Jabiru 120hp 6 cylinder

[Evan Carew]

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A friend of mine has the new Jabiru 6 cylinder engine in his home built
with ~100 hours on it. He says that every 25 hrs, he has to adjust the
valves. At his 100 hour, he has to do a differential pressure test.
After helping him with his pressure test, we noticed that #6 was out of
spec for losing pressure. It turns out that the fix for the pressure
issue was to tighten the head bolts on #6.

Is this a normal amount of maintenance for a jibaru? Am I the only one
who thinks this is a bit too much effort for maintaining an aircraft engine?

Evan
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[Bret Ludwig]

Evan Carew wrote:
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> A friend of mine has the new Jabiru 6 cylinder engine in his home built
> with ~100 hours on it. He says that every 25 hrs, he has to adjust the
> valves. At his 100 hour, he has to do a differential pressure test.
> After helping him with his pressure test, we noticed that #6 was out of
> spec for losing pressure. It turns out that the fix for the pressure
> issue was to tighten the head bolts on #6.
>
> Is this a normal amount of maintenance for a jibaru? Am I the only one
> who thinks this is a bit too much effort for maintaining an aircraft engine?
>

The Jabiru is not a US certificated aircraft engine nor does it have
any other use or installed base. Plus, apparently the US distributor is
a world class Dirty Rotten C<10>r. Why beat your head against the
ground with such a thing?

Buy a LyCon (yecch) or buy a general purpose engine for which you can
get parts through car, boat, industrial, performance sources.

Just my opinion. Never touched a Jabiru, no desire to do so, unless
they start turning up surplus at five cents on the dollar. (A Corvair
has to be a better choice, hands down.)

[Rob Turk]

"Bret Ludwig" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> Evan Carew wrote:
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>>
>> A friend of mine has the new Jabiru 6 cylinder engine in his home built
>> with ~100 hours on it. He says that every 25 hrs, he has to adjust the
>> valves. At his 100 hour, he has to do a differential pressure test.
>> After helping him with his pressure test, we noticed that #6 was out of
>> spec for losing pressure. It turns out that the fix for the pressure
>> issue was to tighten the head bolts on #6.
>>
>> Is this a normal amount of maintenance for a jibaru? Am I the only one
>> who thinks this is a bit too much effort for maintaining an aircraft
>> engine?
>>
>
> The Jabiru is not a US certificated aircraft engine nor does it have
> any other use or installed base. Plus, apparently the US distributor is
> a world class Dirty Rotten C<10>r. Why beat your head against the
> ground with such a thing?
>
> Buy a LyCon (yecch) or buy a general purpose engine for which you can
> get parts through car, boat, industrial, performance sources.
>
> Just my opinion. Never touched a Jabiru, no desire to do so, unless
> they start turning up surplus at five cents on the dollar. (A Corvair
> has to be a better choice, hands down.)
>

Very nice to post such a comment when you have zero experience with the
engine. Insult the distributor(s) while at it. Nice. Contrary to your post,
I have experienced the US distributors are very helpful, always available
and ready for you. Even when you bought the engine from someone else, or
when you're not in the US like me.

As for the OP, the recommendation is to re-torque the head bolts every 25
hours. It's important to torque all bolts, including the 'hidden' fifth one.
The manual is explicit about these intervals. If your friend has done this
then he might have ran his engine too hot. What EGT/CHT values has he been
running at, for all cylinders? Also, what oil did he use?

Your friend may want to visit the Jabiru engines group on Yahoo. Lots of
knowledge there, as well as prescence and active participation of the
distributors.

Rob

[OtisWinslow]

Never touched one and you run off at the mouth like that
and slander the US distributor? You'll be happy to know
I forwarded your post to him. You may get the opportunity
to prove your allegations.

I know lots of people who run Jabs and they perform well
with regular maintenance.



"Bret Ludwig" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> Evan Carew wrote:
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> Hash: SHA1
>>
>> A friend of mine has the new Jabiru 6 cylinder engine in his home built
>> with ~100 hours on it. He says that every 25 hrs, he has to adjust the
>> valves. At his 100 hour, he has to do a differential pressure test.
>> After helping him with his pressure test, we noticed that #6 was out of
>> spec for losing pressure. It turns out that the fix for the pressure
>> issue was to tighten the head bolts on #6.
>>
>> Is this a normal amount of maintenance for a jibaru? Am I the only one
>> who thinks this is a bit too much effort for maintaining an aircraft
>> engine?
>>
>
> The Jabiru is not a US certificated aircraft engine nor does it have
> any other use or installed base. Plus, apparently the US distributor is
> a world class Dirty Rotten C<10>r. Why beat your head against the
> ground with such a thing?
>
> Buy a LyCon (yecch) or buy a general purpose engine for which you can
> get parts through car, boat, industrial, performance sources.
>
> Just my opinion. Never touched a Jabiru, no desire to do so, unless
> they start turning up surplus at five cents on the dollar. (A Corvair
> has to be a better choice, hands down.)
>

[UltraJohn]

Bret Ludwig wrote:



This is the second topic Mr Bret has been on and he has not made one
positive comment yet! He is just flaming and trying to spred hate and
discontent. Just ignore him.
John

[Evan Carew]

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John,

For those of us who use Mozilla/Thunderbird/Netscape there is the
concept of putting someone in your message filters. Don't know if this
possible in Microsoft land, but should be.

