Category: Complete Engines

Builders,

Todays ‘Deal of the Day’ is a big-ticket item, an Engine, complete, test run with new logs. The engine is a 2700 cc Corvair Bored .030″ It has a Gen 2 Dan Weseman bearing on it, complete with a matching fully prepped GM crank from the Them. The pistons are some of the last Made in the USA Sealed power forged units (they have since been outsourced to India). The Cylinders were done by Clarks. It has stainless valves with exhaust rotators, welded on head pipes, and out latest starter and oil systems. It has our E/P dual ignition set up. It is equipped with a flyweight, welded aluminum pan. It also has one of our CNC high volume oil pumps. The engine is rated at 100hp continuous output, it weighs 225 pounds, (the same as an O-200) Based on the experience of building Corvair flight engines for 24 years, I can state that this engine has a realistic TBO of 1,500 hours.

Two features that this engine has are a Weseman Rear alternator set up and one of our heavy-duty oil systems Our standard price for a 2700cc engine with a Gen 1 Dan bearing, front alternator and a standard 12 plate oil cooler is $9,750. The options on this engine add about $1,400 to the cost. We assembled the engine with the idea that it would be a good match to any of the popular Corvair powered airframes, but these two options are popular on STOL aircraft like the Zenith 750.

The Deal of the Day: We are offering this engine with options for the standard price of $9,750 for this week alone. After this, I will bring the engine to the Zenith open house, use it as the display and then sell it for the regular price + options. This is a substantial savings for anyone who is ready to move forward. If the buyer lives anywhere near the course we are taking to CC#26 and the Zenith open house, we will deliver it for free. Otherwise, crating and shipping is available.

If you would like the engine, or have questions, email me directly:

WilliamTCA@aol.com

Above shows the engine assembled, but the rear alternator, E/P distributor and HD oil system is not yet mounted. We typically put these in place when the engine is on the break in stand. The break in run for this engine is Tuesday afternoon. more pictures to follow. In more than 20 years of commercial engine building, I have only let a single engine out the door without a documented break in run.  Our typical engine run is more than an hour turning a prop at 75% power.  This is not only a proper break in procedure, it also assures the buyer that everything is in perfect working order. There are pictures of more than 100 engine runs done over the years on our two websites.

Above, My friend, A&P extraordinaire Chris Welsh assists with the rocker adjustment. Chris’s day job is an airframe specialist for Northrop-Grumman working on E2D’s and F-5s. 25 years ago, he was my roommate at Embry Riddle. He worked for many years as an instructor at the prestigious Embry Riddle engine Repair station on the Universities’ fleet of aircraft engines. He has covered a lot of jobs in aviation, including instructing at Colorado Aero-Tech and working in heavy repair for Evergreen. Over the years he has assisted me with a number of Corvair engine builds and test runs.

Many experimental aviation companies, particularly alternative engine promoters, are staffed by people who have no actual professional training or industry experience in aviation.  Over the years I have met a number of very impressive, disciplined and ethical men who were self-educated and well qualified. But they were outnumbered at least 50 to 1 by dangerous idiots who’s only credentials was the dubious claim that they “used to build race cars.”

Even if this was true, I simply ask this: If you were about to take off for your first flight lesson ever, and the person next to you, who you thought was a flight instructor, suddenly confessed that he had never flown a plane, but he “had driven a lot of race cars before”, You would jump out right? OK, you should have the exact same reaction to anyone telling you that he has built a lot of race car engines, but not any flight engines. You would think that this goes without saying, but people still seek the assistance of unemployed car mechanics with their experimental flight engines every day. It’s insanity, but it never stops.-ww.

