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Flying with automotive engines?

B

BHunt

Well Known Member
Flying with automotive engines in the -10?

Who's doing it? Does it have benefits? Has it became a viable option for the -10?

Thanks
Brad
 
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I'm flying with a four cylinder Eggenfelner Subaru engine. For my RV-9a it is a great engine. There are no current firewall forward packages available for automobile engines in an RV-10 as far as I know. Even though I'm happy with my engine, I feel like it would be very risky to try to make your own conversion, or use a bought conversion without a good track record. There are too many unknown failure modes unless there are many engines with many hours of the same type and same system of ignition, fuel, electrics, etc.

Save yourself alot of trouble and in the end, probably alot of money.

-Andy
 
There are a couple -10s flying with LS V8s. There are no current automotive FF packages however for them and those which were/ are flying have not had a good track record, most have damaged or destroyed.

No significant benefits I can think of for most folks unless you are a gear head.

Not yet ready for prime time in my opinion. Stick with the 540 Lycoming.
 
Geareddrives.com had a nice LS1 conversion but, sadly, I think the owner is no longer with us due to an accident last year.
 
Geared Drives is still in probate, but former employee - Larry Perryman - is still participating on the old GearDrives Yahoo Forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/geareddrives/

As far as others besides me, I know of one other flying. I am also aware of another that just got it's inspection in Canada. Finally, I have spoken to three others who are still building but have the engine. There was one hull loss in Savannah due to a fuel fire on the ground. To my knowledge those are the only ones. I also know of one builder who is putting a diesel in his RV-10.

John
 
jbagley said:
I've been keeping an eye on Supermarine Aircraft. They have an automotive engine on their Spitfire's.
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Many have had success with auto engines such as RAF gyros (Subaru) with hundreds of airframes and tens of thousands of reliable hours and Titan Aircraft using Honda and Suzuki V6s with dozens flying and thousands of hours of flight time. They key to their success was doing things right and then doing everything the same way on each one afterwards. In the case of Titan, for the most part, only builders who modified the proven layout, thinking they had a better idea, have had problems.

Just right now, there is no really flight proven package to install in a -10.
 
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I am one who would stick with what the aircraft was designed for. Lycomings my be old technology, but they are proven. But hey whatever tickles your fancy
 
Kaffer62 said:
I am one who would stick with what the aircraft was designed for. Lycomings my be old technology, but they are proven. But hey whatever tickles your fancy
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If you don't believe that one could always read the NTSB reports:eek:
 
MauiLvrs said:
If you don't believe that one could always read the NTSB reports:eek:
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Not to beat a dead horse, but as someone with real experience in this area. I flew over 400 hrs behind an Olds 300 V-8 and a Chevy 350 and experienced 2 failures in that time (this was not on an RV). First one I made it back to the field, second one I landed off airport. Both times, it was not the engine, but related hardware that failed. The gear reductions are the achilles heal in my opinion. I wasn't the designer or builder, but just a factory hired gun pilot. I had a full staff of experts keeping that airplane flying and it still failed to be a viable alternative.

I would fly one, but not with my family...to complicated.
 
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