"Orval Fairbairn" wrote in message
news
A group of us are building a Pulsar and expect to license it in exp-LSA
and are seriously considering the 80 horse Jabiru as a powerplant. The
engine, and FWF kit are less than the Rotax, without having a gearbox to
complicate things.

Who out there has experience with this engine?
Strengths?
Weaknesses?

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Remove _'s from email address to talk to me.

Cheap to feed and reliable are things that first come to mind :-)
15liters per hour at 2700 RPM, quick response time if you need power in a
hurry from idle and cheap to maintain as well, if its looked after during
its life the 2000hr service can be cheaper than sending your car in for a
regular service :-)

there can sometimes be an engine "miss" when applying power for a go-round,
or during a touch & go landing, all relating to the fuel/air mixture at
idle. Apparently, during a descent at low engine power (especially a glide
descent), the mixture is excessively "lean" due to the engine speed being
increased above normal idle speed by the wind milling effect of the
propeller. so when power is applied, there's a delay before the correct
mixture for full power is achieved. The problem will be less apparent if
gradual power changes are made. The problem is fixable but it means making a
small change then a test flight, rinse and repeat :-)
Incidentally, those who've grown up on Lycoming or Continental engines will
see this as pretty normal.

engine oil temp should be kept around 70C, where I am we had to blank off
part of the oil cooler as 50C is considered a bit cool, that blank can
probably be removed once the warmer weather starts to make itself known.
All in all a Jabi 80hp is as good as anything else on the market and better
that some when service and maintenance costs are calculated into the TCO.
Jabiru recommend a 2000hr rebuild (as I said, it can be quite cheap if
properly looked after) while I think the Rotax is 1500hrs and then you have
a gearbox to throw in the mix as well.

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Flying RA Aus, because its cheaper and I can do it more often :-)