Evan

UltraJohn wrote:
> Bret Ludwig wrote:
>
>
>
> This is the second topic Mr Bret has been on and he has not made one
> positive comment yet! He is just flaming and trying to spred hate and
> discontent. Just ignore him.
> John
>

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[UltraJohn]

Evan Carew wrote:

>
> For those of us who use Mozilla/Thunderbird/Netscape there is the
> concept of putting someone in your message filters. Don't know if this
> possible in Microsoft land, but should be.
>
> Evan
>


Yes Evan
I run both Netscape and Opera browsers and I heavily use filers, mainly on
my e-mail but occasionally on the newsgroups too. Mostly I just look at the
poster and if it is one known to flame I just don't open it and when I
finish ready I select "mark all as read" and delete.
I enjoy a lot of the postings and feel putting up with a few idiots worth
the others.
John

[Bret Ludwig]

UltraJohn wrote:
> Evan Carew wrote:
>
> >
> > For those of us who use Mozilla/Thunderbird/Netscape there is the
> > concept of putting someone in your message filters. Don't know if this
> > possible in Microsoft land, but should be.
> >

Do what thou wilt.

Apparently the current US distributors are not the problem, but rather
a previous one. I remember very well a post on Usenet about a guy who
bought an engine overseas, before a US dealer existed. When one was
appointed, he refused to sell the guy any parts to punish him for
buying it "around him", even though he wasn't the dealer then, and the
works refused to ship him parts because there was a dealer in the US!
However I am unable to find that post.

Still, the Jabiru is an expensive noncertificated engine, with only
one parts line, and it turns a small prop fast. In that it combines the
lesserly-desirable aspects of aircraft engines and non-aircraft engines.

[Rob Turk]

"Bret Ludwig" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Do what thou wilt.
>
> Apparently the current US distributors are not the problem, but rather
> a previous one. I remember very well a post on Usenet about a guy who
> bought an engine overseas, before a US dealer existed. When one was
> appointed, he refused to sell the guy any parts to punish him for
> buying it "around him", even though he wasn't the dealer then, and the
> works refused to ship him parts because there was a dealer in the US!
> However I am unable to find that post.
>

That story is about as old as those Lyco's your referred to. Not surprised
you can't find it, it predates even Google..

So you decide to judge an engine and/or distributor based on a single
occurrance of a bad business transaction of over 5 years ago, where someone
decided to save a few pennies by grey importing an engine and then didn't
get the service he desired from the locally assigned distributor.
This guys has in effect become his own distributor and having to buy his
spare parts directly from the factory serves him right. The local
distributor didn't punish him, he probably didn't want the responsibility
for delivering parts to an engine of unknown origin/history and having to
deal with a widow on his doorstep if things went wrong.

> Still, the Jabiru is an expensive noncertificated engine, with only
> one parts line, and it turns a small prop fast. In that it combines the
> lesserly-desirable aspects of aircraft engines and non-aircraft engines.

The average 3300 runs at ~2700 rpm cruise speed with a 68" prop. Direct
drive, so no redrive in between that can fail. Redline at 3300 rpm. How much
different is that from a Lyco? And how did you manage to put a Rotax as well
as Subaru/Corvair/whatever car conversion at 5000+ rpm and a heavy,
error-prone redrive in the "more desirable aspects" category of engines??

Rob

[Bret Ludwig]

Rob Turk wrote:
<<snip>>

> That story is about as old as those Lyco's your referred to. Not surprised
> you can't find it, it predates even Google..
>
> So you decide to judge an engine and/or distributor based on a single
> occurrance of a bad business transaction of over 5 years ago, where someone
> decided to save a few pennies by grey importing an engine and then didn't
> get the service he desired from the locally assigned distributor.
> This guys has in effect become his own distributor and having to buy his
> spare parts directly from the factory serves him right. The local
> distributor didn't punish him, he probably didn't want the responsibility
> for delivering parts to an engine of unknown origin/history and having to
> deal with a widow on his doorstep if things went wrong.

Phooey. It's a stock factory engine. The dealer was being a high hard
one. The engine was of known history, was bought direct when there was
no dealer, the factory knew the guy.
>
> > Still, the Jabiru is an expensive noncertificated engine, with only
> > one parts line, and it turns a small prop fast. In that it combines the
> > lesserly-desirable aspects of aircraft engines and non-aircraft engines.
>
> The average 3300 runs at ~2700 rpm cruise speed with a 68" prop. Direct
> drive, so no redrive in between that can fail. Redline at 3300 rpm. How much
> different is that from a Lyco? And how did you manage to put a Rotax as well
> as Subaru/Corvair/whatever car conversion at 5000+ rpm and a heavy,
> error-prone redrive in the "more desirable aspects" category of engines??

That's direct drive VW or Corvair category.

No direct drive Lyc turns that fast. Maybe in helos, but not turning a
prop. Well, maybe the old cast iron O-145 did-it belongs in the museum
with Pobjoys and Bristol Cherubs.

The redrive on a general purpose (never say "car", a Cigarette boat or
irrigation pump is no car...) engine is a big asset, not a liability.
It's why you can run the engine with no prop and why a prop strike will
bend a $300 hub instead of a $3000 crank.