistons, heads, porting, polishing, injectors, solid state ignition, maybe turbonormalizing? Just thinkin'
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Ultrapilot1
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Re: More Horsepower

Post by Ultrapilot1 »

Just my 2 cents: I recently changed out my exhaust and prop to Powerflow and Hartzell and I was really satisfied with the result. In July I completed an over 7000 mile journey from Fla. to Oshkosh then to Seattle, down the west coast and back through the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley etc. Crusing along at 135-145 kts and burning 9.6 gal/hr. I believe a perfect combination of speed and economy and very low maintenance costs. Every Cirrus owner I know loves their plane but complains about the high cost of maintenance.
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Joey
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Re: More Horsepower

Post by Joey »

I would also like to see an increase in power and speed. I don’t think there is an airplane out there where after a time I would not be looking for an increase in performance. For the 40 it’s perfect for 85% of what I do also. I’d love about 250 lbs more load capacity and 20 kts more speed. The supercharged version looks promising. I’m curious why Diamond doesn’t look at an IO-390 with 215 hp. Might be an option at overhaul time.
Joey Ritchie
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