Rob Turk wrote:
snip

That story is about as old as those Lyco's your referred to. Not surprised
you can't find it, it predates even Google..

So you decide to judge an engine and/or distributor based on a single
occurrance of a bad business transaction of over 5 years ago, where someone
decided to save a few pennies by grey importing an engine and then didn't
get the service he desired from the locally assigned distributor.
This guys has in effect become his own distributor and having to buy his
spare parts directly from the factory serves him right. The local
distributor didn't punish him, he probably didn't want the responsibility
for delivering parts to an engine of unknown origin/history and having to
deal with a widow on his doorstep if things went wrong.

Phooey. It's a stock factory engine. The dealer was being a high hard
one. The engine was of known history, was bought direct when there was
no dealer, the factory knew the guy.

Still, the Jabiru is an expensive noncertificated engine, with only
one parts line, and it turns a small prop fast. In that it combines the
lesserly-desirable aspects of aircraft engines and non-aircraft engines.

The average 3300 runs at ~2700 rpm cruise speed with a 68" prop. Direct
drive, so no redrive in between that can fail. Redline at 3300 rpm. How much
different is that from a Lyco? And how did you manage to put a Rotax as well
as Subaru/Corvair/whatever car conversion at 5000+ rpm and a heavy,
error-prone redrive in the "more desirable aspects" category of engines??

That's direct drive VW or Corvair category.

No direct drive Lyc turns that fast. Maybe in helos, but not turning a
prop. Well, maybe the old cast iron O-145 did-it belongs in the museum
with Pobjoys and Bristol Cherubs.

The redrive on a general purpose (never say "car", a Cigarette boat or
irrigation pump is no car...) engine is a big asset, not a liability.
It's why you can run the engine with no prop and why a prop strike will
bend a $300 hub instead of a $3000 crank.