Franklins!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:56 pm

As I saw reported on the other side of the room this morning...

http://www.franklinengines.com/rv7.cfm

Franklin Engines is coming out with a FWF kit for their 220hp six cylinder. A friend of mine here at my airport has one installed (but not yet run) in his Zenith 640. They're supposed to be ultra smooth with plenty of power, and similar weight to other engines in this power range at 297 dry.

Interesting option to add to the mix...

but

dons · Post by **dons** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:40 pm

You did say the wind was really blowing today, and you know what that does to a weather vane

.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 4:03 pm

Van did a whole thing on them. Didn't they have one in Tweety or Dilbert at one time or another?

Bottom line, not worthwhile. I wanna say it was heavy and didn't have the performance numbers to make it a good choice.

Perhaps someone has a copy of the RV8OR handy? What's it say?

CJ

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:40 pm

I do believe you are right CJ. It was one of the 8's that had it. We need that article to be sure, but it seems like it was an older Franklin (not that THAT would make a whole lot of difference).

At 297lbs, it weighs LESS than Superior's XP-400 with the same 220hp (it weighs 316lbs), and the XP-360 weighs 288 to 308lbs with 170-185hp, and your IO-390 weighs 308lbs.

These are good smooth running engines that seem to be worthy of a look, especially with a FWF installation in the works.

The wind is a blowin'!!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:06 pm

Okay, I received my copy of the 24 years of the RVator today, and I flipped straight to the article on the RV-8 formerly known as "Fraklinstine".

So, first of all..."Franklinstine". This nickname came about from the installation of the engine. With nothing ever enginneered for this engine intall for an RV, it was a major headache for Phil (the man in charge of the installation). The nickname had nothing to do with the engine technology, or the flying qualities of the airplane.

Second...weight. It had an empty weight of 1130 pounds, and the engine itself was almost identical to a 200hp Lyc (actually 3 pounds lighter). So, saying it was heavy was true at the time of thousand pound RV-6's with IO-320's in them. A quick calculation from Dan's WB page show's the average weight of today's RV-7 is just a touch over 1100 pounds. So, 1130 is pretty close to average, even though "technically" heavy by a few pounds.

Third...performance. I'm not sure why Van's decided to abandon the idea of this engine (other than the fact that they sell new OEM Lycomings). The performance was BETTER than the 200hp Lyc in a side by side fly off. Not by much, but it was better, and the installation was a better value dollar-wise. Rate of climb solo with Van at the controls was an earsplitting 2850fpm vs. 2700fpm for the same airframe IO-360 Lyc. Max cruise at 8,000' was 217mph, 5mph higher than the Lyc.

Fourth...smoothness. Once the prop was balanced (they didn't say what prop they had on it, but I assume a constant speed since a governor is mentioned in the article), Van said "it is noticeably smoother than the 4 cylinder Lycoming, particularly at certain sweet spots."

And fifth...the SOUND!!!

I remain interested at this point, especially if I can work with someone to develop FWF stuff for it. I've talked to the guy in Poland that has the rights to the manufacturing, and they will be purchasing a flying RV-? later this year to engineer something. The engines are $18,000 BRAND NEW!!

RV7Factory · Post by **RV7Factory** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:15 pm

Interesting, thanks for posting.

Dan A · Post by **Dan A** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:52 pm

I have a friend near here that put a 220 Franklin in his 8. It sounds really great and he loves it. His did not come from the PZL-Franklin people but from his own source and he designed the engine mount and the total installation.\
Dan

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:02 am

Wouldn't happen to be David Brand, would it? I just got in contact with him this week about his airplane.

Dan A · Post by **Dan A** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:14 pm

Yup. David is the one! He has a great aircraft!
Dan

lancef53 · Post by **lancef53** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 6:51 pm

Anybody have any more info on this? How does the W&B come out? Cool stuff!!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:14 pm

Lance,

I spoke to the real Franklin Engines people at Oshkosh this summer. They are still working on it, but they had plans to buy a flying RV-? to develop a FWF kit for RV's. I have talked with them in the past about using my 7 as a marketing airplane for them, but it hasn't gone anywhere yet. They are very nice people, and are serious about getting the engines back in production, but it's been awefully slow going to this point.

Hopefully things will pick up and they can provide a good traditional alternative.

lancef53 · Post by **lancef53** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:53 am

Just so I understand completely, the Real Franklin company is not the link on this page, it is the link on the other sites page, with the Poland address? Thanks

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:24 am

Yep! This is the real deal...

http://www.franklin-engines.com/

They are the one's who hold the type certificate. The company in Colorado may very well be a real company, but in 8 months, I still have yet to have a return phone call or email. That's not a company I would do business with. They have a nice website, and a great looking package, but it's not real as far as I can tell...

svanarts · Post by **svanarts** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:57 am

The photo on their site of the RV-8 installation looks awfully cramped from what I can tell...

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:57 am

The footprint is just a bit larger length-wise, but it is narrower. I think it looks a bit tight in the standard cowl as well, but a few have done it with little problem in RV-8's and the standard cowl. The long SJ cowl would be perfect for this engine.

lancef53 · Post by **lancef53** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:06 pm

I thought I would bump this back to the top, I can't seem to get these engines out of my head. I already have a lycoming for my 8, but there is always the next one.

I talked to a gal named Susan from texas at Osh, and it sounded like they had something coming down the pipe(who knows when).

Neat stuff, anyways

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 9:31 am

It would be REALLY cool if someone would put out an AVAILABLE FWF kit for the Franklin 220 for RV's...I would seriously consider dumping the Lyc 360 for one if it became available at some point...it's been promised in the past though, and nothing has happened.

There are at least three RV-8's flying with 220 Franklin's that I know of, but they all had to do their own FWF engineering.

lancef53 · Post by **lancef53** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 10:38 am

Yes, I would go for one in a heartbeat. They are a neat sounding engine.

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:10 pm

...and here I thought we were talking about $100 bills!

CJ

airguy · Post by **airguy** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 7:02 pm

captain_john wrote:...and here I thought we were talking about $100 bills!

CJ

They are - a stack of 'em, about an 1/4" high....

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