The Orphaned Engine, Part Two

On Apr 9, 10:58*am, Monk wrote:

My step mother and my wife's mother both passed on due to cancer so I,
for one thought you didn't have much time left Bob. *Glad to hear that
yours is treatable.
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Welll... I'll tell ya, pard... when the doctor asked me "Do you know
what multiple myeloma is?" I swear to gawd my pump damn near stopped
right there. Because the answer was 'yes' and the fellow who had it
checked out three months later. But that was in the early 1970's.

I guess the doctor could see what I was thinking because he jumped
right in by telling me the situation wasn't as grime as it was just a
few years ago, and started giving me a run-down as to just how bad my
case was and what could be one to slow it down, how MUCH they could
slow it down and so forth. In fact, he painted a pretty rosy picture
that made incurable cancer sound about as serious as a head cold.

Reality came along one bullet at a time. Some were hits, some were
misses. Some depended on how well I was able to stand up to the
treatment, some aspects of which seemed worse than the disease because
you had to stand there and take the full bolt, whereas the disease had
spent years establishing itself -- and largely destroying some
portions of my spine.

Multiple Myeloma doesn't have any poster child. MM hits adults and
often takes them down about as quickly as a bullet. But if you're
lucky enough to be diagnosed early enough there are paths through the
mine field. We've been traveling one since I was diagnosed and are
presently examining the next patch we need to cross. No sense talking
about it. If we make the right choices I'll end up on a well-marked
trail. But make the wrong choice...

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I'd really like to get across the principle behind the ENGINES I was
talking about. Most folks don't seem to understand that particular
choice and that's a major loss for grass-roots aviation because it
defines an engine that is almost a one-to-one match for what's needed
to power air frames that are specific to the survival of grass-roots
aviation, such as the Teenie Two, any of the KR's, the CX4, BK1.3,
VP-1, Double Eagle and so on. Bags of low-end torque which is a
virtual guarantee of high propeller efficiency at a fairly low rpm.
Developing your power down low also gives you a BIG advantage when it
comes to the engine's useful life.

But the thing is an orphan. Other than me and one other guy I've
never heard of anyone building one. In fact, in talking engines with
others who have converted more than a few VW's for flight, some of
them had never even heard of the method. And of those who had, the
ALL said the customer's wouldn't buy one even if it was available.

That might of been true back in the 1970's but I've got a hunch the
economic crunch has turned them into believers.

At 1700 cc it's not a big engine. But it's more than enough to fly
the planes I've listed. What's in its corner is a higher percentage
of stock parts. All you need do is swap-out the crank & rods. Jugs,
heads, cam... everything else stays STOCK. And there is no machining
required.

Running stock jugs under stock heads on an engine that needs no
machining, you've got an engine that costs only a few hundred dollars
more than a stone-stock 1600... except you've upped it to 1700 at the
same time you've move the torque-curve down into the region normally
occupied by real aircraft engines. (Okay, real but SMALL aircraft
engines.) 1700cc is about 103cid. Using the old rule of thumb for
normally aspirated air-cooled engines smaller than 500cid, your
maximum PEAK hp is going to be 51.8bhp @ 3200rpm. Maximum SUSTAINABLE
hp is going to be about 38.85bhp @ 2700rpm.

Right about there most homebuilders start easing out of the room
because they KNOW a converted VW is good for AT LEAST 80hp... and
there's a feller across the way who will sell them one, two. For
about six grand.

This one would cost less than half that.

I guess part of the problem is that no one wants an orphaned
engine :-)

-R.S.Hoover