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Titan IO-340 - Firewall Forward & Finishing Kit Needs?

skelrad

Well Known Member
Friend
I'm nowhere near ready for an engine, but it looks like with shipping timelines, it's time to order and lock in a price and production slot. I've heard great things about the Cont Titan, and their prices seem to be pretty good relative to getting a Lycoming from Van's, so I'm probably going to get in line for their IO-340 (low compression).

For those of you who have used the IO-340, what changes are necessary relative to the standard IO-320? I mean in terms of ordering the right options for the finishing kit and firewall forward kit. Like, does the 320 cowl work, or do I need to swap out for the 360 lower cowl to fit the vertical induction of the IO-340? Does the standard Van's firewall forward kit work, or are there enough changes with the Titan setup (like baffles, exhaust, etc) that I'd be better off not going with the full kit?

Just trying to wrap my head around how to plan appropriately so I don't get stuck with parts from Van's that don't work with the engine.
 
IO-340 installation

Brandon,

I'm in the process of installing a Titan IO-340 on my RV-9. This may not be an exhaustive list of variations from the firewall forward kit, as I'm not quite finished with the installation.

1. The throttle cable and mixture control cable supplied in the firewall forward kit were both too short. I ended up, after considerable trial and error, ordering new, longer cables, specifically, the 51.5" Vernier Panel Mount Mixture Cable and the 47.5" Friction Lock Panel Mount Throttle Cable. I've also shifted one or both of the holes through the firewall for the control cables to have somewhat straighter alignment to the control cable bracket, about which more below.

2. The Titan has tapered cooling fins, as opposed to the parallel inner cooling fins as found on stock Lycomings. I opted to clip off the portions of the baffles that go over the inner cooling fins baffling pieces that are supplied in the FWF kit and rivet on new baffle pieces that will curl around the tapered inner fins. I found pdf templates here on the forums with a bit of searching. If you don't find them, let me know via PM and I'll forward the file to you.

3. The throttle/mixture control bracket supplied in the FWF kit doesn't line the cables up for the fuel injection throttle body. I ordered from Van's the Throttle/Mixture Bracket and Gasket for O-320 Engines (VA-149-320-PC KIT) and with some cutting and rebending was able to combine the supplied bracket with the second bracket to fab a sort of "Franken-bracket" that lines both cables up nicely. If interested, let me know and I'll forward pictures.

4. To get clearance for mounting my "Franken-bracket", I had a friend mill me a 1/4" thick spacer to ride between the bottom of the throttle body and the bracket. I suspect that a 1/8" thick spacer might have been adequate. I haven't yet installed the airbox. If it interferes with the lower cowl, I may have a new, thinner spacer milled.

EDIT: Previously I had said that I was going to need to add some fiberglass to the spinner ring end of the cowls. That was incorrect. I made a rookie mistake in measuring the length of the cowls. I had neglected the width of the flange on the spinner backplate, which faces aft. As a result, everything can be trimmed and made to fit using the O-320 upper cowl and an O-360 cowl lower cowl as supplied by Van's. My apologies for the previously incorrect statement.

Cheers, Ken
 
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Thanks for the info Ken. It'll be a while before I'm ready for the engine, but the order went in today, so at some point you may be hearing from me again as I'm scratching my head during the install!
 
I completed my IO-340 RV9A in 2010. Needless to say I can give you several bits of general information but sadly many specific details have slipped through the holes in my memory!

As mentioned your throttle cable and mixture cable will be different. I purchased longer cables. I also purchased, from Aircraft Spruce, a cable bracket that clasped the cable and mounted underneath the engine. It has worked fantastically since.

Not sure if you are using forward facing induction, or cold air induction. If so, you will need the IO-360 cowl. It has a smooth lower cowl without the scoop. This will require the “Snorkel” not the “Scoop” under the prop for air induction. The snorkel takes air in from the pilot side air inlet. The fiberglass snorkel then goes down to attach to the forward facing inlet of the intake. This will then require a different exhaust than the X-Over exhaust as the forward facing snorkel will be where the X-Over would normally be. I have 4 straight pipe exhaust coming straight down from the cylinders and back to the center exit.

My baffles did not require major surgery. The baffle from Vans worked fine with my engine, with the exception of having to fabricate a bracket for the K&N air filter on the floor of the pilot side air inlet.

Send me a PM if you have more questions.
 
So will the standard Van’s crossover exhaust work for the vertical induction setup?
 
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In my RV6, after over 2000 hours on an O-320 (**conical mount**) with the “old, 320 cowl”, I upgraded to one of the first O-340’s. It fit.

For certain reasons, I decided to convert to fuel injection.

Working closely with Don Riviera of Airflow Performance, we were able to use a Van’s FAB + specific items from Don to make the conversion.

Take heed to the specifics that others make as you are most likely to be using a dynafocal mount and a more recent cowl. I don’t know if either of these would make a difference.
 
So will the standard Van’s crossover exhaust work for the vertical induction setup?
Yes. I have an OX-340 and there's bugger all difference in the big scheme of things, apart from the throttle/mixture cables, and that's more due to my using a Rotec TBI than the engine.
 
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