"Bret Ludwig" wrote in message What they mean is
that after decades of search they managed to flam some widow out of an
engine for a tenth market price, they bought some oddball no one wants,
or they have an engine that is such a mutt with no logs and bootleg
repairs even the airboaters eschew it.

Not neccessarily. I recently passed on a pair of IO-540s with original logs
for $8000US because I have no place for them. They were still attached to a
bunch of airframe parts.

2. If the Lycoming and Continental paradigm of large displacement
light slow turning engine was so great for aircraft, they would be
great for a lot of other things as well. Teledyne Continental and
Textron Lycoming have absolutely no interest in marketing or developing
their ridiculous museum pieces for any other markets whatsoever. The
reason is simple, no one likes being subject to ridicule. Which they
know would be the case.

What other applications would be appropiate for air cooling? Keep it simple.

3. "All the people who use an automotive conversion spend fifteen
thousand dollars anyway". You are comparing apples to oranges because
the guys spending like this are going all out and not doing any of
their own fabrication. And ignoring the fact that their per hour has to
be a lot cheaper because once done rebuilds have to be radically
cheaper.

Apples to oranges? The bottom line is cost to get the project airworthy and
reliable. Wether it's spent on an orange engine or an apple engine, it's
still spent on motive power. They're both fruits.

4. "You are in all reality only going to fly it a few hundred hours
anyway". Well if that's the case, join a flying club (a real club) or
just rent an airplane.

Justify whatever you have to. Rationalize whatever you have to. Bottom line
is that I'm going to do what I want just because I can. I don't give a f**k
about what anyone thinks.

D.