Builders,

Below is another look at a high quality Corvair. This particular engine is in my shop right now, but is soon headed to its owner. The engine is something of a ‘kit’, and it is a clone of the engine in Dan Weseman’s  Panther. After some planning with the owner, we decided that it made the most sense for me to find a core for him in Florida and perform all the modifications to it before sending it. The owner is a skilled mechanic, but opted to have us assemble the case and install the Weseman Billet crank and Gen 2 5th bearing. We are shipping the rest of the parts, the 3,000cc Piston/rod/cylinder kit and a set of Falcon heads, along with the gold components to finish the engine. The total isn’t cheap, but it is a good value. Keep in mind the Builders goal is to have an absolutely first class engine for his Waiex. The Corvair covers many builders needs, this particular engine is a good representation of the upper end of the spectrum of options. Although this engine was planned as a ‘cost is not a consideration’ build, it is worth nothing that the engine is almost entirely made of made in the USA parts, and it still costs only 40 to 60% of an imported engine. Corvairs are not for everyone, but there are good reasons why they make sense to the builders who choose them.

Above, the engine in a case assembly stand on my work bench. If you look closely, the Weseman Billet crank is visible. In our numbering system, this is part 1001(B). This engine has a new OT-10 and a California Corvairs Billet cam gear. The 5th bearing is a Gen 2 Weseman bearing. The tape over the Hybrid studs is part of the vastly simplified installation procedures of the Gen 2 design. This Case has already been bored for the 3,000 cc Cylinders. This engine uses aftermarket rods with floating pins, also sold by the Weseman’s.  Although many people think of Corvairs as “rebuilt” or automotive engines, The only parts that came from the car that remain in this particular engine are the case, the bare head castings, the rear oil case casting and some miscellaneous small hardware. Everything else is new, and the great majority of it, like the crank, pistons, cylinders, oil system etc, was all specifically designed for flight engines. I have never shied away from the term “automotive conversion engine” because it is an accurate description of the Corvair. We have converted this engine internally to meet the demands of being an actual aircraft power plant.

Throughout much of the history of experimental aviation there have been advocates of taking a an engine straight out of a wrecked car and putting some external systems on it and running it in a plane. Sounds attractive to people looking for a ‘bargain’, but these engines typically have a very poor track record. Flying in a plane is a demanding and specific task that automotive engines in their pure form are not designed for. You can get away with it when you shoot for 50hp out of 200 cubic inches (model A) or even 75HP out of 164 cid (original Bernard Pietenpol Corvair Conversion).  In recent years there have been many people who claimed that you could get 100 or 115hp out of a 110 cid Subaru pulled straight from a car. Today there are car engines aiming for 100hp out of 79 cubic inches. There have never been a shortage of bargain hunters to buy into this ‘free lunch’ mentality.  I have long said that I am in aviation to tell builders what they need to know, and this is often very different that what people want to hear. Reasonable people understand that driving up the HP/cubing inch and raising the RPM to 5000 or 6,000 rpm, at the same time as trying to get away with basic car parts inside is not a formula for longevity nor cooling. 

Philosophically, the Corvair is in the same line of thought as the Jabaru 3300 (201cid/120hp/3,300rpm) and the UL-350 (215cid/130HP/3,200rpm). Neither of these two engines is a “Car” engine. they have internal components designed for the stress of flight duty, Just like the Corvair.  If you consider the examples of Lycoming and Continental, The Corvair is using the same basic layout and philosophy of the majority of successful engines.

There will always be people who point to rotax 912s and say they are 100hp from 80 cubic inches. I respond by saying that they really are purpose-built engines, and they have a lifespan and a cost per hour that I don’t find to be a good value. Everyone thinks that 912’s are an incredibly prolific engine, but consider that they have made 40,000 of them total in several decades. Continental has made far more O-200s than that, and GM made more than 40,000 Corvairs a month in 1964 alone. Another issue to consider is that I have worked on O-200’s that have been overhauled several times and had more than 6,000 hours on the basic components, parts that were designed to be rebuilt several times (just like a Corvair).  I have heard very few stories of people ‘rebuilding’ a 912. It isn’t that kind of engine, it is much more akin to a disposable appliance. This doesn’t bother most people, but it isn’t the kind of engine I want on my plane. Think it over and come up with your own answer that makes sense to you. Its your project, your choice. -ww.

