The Porsche engine was a good Eg of what could be done with a more sophisticated engine when put in to an A/C but it really didn't 'take-off' that well as far as I can see due a few reasons, one no doubt being most don't trust 'change' as well as spares wouldn't have been in the local milk bar like they are with the old clunkers
Not quite Wal. Mooney only sold 41 aircraft with the Porsche fitted. the owners that bought them from all accounts loved them, even though they were slower than the regular Mooney. The Porsche had all the do dads that everyone here is calling for in modernising their agricultural Cont/Lyc, automotive-style electronic ignition, fuel injection, autoleaning, automatic cooling control and a single power lever. The problem? Too few buyers willing to stump up the $60,000US price premium (1988 dollars) and money squabbles with Mooney, Porsche grew disenchanted and bailed out of the project. Porsche continue to support the engine.
Avweb article
FADEC Fantasies
"If we have learned anything about the GA market," says Lycoming's head engineer, Rick Moffett, "it's that it's extremely price sensitive. People just aren't going to spend $20,000 for an engine control system." Anyone who doubts that merely needs to recall Mooney's PFM experience.
Second-and ignoring the retrofit market-these systems will capitalize on the flexibility and capability of state-of-the-art digital electronics to produce an integrated system that includes sexy cockpit displays and, no doubt, onboard diagnostics of some kind.
Even at that, Moffett says meeting the price point will be a tall order. Ridding a current engine of its conventional mags and harnesses, injector servo, flow dividers, waste gates plus such cockpit instrumentation as manifold pressure, tachs and engine gauges will have to save enough money to pay for -or at least almost pay for-the new electronics.
"If we hit it within five percent, we'll consider ourselves successful," says Moffett. Add up the cost of all that conventional hardware and you you'll arrive at some idea of what a retrofit FADEC for an older airplane would cost: Our guess is between $6000 and $10,000.