Rotax vs. Jabiru

G'day

I live in Australia where that jabiru engines are manufactured, and I went
through the same dilemma regarding the choice of a 912 or a Jabiru engine
for my Murphy Rebel.

At our airfield there are maybe 30 Jabiru engines in service and there has
been a continual litany of broken valves, leaking head gaskets, faulty
ignition coils, rings sticking and bores glazing (etc), And that does not
include the tedious valve adjustments! To be fair, the factory seems to seem
to have got their new engines sorted, but I always feel that they are doing
field tests by using their customers as guinea pigs!

What swung me to the 100hp Rotax was that it is a well sorted engine with a
reliable history. There are a number of these in service here that have
3000+ hours on them. That was good enough for me. One downside to the Rotax
is the maze of hoses needed to connect the cooling system, but you can't
have everything.

I would strongly recommend that anyone who is contemplating using a Rotax is
to get the slipper clutch option. I recently fitted on to my engine and the
difference it made to the smoothness of the engine was truly amazing.


regards

Ian


The Rotax 912 has had about 10 years head start on the Jabiru to achieve
reliability. It had its share of gremlins in the beginning (ignition box,
stator assembly, rocker arms) but AFAIK nowadays they are quite reliable.
I'd recommend the gearbox slipper clutch option, as it removes the need
for a teardown after a propstrike.

I understand Jabiru has been working hard to fix the bugs they too had in
the earlier engines, but have no closer experience. I would also think
things get better as the experience grows how to install and operate the
engine. Might be a good idea to research how the newer engines perform.