Anyone ever consider an aircraft engine swap? Saw the Youtube video and it made me wonder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jMoXiQ11Bk

Nope. It's an entirely different creature. For one the Red line is about 3300 rpm. It would most likely overheat unless you were on the hi way all the time and on and on and on.

Tucker used a H-6 intended for a bell helicopter. I looked up the typical rpm of a piston engine for a helo, 450 - 500 rpm. Not sure how he did it. Couldn't find much info on his engine.

Why? What do you see and possible advantages ?
An aircraft engine is made to operate at a fixed RPM.
You would have to add a source of airflow over the heads and cylinders.
Parts are far more expensive and less common.

It's like the flying car or the amphibious car. Sounds great but in practice they're not very good at any one thing.
The flying car is at best a marginal car or a marginal airplane.

There's exceptions, as in car engines in small aircraft, but these engines are reworked to better suit aircraft.

Been there done that.......

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/porsche-...eth-148324.html

Spent my former life rebuilding aircraft engines. The only thing close to what we would want would be the Rotax 914UL or the 912S. They are 4cyl opposed with watercooled heads.. the 914ul is a turbocharged version. Turns good RPM as well

There are probably hundreds of aircraft with VW air cooled motors. What struck me about the Type VI and 6 cylinder 911 motors was how much they resemble aircraft motors. Porsche even licensed their 3.0 six (IIRC) to Mooney for their aircraft. LS engines are being used for everything from boat motors to aircraft engines. Just because it’s in an airplane doesn’t mean it has to be air cooled.

See this post about putting a Merlin engine in a 914!

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=344425&hl=

It would be amusing to see a car - any car - with a rotary engine (aircraft not wankel :-) ).

It's been done to a bug. Looks like it should be in a mad max movie. Exposed prop.

Look at the date

The standard four cylinder Lycoming is 360 cubic inches making 180 HP

The Thunderbolt as shown in the link is probably a 390. They are built stout. Take a look at the length of that nosebearing. They are designed to turn 2700 - 2900 rpm max. You would need some really long gearing to make that work!

I know there are a lot of radial powered bike https://www.haulnride.com/radial-engine-mot...past-to-present

A few cars, looking for links...... aha, here’s one https://www.motortrend.com/news/airplane-en...dically-radial/

1st engine I ever took apart and "rebuilt". At school we just took them apart, measured everything and put it right back together. No new parts since just run on test cells.

I see O’Reilys has Flux Capacitors on their website for sale. Do you think I could fit me in my 914? I know they are engineered for time travel but who knows. Might make for a fun conversion.

Well, this is how it can happen. At least someone else put up the money.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/...ngine-in-a-car/

For what you would pay for a serviceable aircraft engine you could build a nice T4 motor, so why? If you want HP you can go V8 or Subaru, My leaning would be to the latter with a turbo, but it's a lot of work and money you will probably never get back if you sell it.

My plane has a Continental 360ci, supercharged. Rebuild is the best past of $40k. As said above, very limited rpm range. No reason to consider it for any auto.

My plane has a Continental 360ci, supercharged. Rebuild is the best past of $40k. As said above, very limited rpm range. No reason to consider it for any auto.

I've seen it the other way around, 914 motor in a gyro-copter.

Does not look like a well planned design with no shrouding around the heads, cylinder or oil cooler.

I think you could write a dissertation on the design failures in this design.

Darwin's gyro award winner. Gaads

Its a free air design which is very common in aircraft applications with no cowls. It is also cooler as you climb so that helps. Its the fast decents though that causes issues as it super cools the cylinders and shrinks them to the pistons. Btdt when living in that world. I rebuilt a few hundred engines while in the business.

That thing is somebody's backyard hack, I doubt that ever moved under its own power; for example, note the prop arc intercepts the vertical stabilizer...

However, Google Gyrodyne XRON-1, powered by a "Porsche YO-95-2" engine. NEAM's has what I'm pretty convinced is a T4 engine. I need to get closer next time I'm there, they have it in cold storage right now.

https://neam.org/ac-gyrodyne-xron1.php

I already said this in the original thread, I would not do that. The thrust surfaces in that engine are not designed for use with a propeller. It would tear them up rapidly. Aircraft engines have huge thrust bearings to take the load of the propeller pulling on them. The cases are much beefier, and they have dedicated mounts for the load. If you want to run an automotive engine, use a drive that both lowers the prop speed and transfers the load of the propeller to a strong bearing surface.

IDK, pretty sure that is 356-derived Greg. I saw it at NEAM a while ago so I could be wrong, but I remember the exhaust ports on the sides of the heads. Interesting looking engine though as it had a big bulge on the "bottom" in-line with the crank axis for the oil pan.

I’ve seen people use Corvair power in experimental airplanes..
Bored to 3.1 liter and using VW pistons and cylinders..
Dr. Evil had an engine like that in his bus.
They even have adapters to put the Weber’s from a 911 on them.
Still air cooled, 3 liter for less than a 6 cyl Porsche..


