Turbo Onex builders?

[13brv3]

Greetings,

I heard there was at least one person who was already building a turbo Onex, but I don't see any mention of it on the forum. Does anyone know of a current turbo project?

Thanks,
Rusty

[jerryhain]

Probably referring to me, I've been busy building a hangar, emptying my house and getting it ready to sell. No time to really get on the project yet but plan on hitting it starting in January at the latest.
My field elevation is 4000 feet south of Tucson and I plan on flying it at around 16K on trips. I want to get a Prince Ptip set for cruise so I might order it next year and see if someone with a flying Onex turbo would be willing to test it for me.

Jerry

[13brv3]

Hi Jerry,

OK, so there are at least two of us. My kit and engine will be here maybe the end of next week, and I hope to have it ready to move to the hangar by the end of May, which is when we have to be out of this rental house. The rental house has a perfect garage for building, so I'm trying to take advantage of it while our house gets built.

Unlike you, I have no good reason to use the Turbo, but I've learned to always take the highest performance option that's reasonably available, and I'm used to RV performance. I ordered the Sensenich 54x50 climb prop for starters, and I'm sure I'll try others over the next few years. The airports I'll be using in East TN will be around 800-1000 ft, so performance should be pretty good :-)

Cheers,
Rusty

[SonexEZ]

Probably referring to me, I've been busy building a hangar, emptying my house and getting it ready to sell. No time to really get on the project yet but plan on hitting it starting in January at the latest.
My field elevation is 4000 feet south of Tucson and I plan on flying it at around 16K on trips. I want to get a Prince Ptip set for cruise so I might order it next year and see if someone with a flying Onex turbo would be willing to test it for me.

Jerry

Jerry you better do some reading on here before you buy a prince the customer service sucks and you send them your prop and if you get it back in four months. my prop has had problems since i got it its been back there 5 times , when it returns this this time i will sell it to you cheep

[1X99]

Greetings,

I heard there was at least one person who was already building a turbo Onex, but I don't see any mention of it on the forum. Does anyone know of a current turbo project?

Thanks,
Rusty

I have one in progress as well. I've run the engine & it sounds pretty sweet; I think the turbo has a muffling effect. A few more odds & ends & I should be ready for inspection soon. I got the 56" prop for cruising. Here in Seattle any trip east means a quick cruise climb to 13K; that's my excuse for having the turbo. I spent a lot of time getting the turbo & exhaust manifold to fit the Onex mount. I ended up with the voltage regulator down near the cowling air outlet and the battery on the extreme left of the firewall. Also, the upper cowling had to be bumped to clear the top mount oil cooler.

Steve Craigle

[13brv3]

Hi Steve,

I'd bet you're the one I heard about. The word was that someone was working pretty hard to find a place on the firewall for everything. Once you have it perfected, hopefully you can post some pictures :D

Sadly, I just found out that my perfect garage in this rental house is only going to last until the end of March. The owners decided we have to leave earlier than scheduled, so when my kit shows up in a few days, I guess I'll have to work fast :o

Cheers,
Rusty (sick of rental houses, banks and builders)

[1X99]

Hi Rusty,
Having done my W & B, I can verify that you can put the battery behind the seat without violating the aft CG limits. This would make it MUCH more accessable.
I'm on the verge of getting my airworthiness inspection. Taxied around the hangars a bit and decided my tailwheel steering was twitchier than optimum, so modified the rudder bellcrank to slow it down a bit.
Steve Craigle

[13brv3]

Hi Steve,

That's great news, and pretty good timing since I'll be working on the forward fuselage stuff fairly soon. I was considering putting the battery on the floor just in front of the spar, but I haven't made it far enough along to see if that was realistic.

Congrats on being that close to flying too!

I'd love to see some pic of your engine installation if you wouldn't mind sharing them. I'll post my email below and you can email me if you don't mind.

Cheers,
Rusty
13brv3@tds.net

[JT1974]

Hey Steve could you give us an update on your Onex Turbo? Perhaps post some pictures and give your overall impression of the installation.
I'm considering whether I should go with a normally aspirated Aerovee or opt for the Turbo and I'd like to hear from someone who has actually installed the Turbo in their Onex before I pull the trigger on a purchase.

Anyone else who has installed an Aerovee Turbo on the Onex please feel free to chime in.

Thanks in advance for your feedback/advice.

[1X99]

[quote="JT1974"]Hey Steve could you give us an update on your Onex Turbo? Perhaps post some pictures and give your overall impression of the installation.
I'm considering whether I should go with a normally aspirated Aerovee or opt for the Turbo and I'd like to hear from someone who has actually installed the Turbo in their Onex before I pull the trigger on a purchase.

After ~ 4.5 years, I finally got my turbo Onex in the air. I opted for the 56×53 cruise prop, and for a while thought I might have made a mistake. Climb performance was not so good, but I later tweaked the wastegate actuator so I could get a full 40" MAP on takeoff. Ergo, the second flight went a lot better for climb & cruise conditions. I was surprised at the force required to lower the flaps; had to use both hands the first time. On second flight I made sure I was below 70 kt IAS; that seemed to work out OK. On that flight I got some crude #'s for cruise; 125 kt IAS at 35" MAP & 3100 rpm @ 2000' msl.
Then the oil pressure went south. I was already on a downwind leg with flaps down, so I laid it over and got on the runway OK. Of course, this turned out to be the O.P. sender getting un-grounded; the sump was full of oil. Except for a bit that dribbled out through a hose-to-tube connection in the breather circuit. Cleaned that up, replaced the hose, and all was well.
Did a ground runup and am still having a problem with garbled radio reception (Garmin GTR 200) when the engine is running. I tried it on 1 ignition system at a time and also with the alternator turned off; no change. Works fine when the engine isn't running. I may have to visit my local avionics shop. It's nice to be able to hear clearly when someone complains you cut them off in the pattern!
It won't let me upload a picture here; it's just a sideview anyway--looks like a stock Onex.......
The turbo is a lot of work and makes working on the flywheel end next to impossible. But, then you can call your plane a Turbo Onex!

Steve Craigle 1X99 scraigle@yahoo.com