Chris Prata wrote: > I did just look at the krnet.org and at the power section, but > nothing (that I could find) summarizing key VW aspects to get best > reliability.
Perhaps Steve Bennett could be cajoled into writing up a little something, given that he has several decades of day-to-day VW/aircraft experience, and I'll gladly post it to www.KRnet.org. And you could buy the Great Plains assembly manual, and then you'd know exactly what the proven methodology is! It's at http://greatplainsas.com/scbooks.html for a mere $15. I'm sure Revmaster has something similar. There are a lot of guys out there building VW engines for aircraft, so I'm sure there are at least some opinions hiding in Google somewhere. I didn't know there was a "power section" at www.KRnet.org , and it's my website! I did write a little something on the Type 4 VW that I was planning to use for N56ML (at http://www.n56ml.com/kvw.html ) but that was before I went Corvair. I'm still a big fan of the Type 4 over the Type 1, but parts for those are scarce and expensive, but at least they're all German, which is more than you can say for Type 1 parts these days. But the short answer for the Type 1 engine (or the Corvair) is that I don't see a lot of difference between the basic auto engine and that used for aircraft, other than the camshaft and the prop hub connection on the crank. Again, you don't want a racing cam...in fact you want one with the lowest RPM powerband that you can find. You definitely want a 4340 nitrided crank, which is exactly what GPASC sells, and likely Revmaster and Aerovee as well. And you'll want a 2180cc stroker, rather than an 1835, unless you built a really light airplane with a single seat. Paying attention to detail is critical, as with any airplane engine. I've thrown a bunch of pictures out (at http://www.n56ml.com/n891jf/2180/ ) that detail a full engine rebuild on N891JF's 2180cc engine, but need to add commentary to explain it. It's pretty much a rehash of the Corvair process, however. People don't appreciate what a huge effort (and time consumer) it is to put together a website with a bunch of technical information on it. I've tried several times over the years to get some FAQ type things started on KRnet, and everybody agrees it's great, and we get a few submissions, and then the interest subsides and nothing really gets done. The KRnet FAQ at http://www.krnet.org/faq/ is an example of that, although there's still a lot of good stuff in it. I just looked through it, and I guess that's the "power section" after all! We did that over 15 years ago and I'd forgotten about it, but there are some gems in there... Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com http://www.n56ml.com