Builders,

If you would like to see a two-minute video of this 2,850cc engine running, including idle, repeated hot starts, and a short full power run,

Then click on this link, it goes directly to our new YouTube channel:

http://youtu.be/TQqlRFS1Qfk

Builders,

Below are pictures of a complete 2,850 from our shop. We assembled it as a serious upgrade to a pre-existing 2700 that was built a long time ago. The engine has a standard  size, factory nitrided GM 8409 crank and a Gen 1 Weseman bearing. The engine now has one of our P/N 2850CC Piston/rod/cylinder sets.

Engine from the front quarter view. Gen 1 Weseman bearings have the same billet housing as the Gen #2s. We selected the Gen 1 because it was a “bolt on” installation to the factory nitrided crank. Visible are all the parts of the starter system (P/N 2400), the Short gold prop hub (P/N 2501B), powdercoated valve covers (P/N 1900PCBK) and the electronic/points distributor (P/N 3301E/P).

Above, a good view of a really simple oil system. This is a basic Group 2700 Oil system built around a 12-plate GM cooler. The gold oil filter housing (P/N2601S) has the oil filter mounted on it with a nipple (P/N 2601). Because it has a Weseman bearing, this engine has one of our High Volume oil pumps (visible on the case in the photo). We sell this pump assembled on a remanufactured case, exchange, as P/N 2000HV. Years ago, many builders were interested in engines with rear starters. What those engines required was complicated oil systems with remote mounted filters and often remote coolers. Such a system would have 5 hoses compared to this engine having one. The Wicked Cleanex, Dan’s plane before the Panther, flew for many years on an engine just like the one above. (The only difference was it having a 2601R Reverse oil housing.) It is very had to argue against simplicity, especially when it is flight proven.

Above is the engine during its break-in run in our front yard. It fired up in 4 seconds of cranking and ran perfectly smooth through an initial 45 minute break in. Tomorrow, another hour or so of running before an oil change and inspection. -ww

Builders:

Our man on the West Coast, Zenith 601XL Builder/flyer Woody Harris made another house call last weekend, to Dick Otto’s place to be on hand for the first run of Dick’s 2700/Dan bearing engine. Woody reported that it fired right up and ran very well. He snapped the photo below to capture the first run of the engine, while it was bolted to Dick’s plans-built 601XL.

 If you have not met Dick yet, I highly suggest that you read this story I wrote about him a while back:  Mail Sack – Letter of the month – Dick Otto, 601XL Calif. I refer to Dick as our “SRB ” because he is 92 years old!

The story above gives you a glimpse into the life of a member of “The Greatest Generation.” I have enjoyed every hour I have spent in the man’s company. Hats off to Dick for getting his engine up and running, and many thanks to Woody for investing the time to assist West Coast builders.

Because Dick now has a running engine, I have submitted him as a new member for our Zenith/Corvair private discussion group, moderated by Zenith 601XL builder/flyer Phil Maxson. The group is fairly active, and has already generated several hundred posts in its technical archive. As a direct peer-to-peer group, the members can work directly with each other to exchange information. The ‘invatational” nature of the membership (it is open to anyone with a flying ww conversion on a Zenith, and to Zenith builders with a running Corvair.) allows the flyers on in the group to share their information with builders advanced enough to appreciate it, and the flyers are also insulated from ‘peanut gallery’ comments by internet trolls and ‘experts’ who can not resist criticizing the flying work of others, even though they will never do anything themselves.

We are now less than three months from Brodhead and Oshkosh, where we look forward to seeing many builders, friends old and new. Spring is now on hand, even in the northern parts of the country, and it is a good time to put your ‘plan for progress’ in action. Do not let the time pass without getting things done.  The big aviation events this summer will be a lot more satisfying to attend if you do so knowing that you have significantly advanced your project since last year.-ww

Friends,

As I type this, the sun is setting in Florida. 30 minutes ago the 120 hp, 3,000cc Corvair for the The Weseman Panther was completing a 1 hour break in run in our front yard. It started after 3 seconds of cranking and ran flawlessly for a 65 minute progressive break in run. This is the first engine with Dan’s American made billet crankshaft.

