At 08:39 2004-04-19, you wrote:

> the puzzle. It seem there is a lot of re inventing
the wheel. I


I was thinking that, too.  Then I realized that what
is going on is parallel developement.  Something you
will probably never see in a corporate lab.  Lots of
slightly different ideas being worked on at the same
time.

What I see happening right now is that a lot of
these ideas that have been on the workbench for
years are coming out of developement and into long
term testing.  I think over the next year or so you
will start to see a lot more consensus on what works
best, as the different approaches get tested and
we're able to see what works best in the real world.
 Then you'll start to see people willing to bet the
farm on a business venture to create firewall
forward packages.

Speaking of dreaming..

What do you guys think of the viability of a front cover cast into the form of a standard Lycoming dynafocal-1 mount?

A loose collection of my thoughts so far:

I think it would sell well enough to get the price under $500 for the kit.  I was bs-ing with the local rotary engine builder the other day and he showed me a very nice third-gen oil pan that was cast as a torsionally stiff replacement for the stamped steel original.  The reason behind the pan is another story but the casting work looked great (from this engineer/ non-casting expert's perspective anyway).  He insists that he has a casting guy that is capable of making what we need if I can get him a proto type part.

The thought here is a Dynafocal mount would open up more of the market to those who would convert to rotary engines (like I'm doing) if it didn't require changing the motor mount.  I realize that we can make a decent mount without it and use something like the Schertz beam or the bell housing that the ACRE group is working on.  The Dyna-1 mount would be an effort towards more of a standardization for aircraft use.

I've been toying with this for the last couple of weeks and while it needs some serious planning for water pump and alternator accommodations, I've got a bit of it worked out.  As expected it isn't as easy as originally thought.  Of course if it was it would already be done.  It would be supplied as a package with water pump system and alternator mount.

This does require using a remote water pump like what Paul Lamar created and which isn't a bad idea.  It gets the pump down lower for better performance.  If you use a 3rd gen water pump with its own remote pump housing it could be mounted co-axially with the crank and get rid of a water pump drive belt.  (3rd gen pumps run opposite direction to earlier pumps)

It also would require using the 3rd gen crank angle sensor plate and pickups.

There are enough bolts on the front end plate to hold it together.  Additional reinforcements for the aerobatics crowd would be added at the oil pan-to-front cover flange and on the top from the EGR port on the center plate to the top of the motor mount/front cover.  This would probably be standard for the 20Bs.

-Could be that the sealing surfaces would be a problem as a structural interface?
-It would put the prop flange about 2 inches forward of the Lycoming installation.  However that would put the 13B c.g. about the same as the Lyc.

As an RV-4 owner the thought of a motor mount as compact as the dynafocal mount is appealing.  Yes, I know it has been done on an RV-4 otherwise.  I'm just looking at future possibilities and.. gee.. ANOTHER project.

Okay, enough for now, you guys shoot holes in this for me....


Mike McGee, RV-4 N996RV, O320-E2G, Hillsboro, OR, jmpcrftr-at-teleport.com
13B in gestation mode, RD-1C, EC-2.
..need to quit thinking and get some building done...

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