Aircraft engines

any of you running any? i know they used em in midgits and a for feds, i'm
not talking aobut the giant allisons. but the lycoming and continentals and others.

 

Aircraft engines, like industrial engines, are made to run at a constant speed, and are not very good at automobile use. I think a good example was the Kaiser that ran a "Continental" engine. it was a good stationary powerplant, but did not work real well in a car. Most car engines are good for power from say 1500 Rpms up through 4 or 5,000 rpms. Airplanes run in a much smaller range.

 

Ranger engines were used in cars and sprint cars a lot.

 

Plus they are expensive. I mean big time bucks to buy parts for and maintain. Some engines can cost a hundred grand or more depending one type (RR Merlin). The older types, as stated before, are extremely delicate compared to a SB Chevy. Things like detonation or pre ignition can destroy and airplane engine.

 

Aircraft engines are not, in general, delicate. Nor are they necessarily lmited quite so narrowly as to rpm. The rpm range used by aircraft engines has much more to do with propeller speed than the engine's capability. Propellers blades do not operate well at high rpm, and the larger their diameter the more critical the speed becomes. A number of engines were "geared", meaning they are not direct drive. the crankshaft turns through a reduction gear to the the prop shaft. This was intended to utilize it's higher rpm potential, and therefore higher horsepower, while keeping prop speeds in the most useable range. One thing they definitely are though is EXPENSIVE to overhaul.

That is, of course, if done to aviation standards which are higher than what would be required for automotive use, but still costly. Mostly, however, they don't lend themselves to easily being fitted with belhousings and transmissions for automotive applications. Why bother with the trouble and expense when purpose designed engines are so readily available.

edit: The most significant characteristic of most (which I failed to mention) is they are air cooled. In an aircraft that is generally a beneficial feature (plenty of air available and lighter weight) but for any street application can easily become problematic.


Ray

 

about the only thing they are good for other then flying, are stationary power supplies and airboats, you can get non certified parts for land use which are much cheaper, they just can't go on an aircraft.

 

Wtf?

 

Those two problems will kill any gasoline engine, so I don't see your point.

 

More importantly: I boxed a fart, but when I opened the box the next day the fart was gone.

Where did the fart go?

 

Either the fart disguised itself as thin air and went right past you... or the box probably wasn't build to aviation specs...

 

How about this guy?




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Model A Ford engine is also used as an aircraft engine.
Do some search with word Pietenpol.

 

I put a 4 cylinder lycomming in a '65 Corvair once it worked fine. It certainly didn't have a very wide power band but building a decent exhaust helped it a ton and the 'vair did have more than one gear.

 

The Continental engine in the Kaiser was not a stationary engine. It may not have been a real powerhouse, but it was an automoble engine. Continental built many thousands of engines for many of the early assembled cars

 

sub-standard box..... it simply was NOT fart impervious....

 

Back in 1957 there was a 48 Pontiac sdn. that had a Ranger inverted 6 cyl. with 440 cubes adapted to the hydramatic trans. This was in Oley, Pa. and he was a farmer who did his own machine work. Wonder if that cars still stuck in a barn .

 

seen a picture of a big 7 cyl radial on a bike. It looked very well constructed and was really nice looking.

 

I read that the Ranger was popular because there was an extreme over supply and the could be had for about $75 brand new in the crate. Also remember at 440 cu.ins. they were quite a bit larger than readily available auto engines.

 

The explanation given to me was that the cranks on the horizontally opposed engines are built to withstand the different stresses of having a prop turning at around 2850 rpm. The crankshafts are apparently will flex more at the higher rpms and lead to early failure.
I am not certain that this is gospel, but I know that I had a crankshaft crack on me while I was flying an airplane with a horizontally opposed six, and it was a scary 15 minutes until I could safely land the airplane. There was an rpm band that caused a distructive harmonic to develop in the engine. I guarantee you that it is a sound you do not want to hear when you are over water, as I was, with only wheels underneath you.
They successfully used radial engines in Grant and Sherman tanks in WWII. Not all of the tanks had these engines, but they were quite successful.
In the late 50s I knew a guy that made a dragster that had a ranger engine. It was not successful, and he dumped it for a hemi.
Having flown a lot of piston engined airplanes, and I believe that aircooled flat 4 or 6 aircraft represent a technology that had actually been hindered by the FAA approval process, and because of the cost it isn't feasible for even a well funded manufacturer to develop new engines that take advantage of the new materials available. The same system that protects us, retards progress that would help us.
Bob

 

I may have seen it. What did it look or smell like?

 

High-performance air-cooled VW engine builders weld counterweights onto stock cranks or use counterweighted aftermarket cranks to go over 5500rpm safely. Perhaps those aircraft cranks will respond similarly to the addition of counterweights?

 

I dimly remember a HRM tech feature, somewhere around 1960, on a rod built in NZ with one of the common opposed four engines attached to lot of early Ford parts. Geared up?? Don't remember.
I do remember that the owner said it was cheap, because the aircraft parts had to be scrapped after X hours of run time, putting perfectly usable stuff in the scrap heap!

 

I posted this pic earlier about Preston Tuckers Kids' Duece Roadster. Supposedly this is a Helicopter engine. sounded like a F-16

 

I think it was one of the beer brands (Coors maybe) had a black deuce roadster back in the 90's that ran an Allison T-63 helicopter engine. Did a little of the R&D on that one back when I was a gas turbine engine instructor.

 

Bruce.........GREAT MEMORY........I too recall that article and had it in mind when reading/replying to this thread though didn't mention it thinking it was so long ago nobody else would relate to it. I recall the fellow built his own body...the car resembled (again, as I recall) more of a sports racing car but was built in the hot rod tradition of using what you got. It was a Lycoming opposed 4 banger and I too recall his comment about using readily available "run out" parts and thereby keeping costs low.

Ray

 

"Rattlin' Good Roadster" it was titled. Whenever it was, I bought it new, and had a helluva time coming up with the 25 cents.
The turbine deuce was built by a Boeing engineer, and was in every magazine on the planet...it was about the time that turbines generated a lot of press from Chrysler.

 

This is going the "opposite" way - but what about a Corvair engine? A lot of guys converted those for use in airplanes.

 

Your both talking about the same car?

http://www.lemaymuseum.org/news.php?nid=207

I'm googling "jet car Len Williams" and getting alot

 

There have been a lot of auto to aero conversions. Model A, VW, Ford Ranger, and Chevy big block just from memory. There was even one where a VW is cut in half to make a 2 cylinder opposed engine for a homebuilt aircraft.

 

hahahahahha I'm not the only one that had a boxed fart stolen from me!