Casting Four Individual VW Heads

wrote:

Not a stupid question at all. In fact it has been done to the air-
cooled VW head and isn't all that hard. Far less work than making a
casting. IMHO water cooled aircraft engines have some real
advantages.

BUT..............

There are lots of individuals that prefer the simplicity and
reliability of an air-cooled noise maker.
===========================
Leon McAtee

If this is that simple, perhaps it's worth doing. There is a small
electric water pump used in Mercedes-Benz heaters that could be used
with a motorcycle aluminum radiator that just might to the job... It's
worth thinking about anyway.

Many sport bike radiators can be had used cheap off eBay because they're
so well tucked in that they don't get smashed when the bikes crash. I
recently bought a Kawasaki 500 radiator for $12...

Tony

"Anthony W" wrote in message
...
wrote:

Not a stupid question at all. In fact it has been done to the air-
cooled VW head and isn't all that hard. Far less work than making a
casting. IMHO water cooled aircraft engines have some real
advantages.

BUT..............

There are lots of individuals that prefer the simplicity and
reliability of an air-cooled noise maker.
===========================
Leon McAtee

If this is that simple, perhaps it's worth doing. There is a small
electric water pump used in Mercedes-Benz heaters that could be used with
a motorcycle aluminum radiator that just might to the job... It's worth
thinking about anyway.

Many sport bike radiators can be had used cheap off eBay because they're
so well tucked in that they don't get smashed when the bikes crash. I
recently bought a Kawasaki 500 radiator for $12...

Tony

While this might be a good solution for some builders and designs, I would
test the radiator at 75% power for an hour or so before wrapping an aircraft
around it. Motorcycles seldom run at 75% power long enough to over heat. You
might need a good bit more radiator.

On Jan 20, 10:03*pm, "
wrote:
On Jan 20, 9:10*pm, "Tim Ward" wrote:

Perhaps I'm missing something, but why not just CNC machine an existing foam
block?

If you have ever tried to mill 2 pound foam you would understand :-)
It tends to tear and the "chips" cling to everything with static
electricity.

It looks like milling foam is not as much of a problem as I thought.
Just goes to show you that just because I/we haven't been able to do
something that it isn't possible :-)

http://www.theworkshop.ca/machining/...FoamMill16.htm

Using this guys existing setup and milling foam from something like
1/4" sheets and then stacking them all together just might work!

And the thought occurred to me that one could substitute a hot point,
like a soldering iron tip, to do the "milling"
===================
Leon McAtee

Maxwell wrote:

Not a stupid question at all. In fact it has been done to the air-
cooled VW head and isn't all that hard. Far less work than making a
casting. IMHO water cooled aircraft engines have some real
advantages.

If this is that simple, perhaps it's worth doing. There is a small
electric water pump used in Mercedes-Benz heaters that could be used with
a motorcycle aluminum radiator that just might to the job... It's worth
thinking about anyway.

Many sport bike radiators can be had used cheap off eBay because they're
so well tucked in that they don't get smashed when the bikes crash. I
recently bought a Kawasaki 500 radiator for $12...

Tony

While this might be a good solution for some builders and designs, I would
test the radiator at 75% power for an hour or so before wrapping an aircraft
around it. Motorcycles seldom run at 75% power long enough to over heat. You
might need a good bit more radiator.

Actually I was thinking about using 2 of them but there are other bike
radiators that are larger. I'm more worried about welded in water
jackets cracking than not being about to get enough radiator surface area.

Tony