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Noted! I'll bring a telephoto next time (I'm a member). It's parked in the wayback of the back restoration hanger; when I was there last they had the hanger doors open but taped off, and the docent wouldn't let me cross "cause COVID".

I'll see if I can arrange a time to get access and get some closer photos.

Yes agreed.. also note the Rotax aircraft engines have gear reducers. Even the vw engines that they cut in half they typically add gear reduction of some type. I use to travel to EAA events and give presentations on this.

Definitely be curious to see!

Ahh...not surprised. My wife and I used to go somewhat frequently (Pratt perks back in the day...) but not in a while.

I learned that years ago when I helped a machinist friend research the feasibility of putting a Jetta TDI engine in a Long-EZ. He figured he could get enough range on the TDI to make it from here to Ohio non stop. We drew up the plans in BobCad for the propeller reduction gear parts, but we never built it.

Clay

My preference would be that it be a marginal car!

I remember that's what all the reviews said about the Amphicar, not a very good car, or a very good boat, but it did do both.

People have been trying to make a Porsche Gyro work for years, with various levels of success.

The flat tire is a nice touch too. Consistent Kuality

Great, now I know who to call when I finally get around to building that kit plane that is on my bucket list.

I should probably learn to fly 1st.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/tr...into-airplanes/

And then this

Bob B

I think the stock Mooney outperformed the Porsche engine, so it was short lived.

We may have crossed paths at some point Ben. I was pretty active in the EAA years back. There was another design on the 1/2 VW that kept the case intact and used the front 2 cylinders only. The back half was used for mounting purposes. A guy in TX (Leonard something or other) used that design in his "Legal Eagle" ultra lite. IIRC, he called his engine design, "Don't cut that other half".

Here's my rant on it from some years ago...Mooney took Porsche to the cleaners on that one.

https://gatm.org/flying/pfm.html

That said...I got some stick time in one and I loved it. Flew really nice and single-lever control was pretty damned cool.

I'd love to have one of the M20L airframes...but I'd probably convert it to the Lycoming immediately after (if it wasn't already done...Porsche doesn't support them any more).

I would love to find a PFM setup complete from the firewall forward. The. I would buy a Globe Swift and make a flying 914-6.

I helped my dad restore a Swift years ago, he crashed it twice and sold it, ironically he bought it crashed, I think the plane was cursed...

Hey, wait a minute!

My Amphicar is the fastest car on the water and the fastest boat on land. I'll race any 6 owner for pinks so long as I get to pick the start and finish lines on opposite sides of the lake.

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I have flown 2 different swifts. Loved both of them. They reminded me of a 914, 2 seats and fun to fly, but underpowered. Built right here in Fort Worth in the late 1940s. Lots out there with upgraded motors. A PFM setup would make it a flying 914-6.

They're out there...somewhere...Porsche didn't buy 'em back, AFAIK, just stopped supporting them, stopped building parts, and surrendured the type certificate to the FAA. Since the cert was surrendured, it cannot be installed on any certified airplane, it could only be installed on an Experimental/Homebuilt.

Whatever happened with LoPresti's SwiftFury project? I know Speed Merchants is not in biz anymore (I knew his sons, Curt and David, well and bought a cowl from them for my Tiger) but I'm surprised no one else picked up the torch on that one. It was a nice project.

You can decertify an aircraft to put the PFM in it.

Unfortunately, not an N-reg'd airplane in the USA. I (and others) have tried to do it* and it was rejected. The best the FAA would offer is a temporary Experimental cert, Research and Development, but it had to be temporary and the aircraft ultimately returned to its original airworthiness cert.

We even went so far as to try and convince the FSDO with something like, "well, what if I <wink wink> built the Tiger airframe from scratch, and used gear and wings, and controls, and all a lot of parts from a Tiger, such that it looked a whole lot like a Tiger? Could I get Experiemental cert for that?" and the guy was like "<hard stare> you prove you built those wings, and fuse, and empanage, and so forth from scratch, greater than 51%, I'll give you an E-cert. But you better have a lots of photos and video." And of course, no DER would touch that third rail...

In Canada you can de-reg your certified airplane for owner maintainance. But not in the USA.

*We wanted to install an M20J IO-360 with a C/S prop on my Tiger. But the amount of work, and hassles, and money involved to get an STC was absolutely incredible. We watched a guy do the whole shebang to get the IO-540 installed in his Tiger and said, "eff that". Killer install but absolutely no way was I going to create that kinda pain...

Here's the masochist, if you want to listen to his story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtrCFCOZ8g8...channel=GregAmy

Did SM actually close-I thought they merged with Whelen?

I had ASSumed. "speedmerchants.com" is dead and David and Curt's emails are both DOA...I figured they retired.

I just looked at David's FB page and it does says he's worked for Whelen Technologies since Feb 2019...I haven't talked to either in years.