VW engines by metric AP

Fred the Red Shirt wrote:
On Jul 27, 1:30 am, cavelamb himself
wrote:

wrote:

On Jul 26, 5:05 am, cavelamb himself
wrote:

wrote:

Has anybody here heard of VW aeroconversions by a company
called metric A/P? Any experiences good or bad?

I haven't been able to find them on the Web.

...

Never heard of him...

How big is this company?

I have yet to find evidence that they exist. Consequently,
speculation as to their size would be unwarranted.

According to Bradley Aerospace the engine included with the kit
they have up for auction on eBay is a 1600 cc VW aeroconversion
made by metric A/P.

--

FF

I dunno, Fred.

After some of the engines I've seen built by so called "experts"
I'd really suggest contacting Great Plains and build your own.

It's not hard to do if you follow the instructions and keep everything
clean.

And you KNOW what's in it.


I've also been thinking that one could design a radial engine
that uses off-the-shelf VW cylinders, pistons and maybe
even scat heads. As with most such ideas, someone else
has already tried it:

http://www.hciaviation.com/pricing.shtml#standard

$ 5200

A set of pistons, wrist pins and cylinders runs anywhere from
a little over $100.00 to maybe $500 unless you get really
wild. Add that to the ignition components, bearings,
belts etc and I would guess you'd maybe have another $1000
in parts -- $6200 total?

Do you folks think their horsepower estimate (75 HP) is reasonable?
Do you think they would have better cooling inside of a NACAR
cowl than does a typical flat-four installation?


Compare that to a Great Plains 1600 cc VW long block -- $1800
Plus an accessory package, at least -- $1300
Plus their dual ignition accessoriy kit --
$700
Plus filters, bolts, (belts?) etc maybe ~
$100

_________

Total
$3900


Or for a 2800 cc '80 HP' Total ~
$5800

So it looks like maybe they can be cost competitive with
the bigger displacement VWs.

Meanwhile, does the term "aircraft A/P" mean anything to
anyone here? As in a person who makes airplane engines?

--

FF


Hi Again, Fred,

Yeah, their horsepower estimates might be for real.
Depends on how much fin area is aaliable to remove the heat of combistion.

BTW, that one minor detail is the reason ALL VW engines are really
only 40 ho engies. Sure, they may make more power tha that, but
with stock heads, once the head is heat saturated anything over
about 40 HP will lead to a serious overheating condition.


YMMV, but not much...


Richard

("Fred the Red Shirt" wrote)
I've also been thinking that one could design a radial engine that uses
off-the-shelf VW cylinders, pistons and maybe even scat heads. As with
most such ideas, someone else has already tried it:

http://www.hciaviation.com/pricing.shtml#standard


http://www.hciaviation.com/images/r220_big.jpg
I'm seeing the birth of Borg technology


Paul-Mont
5 of 7 & 7 of 9 sittin' in a tree...
K-i-s-s-i-n-g!
First comes (well me g) I mean, love...
Then comes, regeneration...

"Montblack" wrote in message
...
("Fred the Red Shirt" wrote)
I've also been thinking that one could design a radial engine that uses
off-the-shelf VW cylinders, pistons and maybe even scat heads. As with
most such ideas, someone else has already tried it:

http://www.hciaviation.com/pricing.shtml#standard


http://www.hciaviation.com/images/r220_big.jpg
I'm seeing the birth of Borg technology


Paul-Mont
5 of 7 & 7 of 9 sittin' in a tree...
K-i-s-s-i-n-g!
First comes (well me g) I mean, love...
Then comes, regeneration...

How about using inline 4 Cyl, one liter, liquid cooled motorcycle cylinder
blocks - say, from a Kawasaki GL1000. Mount 9 of them around a radial
crankcase that contains a planetary PSRU in the nose case. You would have a
36 cylinder, 9 liter replica of the Lycoming XR7755.

Bill Daniels

On Aug 6, 10:20 pm, cavelamb himself wrote:
Fred the Red Shirt wrote:



On Jul 27, 1:30 am, cavelamb himself
wrote:

wrote:

On Jul 26, 5:05 am, cavelamb himself
wrote:

wrote
....

According to Bradley Aerospace the engine included with the kit
they have up for auction on eBay is a 1600 cc VW aeroconversion
made by metric A/P.
...
After some of the engines I've seen built by so called "experts"
I'd really suggest contacting Great Plains and build your own.

It's not hard to do if you follow the instructions and keep everything
clean.

And you KNOW what's in it.

...
http://www.hciaviation.com/pricing.shtml#standard

...-- $6200 total?

Do you folks think their horsepower estimate (75 HP) is reasonable?
Do you think they would have better cooling inside of a NACAR
cowl than does a typical flat-four installation?

Compare that to a Great Plains 1600 cc V...

Total
$3900

Or for a 2800 cc '80 HP' Total ~
$5800

So it looks like maybe they can be cost competitive with
the bigger displacement VWs.

Meanwhile, does the term "aircraft A/P" mean anything to
anyone here? As in a person who makes airplane engines?

...

Hi Again, Fred,

Yeah, their horsepower estimates might be for real.
Depends on how much fin area is aaliable to remove the heat of combistion.

... Sure, they may make more power tha that, but
with stock heads, once the head is heat saturated anything over
about 40 HP will lead to a serious overheating condition.


Yes, I've read veedubber's essays on VW aeroconversions.
The HCI radial has five cylinders, so it has more cooling
area and the radial spacing would also improve cooling I
think.

However, a more careful examination of the HCI website
and an email from the proprietor confirms that the kits
only include those parts that require close tolerances or
are machined from specialized castings. The builder
would need to make many more (albeit simpler) parts
from billet. Given the cost of custom work, I don't
doubt that one gets good parts for a fair price, but
you'll need more than a socket set to build one
of their engines from their kits--rats!

Meanwhile, Mr Huggins has sent me a longish (at least
compared to the previous correspondence) email explaining
among other things, that the 1600 cc aeroconversions he
is including with the kits advertised on eBay are made
for him by "an aircraft A/P that's in the VW business"
who does not sell to the public.

A phone call to Metric Auto Parts in Chico, CA confirms
that they are this mysterious supplier. I guess "A/P" means
"Auto Parts". Of course no one would confuse that with
"A&P" (airframe and power plant) so there was no need
for Mr Huggins to spell it out...

Scuttlebutt has it that he has sold a few kits and may
even have shipped or be near to shipping some at this
time. He is also rumored to be moving his operation from
his old location to a building near the airport.

--

FF

On Aug 7, 4:06 am, "Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:
"Montblack" wrote in message

...

("Fred the Red Shirt" wrote)
I've also been thinking that one could design a radial engine that uses
off-the-shelf VW cylinders, pistons and maybe even scat heads. As with
most such ideas, someone else has already tried it:

http://www.hciaviation.com/pricing.shtml#standard

http://www.hciaviation.com/images/r220_big.jpg
I'm seeing the birth of Borg technology

...

How about using inline 4 Cyl, one liter, liquid cooled motorcycle cylinder
blocks - say, from a Kawasaki GL1000. Mount 9 of them around a radial
crankcase that contains a planetary PSRU in the nose case. You would have a
36 cylinder, 9 liter replica of the Lycoming XR7755.


I think one or two companies have made modular engines wherein
each module is a two cylinder boxer and you bolt them together
to make a flat four or six. If you bolted the second module on
at a right angle you'd have a pseudo-radial.

--

FF

Oh, his most recent eBay ad does not include an engine with
the kit. His buy it now price on eBay has been going up and
his price on his webpages has been coming down so it appears
they are converging right around ten grand, sans engine and
instruments.

--

FF