Above, Dan and I stand next to the running engine and cover important technical topics like the fact that Rachel made pot roast and said we could all eat dinner over at their place after the engine run as done. I would like to say there was some drama involved, but in reality the engine cranked right up, ran steady, we monitored all the temps and the oil pressure, which hardly fluctuated during the hour. It all went just as good engineering is supposed to: No surprises. At the end of the run Dan did give in a little and say that he was pleased with the turn out. We have a very full week of work heading into College #24, so there will be no pause to celebrate. We will be going  back to the shop after dinner to prep more parts for the College.-ww

Here is a video of the Panther engine on the test stand:

Friends,

Here are a few photos to give builders some insight to a day in our shop. They were taken the week before we left for the Zenith open house. Perhaps the most important aspect of our work with builders is that I am essentially a homebuilder myself. In our industry, there are countless companies staffed by people who have never turned a wrench on a homebuilt aircraft. These people have little or no understanding of the needs and capabilities of rank and file homebuilders. Many of these sales people have no exposure to real builders beyond handing our brochures at Oshkosh. Very few of them have ever made a single house call to a builders shop, and consequently have little real connection to traditional homebuilders.

We are on the other end of the scale. Over the last 20 years I have held 23 major colleges and made something like 400 house calls. This is a lot of opportunity to listen to builders and really get to know them. Until you do this, I can make a good argument that you are not really in a good position to be an asset to builders. Yes you can sell them things, but until you know them, you don’t even know if builders are installing the stuff correctly, far less learning anything nor improving their own personal capabilities.

Look at the photos below and notice that my shop and hangar may be a little messier, or have more old school tools, but it is still a homebuilders shop. A product producer who has a spotless CNC shop, but never works on aircraft directly, will have a distorted view that technology rules the day in homebuilding. It doesn’t. Craftsmanship will always be paramount. No matter how the part is made, a human, (an amature not a professional in homebuilding) will have to bolt this part on and operate it. Unless you understand these builders, and are willing to invest effort in assisting them in the development of their personal craftsmanship, you are not going to make a difference. technology is an important tool in the process, but it isn’t the focal point. It’s called homebuilding for a reason….if every part was made exclusively in a high-tech factory and came pre-installed, you could drop the name Homebuilding and replace it with the term Factory-buying.

At Zenith I met a guy who was having a different brand of aircraft built for him. He was dropping some big checks to have his airframe built, have a buy-it-in-a-box engine installed, and another guy paint it. Almost everything the guy had to say was a frustrated complaint. Little surprise, he had gone to great expense to remove every satisfying element from homebuilding and replace it with a consumer experience, had attempted to negotiate a leveraged exchange rate for the craftsmanship of others for his dollars. In direct comparison, I had a number of corvair builders share pictures of things they were very proud to have created with their own hands. There is an obvious truth that people who make things are happier than people who buy them.

Above Grace is sealing parts, hardware and instruction sheets into sealed bags. This is in one end of our 20x 30 shop. It is disorganized because we were packing up the trailer to head out to Zenith. The shop is usually full, but neater. For the most part, Just Vern and I work in the shop, so it’s small size is not a problem. It is well lit and has central heat and air. (It is attached to our 40×50 hangar, but the hangar is truly ‘climate controlled’, in the sense it is hot in the summer and cold in the winter.) Look Closely and you will see the Scoob E. is lying on the chair behind Grace. He tends to spend 23 hours a day within 10 feet of her.

