On 19 May 2004 11:50:42 -0700, (Jim-Ed Browne)
wrote:

Steve Wittman and Dave Blanton both flew auto engines very
successfully for a lot of hours, both being past middle age when they
started with thousands of flight hours. Steve was killed with his much
younger wife behind a Lycoming-although there's no evidence it was
anything to do with the engine, indeed, it's a mystery to this day-and
Dave died of old age. They were both _experimenters_, but safe and
methodical ones, the kind that made aviation in the first place and
then experimental sport aviation possible.

Well it's not really a mystery: he attempted to bond polyfiber fabric
to a plywood wing using the wrong method. It lasted for a while, then
pulled free on that fatal flight and ballooned causing destructive
flutter. The wing was found some distance from the fuselage
suggesting seperatin prior to impact. Inspection of the wing revealed
the seperated fabric. Analysis of the wing showed what materials were
used to attach it.

Both Blanton and Wittman suffered engine failures during their
development of their respective engines and had return to terra firma
deadstick. Blanton suffered more than a few.

Blanton also, at one time, advocated lifting a salvage engine out of
the junkyard and plunking it into an airframe without rebuilding it.
To his credit, he quit suggesting that after a few years.

But one thing Blanton never did stop doing was to claim excessive
horsepower for his conversion of the Ford 3.8L V6. He claimed he was
getting up to 250 horsepower on his dynomometer. He wasn't, but he
could not be told he was not adding his figures up correctly. He
insisted that the horsepower claim was correct and his claim made him
a controversial figure in his later life and may have done great harm
to the auto conversion concept. He was so vocal and so wrong that
people thought all conversion advocates were equally crazed. He also
wasn't following through on paid orders towards the end and what he
was shipping wasn't great quality.

I know of one guy who did a LOT of modification to his 3.8 to get
around 225 hp or so, but he had special pistons and rods and was
willing to rev it to 5300 rpm to do so. Most people using the 3.8 use
a more conservative rev limit - 4800. At that rpm, most of the
engines put out from 175 to 195 hp depending on what pistons are used
and how much time is spent on the intake manifold and exhaust system.

There is a lot to converting an auto engine, it isn't for just
anybody. You really should understand engines and how to cool them.
You can of course just buy a firewall forward system but those can
cost almost as much as a Lycontinental of equal power. People have
often said: Yeh, but it costs a lot less to overhaul, which would be
true, if you ever flew it enough to reach the TBO. At my age (56),
and considering the cost of flying which limits my time in the air, I
doubt I'd ever fly enough to get there in my lifetime. But it would
be nice to try.

Corky Scott