Hi
Leon and All,
It's
clear that air filtration is required for the rotary engine to protect
the
apex seals and rotors.
I would word it
differently – in general, an air filter is a good idea –
I appreciated Leon’s
post (he knows what he’s talking about, and has a use of the language
that makes for enjoyable reading). He, and others, are right that a
filter is a good idea; but there are cases where one can argue it is not a “necessity”.
I chose to proceed
without a filter for a few reasons. To avoid the loss of the ram pressure
(and small performance improvement) one would need quite a large filter, and I
just didn’t have the space. My prop is behind the intake (pusher),
and the intake is toward the top of the fuselage above the strake – in “clean
air”.
My home airport is in
coastal CA where there is little reason for much dust, I will never operate off
a dirt strip, and I think it will be reasonably easy to avoid dust storms or
volcanic eruptions. Once you are 1000’ AGL or so, I’m guessing it
very unlikely that there would be particulates of concern.
I’ll likely be
looking at the plugs every 25 hours or so; so I may give it a shot of oil
between each set of seals and crank that around a bit to help “flush”
any out any of that “abrasive paste”.
But, yeah; I think if
my prop was in front of the intake I’d look real hard for a place to put
the filter. You have to make your own determination whether to put in the
filter or not.
Al
Just
had a few ideas that may, or may not work and could possibly work with
a
ram air scoop. (1) An old idea is an oil bath where incoming air hits an
oil
pan before being inducted into the engine. No use for aerobatic
aircraft.
(2) Is a new idea, I'm sure you've all seen those new cyclonic
filter
free vacuum cleaners, that always maintain 100% suction, or so they
say.
Could an air plenum be designed on the same principle so that dust and
gravel
get separated from the main airflow and get ducted out a side tube,
leaving
the main air stream to go to the engine.
Just
ideas guys,
Michael.
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