- EPI Engine Projects -
Why new engines are needed;
Engines we have designed;
Engines we have developed
NOTE: All our Products, Designs, and Services are SUSTAINABLE, ORGANIC, GLUTEN-FREE, CONTAIN NO GMO's, and will not upset anyone's precious FEELINGS or delicate SENSIBILITIES.
BACKGROUND
In early 1993, EPI began the development of a lightweight, 500 HP, liquid-cooled V8 aircraft powerplant for a high-performance, two-place tandem aircraft which EPI's CEO had designed.
Several products have resulted from that development program, including complete aircraft powerplants (described here), PSRU's, ignition systems, lubrication systems, accessory drives, and engine mounts.
The design and development of the EPI Gen-1 powerplant (engine, PSRU, and accessory drives) was the subject of a technical presentation which EPI's CEO gave at the 1996 Advanced Engine Technology Conference (AETC). In December, 2006, EPI's CEO gave another AETC presentation covering various loads and stresses imposed on reciprocating engine components, and some basic mechanical engineering concepts to support the main topic.
The content of those presentations, and lots more engine technology, are presented in the PISTON ENGINE TECHNOLOGY section.
CONTENT
This section of the site gives some of the details about various (mostly aircraft) engine products which EPI has built for specific applications, some critical information about the LS series of crate engines which many builders are planning to use, as well as a brief presentation about why new aircraft engine products are needed.
If you are considering the use any non-standard powerplant for an aircraft you are designing or building, we strongly recommend that, in order to be as well informed as possible in the selection of an engine for your aircraft, you read and digest the information presented in the AIRCRAFT ENGINE CONVERSIONS section of this site.
Quoting from the INTRODUCTION page of that section:
"It is our opinion, based on real-life data, analysis and experience, that for engines up to about 325 HP, the best way to satisfy the requirements of (1) reliability, (2) power-per-pound, (3) ease of installation, (4) availability, and (5) support, is to use an appropriate certified engine (Lycoming, Continental, etc.)."
If, after careful consideration of the information in that section, the use of a liquid-cooled V8 powerplant is of interest, we encourage you to view the pages in this section, including the details about the EPI Gen-1 and Gen-2, engines, LS-based engines and the GM Bigblock Crate-Engine-based cropduster powerplant.
PLEASE NOTE: EPI, Inc. has never provided a "firewall-forward" engine kit for a builder to "bolt-on" to a homebuilt aircraft. All our engines (EPI-V-12, Gen-2, Gen-1, 572 Big-Block etc) and engine-conversion packages have been designed and engineered for specific applications, have been developed to satisfy FAR requirements for certified installations, and have performed extremely well. Currently, we are focused on developing our "clean-sheet" 60° V12 SI engine and our "clean-sheet" 130 HP O-200 replacement engine. Therefore, we are no longer building any V8 powerplants
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