Above, parts laid out that were assembled into Gary Burdett’s 2850cc engine. Gary is well along in the construction of his Zenith 750, and elected to have us assemble his engine. Even though he purchased it complete and test run, he has taken advantage of all of our educational material and the type of learning we offer at colleges. He is far more knowledgeable on the building, operation and maintenance of this engine than almost any person who buys an engine from a company that places little effort or focus into builder education

Note the high-end parts that went into Gary’s engine. The Falcon Heads are vastly better than any Corvair head that every left the factory; The pistons are Forged, CNC machined and made in the US; The crank is fully stress relieved and deep nitrided. The engine components are far better than the ones GM used. Corvairs were rated up to 180hp in the car, redlined at 5,500 rpm. Not only do we use far better components, bet we simultaneously flat rate the engine to 55% of this power output 58% of this rpm limit. This is the root of all the success of the Corvair engine as an aircraft power plant. It is truly an automotive Conversion engine, because we have converted in the form of substantial internal improvements while flat-rating its output. This is the only rational way to expect a car engine to reliably do the job of an aircraft engine.

Over the years, there have been countless companies that tried to promote the concept that a car engine rated at say 100 hp at 6,000 rpm can have a reduction bolted to it and be put directly into a plane, and then asked to reliably produce 100hp and turn 6,000 rpm. Everyone understands that if you drove your car like that it would have a short life span, but many people bought into this idea because they wanted to believe it. These engines were called auto conversions, but in reality they were not….they were just auto engines, being asked to continuously develop power at high rpm. Most of these engine came out of cars that were wrecked, many were out of designs marketed to 18-24 year olds, most of whom have no concept of auto motive maintenance like oil changes. When asked what they would do if their stressed engine broke, almost all of these people said, “I will just go get another from a junk yard” as if every aircraft engine conveniently breaks on the ground in front of a snap on tool box.

You can’t teach people who don’t want to learn nor consider any thought that would challenge something they have a big emotional investment in believing. I don’t try, I am just here to work with people who wish to learn more about how they can become their own engine builder, and maintenance department. Some people would gladly take the word of a junk yard operator that the engine he is selling is read to fly. Corvair builders are the kind of people who would much rather count on an engine based on a 52 year track record of steady improvement on an excellent design, that they built with skilled hands, with conversion parts specifically designed to make the engine reliable. Which engine you gravitate toward depends entirely on what kind of person you are.

Above, Gary’s 2850cc engine at power on the break in stand. A fundamentally simple engine, that we have a long track record of expertise with. Safety in aircraft is all about understanding and having mastery of the machine you are operating. You can not show me a single person who was ever hurt in a plane because he understood too much about it, but I can show you countless statistics that used to be humans who got caught operating a machine with pass-able skills when the moment required better.

I do not have an instrument rating nor a multi rating. If I wanted either, I am sure I could write a check to a ratings mill and have enough skill in 10 days to do a passable job on the check ride. People who actually have mastery of muti and instrument flight understand that neither of these are forgiving of “pass-able” skills when it counts. I can make a good case that this extends to every skill set in aviation, that safety lies in mastery.  My personal concept of what I want to do in aviation is mastery of the stick and rudder VFR planes that I like. Because I am a homebuilder, I am also speaking of mastering the building of this plane, and it only makes sense to me to know the power plant, and I mean really know it, as well. 

Plenty of people demonstrate that you can get away with very little understanding of aircraft, flight, powerplants and weather, and still get back to the airport. Maybe they don’t care, maybe they are not bothered by trying to cut a few corners or get away with stuff, But this isn’t me, and it isn’t why I am in aviation. I am here to really know things, and to be the master of the equipment I am counting on. The inherent simplicity of the Corvair and the educational nature of the movement makes this possible.  I honestly don’t understand people who would be comfortable pushing the throttle in on the take off roll, comfortable with the idea that the guy at the junkyard said “the engine was only driven on Sundays and had low mileage.” Ronald Reagan popularized the phrase “trust with verification.”  After 24 years in experimental aviation, let me suggest you will be better off if you just skip to the last word and just “Verify.”-ww