Owen wrote: >> Yeah, my son is hooked on the VW’s. But I keep seeing things like the >> experiences of folks trying to push overloaded VW vans with the those ol >> engines and imagine we’d get similar reliability (or lack of it - have you >> ever seen this youtube series - https://youtu.be/7zfg-XJ99hg >> <https://youtu.be/7zfg-XJ99hg> ?).<<
Although I'm a die-hard VW guy (still have my 74 Ghia that I bought new, with 2180cc engine, big valve heads, dual 40IDF Weber carbs, etc), I too am not a fan of flying behind an aircooled engine. The first downside is only four cylinders. Loose one and you are going down somewhere nearby, not up. With a six cylinder Corvair, Steve Makish once took off with a dead cylinder from SNF (he thought a plug was fouled and would clear up on takeoff), and flew it all the way home that way! That's huge...it just wasn't a bad enough vibration to conern him. And then there's the valve problem with VWs...constantly having to adjust them, and then when things go bad, they go very bad in a hurry....like under 2 seconds from wide open to seized prop. I've done a lot of research and enough trial and error physical testing with head cooling, and what finally made the VW work was putting a set of Revmaster heads on it. Now the valves barely change clearance (if at all) between adjustments, and I'm a lot more confident in the engine than I've ever been. Broken cranks simply don't happen with either a GPASC or Revmaster front bearing, and the rest is fairly robust. So despite my incessant complaining about VW engines in airplanes, I still climb in it and fly it to OSH or wherever else I want to go. The tradeoff is worth it. Flying with some risk that I may tear it up in a field somewhere after the engine quits, or maybe even kill myself, but it's still worth it to FLY!! It beats the ground-bound alternative any day.... Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL ML "at" N56ML.com www.N56ML.com _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected]
