automobile engines for the RV-10
 

Has anyone tried one yet

Yes, the RV-10 has been flown with the Chevy LS-1. You can search the forums or Google it. I think there's a video somewhere.

Auto engines
 

While I like to see the competition, I see a trend with the auto conversions. You can find three auto-engine RV-10's by searching the NTSB reports.:(

The ls-1 from geared drives looked really nice but, tragically, I think the owner of the company was in a fatal aircraft accident not too long ago...

Several.
 

About 5 years ago, a 6 cyl. Subie equipped -10 was flying but unfortunately crashed and was totalled.

Todd Sweezey of Savannah had an LS-1 powered -10 and there's another at Peachtree City, in Georgia. Last time I saw that one, it had not yet flown.

There's another Subie-powered -10 going together in Canada, by Ross F, who should be chiming in here.

Best,

Bill Gibson has a LS-1 RV-10, which I believe is the first and last of the Bud's RV-10 installations. It initially had some problems, but I believe those have been resolved.

Unfortunately, all of them but Ross's have been NTSB statistics. Fortunately, Bill's was repaired and flying again. Dan's and Todd's were totalled, though neither were directly caused by engine issues.

bob

I've lost 3 friends in the last 6 months to crashes involving LS1 engines.

I'm tired of losing friends.

There are at least 2 other LS RV10s nearing flight status right now. Considering the small number of aircraft fitted with these engines, there has been an inordinate number of crashes, many of them fatal in the last 3 years.

While none so far have been caused by actual mechanical failure of the engine as far as I know, (although several engines have suffered internal damage due to improper ECU mapping) as has been the case with most automotive FF packages, supporting systems such as the gearbox, cooling, electrical, fuel and ECU issues have caused a power or thrust loss.

My advice is to stay away from this idea until someone has all the bugs worked out and several aircraft have accumulated at least 500 hours each without incident. It is also my feeling that the LS engine is really too heavy for an RV10. Every one built so far has been substantially heavier than the Lycoming version and C of G corrections have been required.

Bill's aircraft which had a power loss a couple years ago and was heavily damaged has been flying again for some time after repair but has not accumulated enough flight hours IMO to prove the overall reliability of the package.

I have cautioned one of my friends who is close to flying his RV10 sternly about the dangers and how he should be approaching the test flight period and every flight after that period is up. This is not something to be trifled with by your average non-mechanically inclined builder or pilot. For most people, writing that big check for the 540 is the way to go.

One thing about the Geared Drives plumbing bothered me. They used Aeroquip pushlock fittings all over the engine...oil lines, coolant lines, etc. A Rocket builder had these on his his oil lines, which failed and the airplane was totalled in an off-airport landing. I wouldn't put these fittings on a garden hose let alone an airplane. When I mentioned this to Phyllis when I saw them at the previous SNF I told her about the potential failure points of these fittings, and she disagreed. I believe they paid for this mistake with their lives.

There is a Mistral (20B rotary) powered 10 in the Netherlands too...