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Hi Gordon,
Welcome to the Fly Rotary list. I am probably one of
the few (I am only aware of two now flying) Plugs Up installations currently
flying - there may be more, but unknown to me. I have flown my
installation for close to 12 years with around 600 hours on the installation in
my RV-6a (Tractor installation).
There are no technical reasons that I have found
precluding safely flying Plugs Up. In fact, there are some
advantages. The biggest disadvantage is that almost all vendor products
(such as motor mounts, gear boxes, etc) are designed for the automobile
orientation - so some one-off parts and modifications may be necessary.
Also, You will almost certainly have to cobber up your own
oil sump - you can see my (red/blue) oil sump in the one photo which has a plate
covering the engine "bottom" and a sump(red box) below the engine line.
The curved blue tube (from top of sump into plate is aluminum tubing. Do
NOT use anything other than metal tubing - hose, even stainless steel braided
hose, can possible collapse under the suction when hot. Also any air leaks
in that particular tube - will mean the ability of the oil pump to suck oil will
be compromised. I know of one instance where a hose (instead of
metal tube) was used and eventually collapse - starving engine bearings and
causing engine to seize.
Two advantages are 1: You can just about forget worrying
about flooding the Plugs Up engine. The plugs are on top and exhaust ports
on the bottom - so excess fuel quickly drains out and does not flood the
sparkplug holes. 2: The fuel injectors in the block are not directly
over the exhaust ports as they are in the auto installation. Gravity will
cause any fuel leaks at the injectors to drop straight down missing the hot
metal of the exhaust header (unless of course, you route your exhaust header
under the injector area). I think the spark plugs are also easier to
access - a minor point.
My engine uses the engine bolt holes in the front iron
housing (next to the front aluminum housing) intended for mounting air
conditioning components to support the "rear" of the engine. Then I pick
up the bolt holes in the rear iron housing (one next to flywheel) on each side
to support the front. These pickups use a triangular plate of metal with
the small end attached to the motor mount with one bolt and the base
of it attached to the engine through two bolts which also hold
the gearbox to the rear housing. Photo attached which may help
explain it better. There are certainly other (and perhaps better ways),
but this has worked for me.
But, lots of information on this list will be applicable
regardless of engine orientation.
Best Regards
Ed
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 8:29 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Newbie to list
Hi all,
I’m new to the flyrotary (FR) list and am building a Defiant
with two turbo 13Bs. I am looking at mounting the engines “plugs up” as
described by Neil Kruiswyk and tried to contact him at the home.com address
listed on the FR website. My e-mail keeps bouncing back. Does anyone
have a current address for Neil?
Beyond that, I would like to identify others that have
mounted these engines sideways (plugs-up). How many hours do your projects
have on these installations? What issues have you uncovered that may be
related to the plugs-up orientation? Has anyone found (more than expected)
difficulty cooling that may be related to air pockets in the cooling
jacket?
What about engine mounting? How do you grab the engine
block? Have you looked at the stresses at the attach
points?
I’m also considering a constant speed prop. Tracy Crook
advises me that his PSRU will accept only electrically adjustable props and I
have identified IVO and MT as possible suppliers. Are there other
electrically adjustable props in this power category? Are there other
PSRUs that accept a hydraulically actuated prop adjustment?
Thanks in advance for any advice you all can
offer.
Gordon C. Alling, Jr., PE
President
acumen
Engineering/Analysis,
Inc.
540-786-2200
www.acumen-ea.com
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