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My engine finally arrived for the RV-8R!

flyboykelly

Well Known Member
I'll have the engine mount in about two weeks. I post regular updates on the project at;

www.facebook.com/radialconversions

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Interesting project! I hope to see the finished aircraft at OSH someday, and hear it run.

I?ll be in Daytona Beach for a week in early Feb 2014. Are you interested in a project visit?
 
A friend of mine purchased a competed Kitfox with the radial Rotec. He made a lot of mods to the aircraft then sold it without ever flying it although he did start the engine several times. The engine has a really cool, throaty, sound. The aircraft had about 7 hours on it from the previous owner. We would have loved to have seen it fly.

Best of luck on your project.

Regards,
 
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Radials Forever

Just had this emailed to me. Enjoy!

We gotta get rid of turbines, they are ruining aviation. We need to go back to big round engines.
Anybody can start a turbine, you just need to move a switch from "OFF" to "START," and then remember to move it back to "ON" after a while. My PC is harder to start.
Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. On some planes, the pilots are not even allowed to do it.
Turbines start by whining for a while, and then give a small lady-like poot and start whining louder.
Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click BANG, more rattles, another BANG, a big macho fart or two, more clicks, a lot of smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar.
We like that. It's a guy thing. When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting a turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan: Useful, but hardly exciting.
Turbines don't break often enough, leading to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it's going to blow at any minute.
This helps concentrate the mind.
Turbines don't have enough control levers to keep a pilot's attention.
There's nothing to fiddle with during the flight.
Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman lanterns. Round engines smell like God intended flying machines to smell.
I think I hear the nurse coming down the hall. I gotta go.
 
build hours ???

You know what they say every stray from Van's original plans adds significantly more hours to the build. I'm guessing this holds doubly true for "squeezing on a radial" :).

So I'm in the proper "mood" I think I'll go dig up my "Round Sounds Volume 1" CD that is comprised of nothing but Radial Engine sounds from various bad a** airplanes and have a listen.

Ha ha... Nice!
 
Very cool

Awesome!
This looks to be a very exiting project.
Looking forward to seeing more pictures.
 
Re: build hours

One answer. LOTS, about seven years worth. Is it worth the extra work? For me, yes. This is as much fun for me as it will be to fly it. Even after she flies I will be tinkering with this and that to squeez every bit of fun out of her. The conversion to the airframe itself was not hard.
I reshaped the firewall and lofted the new shape back to the stock instrument panel. The most work went into the cowling. About a years worth. I've enjoyed every minute of it.
 
Ok I'm jealous, if I had the money I would be right there with Flyboy, getting a radial on my 8. I'm still saving for a measly lycoming.:(:(

I have many hours behind pw 1340's, and 985's. the sound the feel the smell, nothing in the world like them. Ahhh those were the days.

Bird
 
Brian, that is one of the best looking engines I have ever seen. There is a coffee table at Kenmore Air in Seattle that has an old Beaver radial as the base that is pretty cool also. A friend of mine had an old Howard plane with a radial and you can hear that thing start from a couple miles away!

I guess it is the sound and looks, but the radial is just plane cool. I saw a Kitfox with one and I can't wait to see your 8 with it mounted. Best of luck and I will be following you on FB. Thanks

Edit - I just looked at the work you had to do on the cowl. Wow, what a project. You are going to have a one-of-a-kind plane for sure.
 
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Watching the video reminded me of a modification my friend made to the engine. He wired the start switch such that the engine would not start unless the oil shutoff valve was open. If this mod is of interest to you I can put you in touch with him.
 
Tom, I've heard of this mod also. Guys are installing shutoff valves at the oil tank outlet to prevent oil from filling the engine while shut down. All of these tanks have the oil outlet at the bottom of the tank. My oil tank is out of a Beech T-34. The oil outlet is on the side with a pickup tube. This should prevent this from happening (hopefully). Keep the thoughts coming!
 
How about some specs

Could you share some more specifics about the engine & the conversion, such as displacement, HP, weight, effect on the cg, difficulties in physically fitting the engine to the airframe, cowling, etc., etc.

