Leon McAtee wrote:
(Don) wrote in message . com...

As previously said, there's no need to use

VW now that low cost used Rotax and Jabiru are available.
Don


I don't know where your finding all of these cheap motors. Sure isn't
in TAP or on Barnstormers (or I'm just not looking in the right place)
and with the euro exchange rate the Rotax isn't such a good buy now.
The OZ dollar is starting to gain also.

As for VW reliability they get a bad reputation because the majority
of the ones that quit could be expected to quit. The VW is NOT a
simple motor to work on. You have to know it's quirks. Back when I
was build'n em for a living I lost a bunch of work to the "guy down
the road" because he would do a rebuild for $600 when I charged $800
"for the same thing". I generally had to charge $900, or more, to
redo the other guys work - if the customer had any money left 6 months
later.

Point is there are just too many "experts" that have built a 1/2 dozen
or so buggy motors that think they can build a reliable VW aero motor.
They generally can't. After you've built a few hundred and lived
with them through their life span then you begin to get an idea of
what works and what doesn't. Then you get to start all over with that
knowledge base and adapt it to the unique demands of pulln' or pushn'
a plane.

So don't disparage the VW just because some are junk. Just like the
airframe they power, if properly built and operated within a
reasonable envelope they are just as reliable as any
powerplant..................in my opinion.

=====================================
Leon McAtee

In my case it was built by Revmaster which had been building VW engines for years.

Jerry