Greetings,

 

The Dominator gyro is on order, to arrive around the first part of April (I hope).  The gear drive is still on order from Autoflight, and hopefully, will be shipping soon.  All I can do in the mean time is get the engine as ready as possible, which mostly means making a new engine mount plate of some type.  

 

Question one- If I were to make a sandwiched plate, similar to what CCI does (did ?) with their mounts, how thick would it need to be for a single rotor?  The CCI plate was 1/2" thick for the two rotor, and I made my first single rotor mount that thick as well.  Since I'd like to reduce some weight, I'm wondering what I can cut this down to.  I'm guessing 3/8" at least, and maybe 1/4".   Any suggestions?

 

Second question, how much oil bypasses the primary regulator (in the front cover) under normal operation?  Does any bypass at all?  I know it's there primarily to prevent overpressure of the oil cooler in case the lines get blocked, but I wonder if it's actually needed for normal operation.  In other words, can I plug up the primary regulator, and be OK as long as nothing in the oil lines gets plugged up?  

 

Thanks,

Rusty (waiting for Ed to try his favorite brazing rods on the board)

 

 

At the risk of enabling a gyro-head,

 

I think the 3/8" plate would work fine so long as there is control of the font pulley end of the engine in all axis. Small block Chevrolets get mounted between two 1/4" plates in all kinds

of racing applications with no problems.  

 

All engines through the 92 had rear relief valves set at 71.1 PSI. So the front relief only needed to be higher than that by 20 PSI or so to protect the oil cooler in a cold start up.

 

What the actual number is I don't know. The 93-95 twin turbo has the rear relief set at 115 PSI and the front relief set at 140 PSI. So unless you scream  the engine ice cold, the front relief never opens. Some cranks have a thermal pill in the crank to prevent rotor cooling oil from flowing when too cold, and that can be replaced with a solid plug that allows full flow all of the time.

 

In racing, the front relief is stacked solid and never opens. For operation below 7,000 RPM

85 PSI is plenty and you can shim an early relief to that on your own. The FD 93-95 relief is OK at 115 but wears out the pump faster and is a waste of power. It is also welded shut and a bitch to adjust.  Racing beat has a nice hardened race pump that is very durable. And bolts up to anything but an FD front iron.

 

Lynn E. Hanover