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<< Lancair Builders' Mail List >>
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With all the recent interest in engine technology, subscribers to the LML may
be interested in a product announcement which occurred during the recent AOPA
convention in Long Beach. The product was news to me so I assume it probably
is to at least a few others. It can be viewed at the following address:
http://www.liquidcooledairpower.com/news.html
The company involved is Liquid Cooled Air Power, Inc. and their product is
called (unfortunately IMHO) "Cool Jugs." What they are offering is a kit
which converts parallel valve Lycoming 360 and 540 engines to water cooled.
The kit consists of 4 or 6 cylinder/head assemblies complete with valves,
etc. The stock pistons, block, crank, etc., are retained. The kit also
includes a "gear-driven" water pump, thermostat assembly and a set of
instrumentation. No mention is made of the radiator, header tank, etc., nor
is any mention made of the weight penalty, if any.
The pictures on the website show a Piper Cherokee at what appears to be the
Long Beach airport equipped with the water cooled conversion. Presumably,
the plane was flown to Long Beach but I didn't see any mention of total
flight time for the engine in this plane or any other. They did claim to
have 50 hours of dyno time during a 7 year development period. The testing
was apparently all done on 100LL although they claim the engine can "run
reliably on lower octane unleaded automotive fuels." They state that the
conversion kits are available "today" (10/20/00) but did not mention a price.
The information provided on the website is still pretty sketchy but it is an
intriguing idea which may have applications for Lancair pilots wishing to
clean up their aerodynamics, gain some comfort factor relative to detonation
when using high compression pistons and/or when running lower quality gas, or
those who must have the latest thing. For your trouble you get to fly around
behind a set of cylinders with no history. Regardless, I'm glad to hear that
people are out there trying to find alternative approaches.
Please note that I have no affiliation with Liquid Cooled Air Power,
financial or otherwise. All I know about them is what I have read on their
website. If any of you were at the Long Beach convention and talked to these
people or inspected their plane or have any other information about the
company or their product, I would certainly be interested to hear about it as
would others on the LML, I'm sure.
Jim McKibbin
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LML website: http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
LML Builders' Bookstore: http://www.buildersbooks.com/lancair
Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.
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