what every boy needs - yeah seriously

Stealth Pilot wrote:
veedubber and others
the venerable old VW engine conversion is quite usable.

if you were to take all the lessons learnt from all the engine
building done so far and apply them to a new engine design, what would
the new engine design look like?

I think the flat 4 makes a very serviceable aircraft engine.
underslung pushrods like the O-200 and VW would remain.
I'd use hydraulic lifters.
the castings for the crankcase would be simpler, more like the O-200
than the complexities of the VW casing.
the crankshaft would be a little more robust at the front end
I'd fin the pushrod tubes and use the oil returning to the crankcase
as a radiator.
the engine would be mounted on dynafocal lord mounts.
I'd use electron for the crankcasings.
spin on oil filter. (z79)
magnet in the sumpplug.

what else???

Stealth Pilot


Would you please expand on "electron for crankcasings"

On Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:11:48 GMT, Jerry Wass
wrote:

Stealth Pilot wrote:
veedubber and others
the venerable old VW engine conversion is quite usable.

if you were to take all the lessons learnt from all the engine
building done so far and apply them to a new engine design, what would
the new engine design look like?

I think the flat 4 makes a very serviceable aircraft engine.
underslung pushrods like the O-200 and VW would remain.
I'd use hydraulic lifters.
the castings for the crankcase would be simpler, more like the O-200
than the complexities of the VW casing.
the crankshaft would be a little more robust at the front end
I'd fin the pushrod tubes and use the oil returning to the crankcase
as a radiator.
the engine would be mounted on dynafocal lord mounts.
I'd use electron for the crankcasings.
spin on oil filter. (z79)
magnet in the sumpplug.

what else???

Stealth Pilot


Would you please expand on "electron for crankcasings"

electron is a magnesium - aluminium alloy. lighter and stronger than
plain aluminium alloy for the casings. I'm pretty sure it is what vw
used in the casings.
however it doesnt lend itself to home greensand casting techniques
unless you can put an argon atmosphere above the molten metal.
the magnesium burns brightly at the surface of the molten metal.

stealth pilot

Stealth Pilot wrote:
On Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:11:48 GMT, Jerry Wass
wrote:

Stealth Pilot wrote:
veedubber and others
the venerable old VW engine conversion is quite usable.

if you were to take all the lessons learnt from all the engine
building done so far and apply them to a new engine design, what would
the new engine design look like?

I think the flat 4 makes a very serviceable aircraft engine.
underslung pushrods like the O-200 and VW would remain.
I'd use hydraulic lifters.
the castings for the crankcase would be simpler, more like the O-200
than the complexities of the VW casing.
the crankshaft would be a little more robust at the front end
I'd fin the pushrod tubes and use the oil returning to the crankcase
as a radiator.
the engine would be mounted on dynafocal lord mounts.
I'd use electron for the crankcasings.
spin on oil filter. (z79)
magnet in the sumpplug.

what else???

Stealth Pilot

Would you please expand on "electron for crankcasings"

electron is a magnesium - aluminium alloy. lighter and stronger than
plain aluminium alloy for the casings. I'm pretty sure it is what vw
used in the casings.
however it doesnt lend itself to home greensand casting techniques
unless you can put an argon atmosphere above the molten metal.
the magnesium burns brightly at the surface of the molten metal.

stealth pilot

HEY!Thanks for the answer---Hadn't heard of that alloy--mosta my
castings used old cummins diesel pistons--heat treat really well!!
let one get too hot when treating --left a spidery matrix of copper..
Jerry

On Jan 9, 4:49*pm, Jerry Wass wrote:

HEY!Thanks for the answer---Hadn't heard of that alloy--mosta *my
castings . . . .

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry Jerry, but 'Electrum' (as I believe it's spelt), whilst the
cat's pajamas's in the 1930's because Germany produced about 90% of
the world's magnesium, thanks to one of their companies holding the
patent to the most efficient sea-water extraction process, by the
1950's everyone was discovering that the alloy, which was about 95%
magnesium, the other 5% made up of aluminum, zinc, copper and what-
have-you (remember, these are the folks who came up with 2024-T6), it
was discovered that the alloy -- which was vvery popular for the gear-
cases on helicopters -- was susceptible to AGE HARDENING. (Volkswagen
discovered the same thing... and changed their alloy in 1972.)

The problem was not discovered for about 25 years, when they noticed
that the Universal Replacement Crankcase often developed fatal cracks
from simply sitting on the shelf in the dealer's parts department.
These parts had never been assembled; had never been subjected to any
form of stress. Yet they still cracked. The quick fix was to
increase the percentage of Aluminum in the casting meta from about 2%
to about 4%. But engineers opined that the additional aluminum may
NOT be a permanent cure... but we would have to wait another 25 years
to find out.

Boeing found out the hard way. Their Vertol Division experienced
similar cracking problems in their helicopter crankcases.

The best solution was to go to aluminum vs magnesium.

-Bob