It is true that there is no sound like a radial starting up, and climbing out. Anyone for trying to put the big double row Corsair (R2800?) engine on their RV? Do they make a small double row?
 
Oldsam,
The engine is 3600cc, 150 hp, 275 lbs dry, 33" diameter. If you look at the specs from lycoming on their O-320, there is virtually no difference. The biggest difference is in displacement.
I originally came up with this concept while looking at the specs of the radial. I noticed that its diameter almost matched the width of a lycoming. So a little time on Microsoft paint and I had a prelim drawing. I loved its looks and then started on the design. The conversion itself was easy. I left the primary structure of the aircraft alone and only changed the shape of the aircraft above and below the four main longerons.
The cowing was just a template, lots of foam, a handheld belt sander, Fiberglas, and a whole lot of patience.

You can find more on the engine at;

Www.rotecengines.com
 
The engine is 3600cc, 150 hp, 275 lbs dry, 33" diameter. If you look at the specs from lycoming on their O-320, there is virtually no difference. The biggest difference is in displacement.

And frontal area.

I think you're adding more frontal area than you might suspect (that whole pi-R-squared thing with the round cowling), and I'm afraid there might be a somewhat large speed penalty in the end. I hope not, but it keeps nagging at me as I follow your progress.

Not meant as criticism, just stating something you may already have thought of and accounted for. Didn't see it mentioned on your web page, though I may have missed it. My hat is off to you for taking the leap to do this, and for taking the time to engineer it properly. Can't wait to see pictures and first flight write-up.
 
Isn't frontal area measured on the entire airplane; not just the engine? I don't see that much difference.

I would think that the bigger question is cooling drag. Even there, I'm not sure the radial has to be that much worse (could be better than a flat engine).

Charlie
 
What a fantastic idea. I think you will have something really enjoyable when it's flying. I can't wait to see pictures of it hung on the airframe.
 
Airframe drag

Michael,

Airframe and cooling drag are definately considerations that I have tried to address. The engine will be fully baffled and a large spinner will be used. Also I have a baffle aft of the engine to smoothly exit the air. I'm hopeful of low cooling drag in this configuration, but testing will tell. Try to think of Rare Bear, but without such a small cooling gap.
BTW I love constructive criticism. The wealth of knowledge on this forum keeps us all safe.
 
What a great project, I look forward to seeing more! I like the idea of a large spinner, it will probably make a big difference on the efficiency of a good cooling system with minimum drag.
 
I?ve got a very soft spot for round engines, as I spent several years herding a pair of R-1820s around, flying CP-121s (known as S-2s in most parts of the world). Those big, bad dogs had over 200 cu inches per cylinder! Loud too, especially during during take-off with 53? HG of manifold pressure at 2800 rpm. The first couple of attempts to start them were fun, as it felt like you were going to run out of hands and fingers to manipulate all the switches, levers, etc in the right sequence at the magic moments.
 
I?ve got a very soft spot for round engines, as I spent several years herding a pair of R-1820s around, flying CP-121s (known as S-2s in most parts of the world). Those big, bad dogs had over 200 cu inches per cylinder! Loud too, especially during during take-off with 53? HG of manifold pressure at 2800 rpm. The first couple of attempts to start them were fun, as it felt like you were going to run out of hands and fingers to manipulate all the switches, levers, etc in the right sequence at the magic moments.

S-2's man, I'm jealous! I've always wanted to fly one of those... but I'm making do instead by flying a CAF Lockheed Lodestar, also with a pair of R-1820s. And starting the engines is (almost!) the best part... like you said, the first few starts were pretty clumsy as you learn all the multiple switch and lever motions, but once you get it figured out, it's a hoot! I just love the sound, sight and smell of these things coughing to life.

Too bad there's no Smell-a-vision for the fuel/oil smoke...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbH0drUhFKc
 
Great video! I cringed watching the ground crew walk right through the arc of the propeller to unplug the GPU. That's a major no no...
 
All very cool videos! The radial rocket is definately a cool airplane, but I think I'll like my fuel burn better (7.5 gph) ;)
 
There is that... but I was surprised at the fuel flow of the radial rocket. 12.2GPH for a 200mph cruise isn't that bad. :)
 
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