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160 lycoming upgrades

F

firemedic689

Well-known member
i don't know a whole lot about aircraft engines but i just bought an 11.5 ft ultralight diamondback with a 160 lycoming 4 cylinder with a 4 blade warp drive. it has plenty of power but you know. what upgrades if any can i do to increase horsepower and how much money am i looking at. appreciate any info.
 
Those tricks seem to be a "secret". I myself would like to know. These are some of the things I have heard. There are custom grind camshafts available. Using 0-360 rods will increase your stroke and compression. I was told this by a guy who would build 125's this way, he said you had to turn the rod bolts over so they would clear the case. Also this fellow used to fabricate "cold" air intakes, to remove the airflow from through the oil pan. You can actually do a web search for that and they make those setups for "experimental" use in aircraft. That's pretty cool actually but pricey.
You can also buy higher comp pistions like 9.1 or something in the aftermarket. But I figure these upgrades come with reliabillty issues, except for the intake. Anyway
if you find out anything share them, I would like to know also.
 
I get about 200hp out of mine, and im building 3 more as we speak, there are alot of things you can do to those motors, I do this for a living and have plenty of people you can talk too to get a better idea where im coming from, my 125 lycoming has 200 or better hp, that should tell you something
 
Installing longer rods only increases compression. not stroke. The longer rods are bolt on . No turning bolts around or anything.

You do have to turn the bolts around and grind the cap if you put a 360 crank in it, and run 320 cylinders and rods. You also have to clearance the pistons.

You can get any compression pistons you want if you don't mind the price.

The big tube 360 sump flows better than the 320 sumps and a cold air induction has been dynoed and the small gain was not worth the expense. Although it was for the 540.

I like to flow the heads and run high compression but you also have to run better fuel.
 
the motors are still running till this day as far as hours i cant tell ya cause the people cant keep tract of the times they ride and the amount of hours and beer just dont work . I can tell you this we did a motor back in 1993 and blew it up last year with 14 bottles of nitrous and , not all at the same time. the reason it blew was my dad was sittin in the driver seat and rested his arm on the steerting stick and it blew sky high[ thats were the button was, and the motor was at an idle], have pictures to see that. parts were coming down from all angles and we were diving under the camp dock to keep from gettin hit. the motors will last you as long as you treat them with respect and so forth. I do know that any little bit of horsepower on a good boat helps, but its the boat [hull]that plays 90% . YOU CANT TURN A ZIPPER BOAT IN TO A TOUR BOAT,
 
West Side, that's kinda like a story I heard about a guy that was power loadin his boat when the throttle decided to stick, WFO.
The boat shot over the bow stop on the trailer, ricocheted off of a rear fender of his tow truck and flopped on it's side ...... all with the engine at full throttle.

Legend has it that pieces of prop still fall from the sky around there once in a while. :lol:
 
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