On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 01:43:22 GMT, Orval Fairbairn
wrote:

Yes:

1. The aircraft was a really poor example of a homebuilt, with numerous
poor building practices. It looked really cobbled together.

2. Apparently the belt driving the generator either broke or came off,
taking out the main lead from the coil to the distributor, causing
engine stoppage.

3. He tried to make it into a golf course and failed.

There was another Ford-powered MM-II in LA a few years ago that met t™e
same end. I have no specific details, but I saw it at Oshkosh -- it
reminded me of the one here -- VERY bad workmanship and VERY rough!

If you want to pursue the Ford conversion, get acquainted with racing
people and learn what they do to assure reliability -- things like
scatter shields, ignition protection, etc.

I seriously doubt that you will gain anything overall (other than
headaches) from your Ford conversion.

Like any engine being used to power an airplane, it must be finished
with aircraft grade materials and using aircraft practices.

There is a history with the Ford engines and everything that has gone
wrong to this point is documented and a change engineered. There are
a lot of Fords successfully flying out there, we should learn from
what works as well as what did not work. There is no excuse for
building a Ford engine today and not taking advantage of the knowledge
that has gone before. No excuse unless you don't like living much.

Our EAA chapter hosted a DAR last winter. The guy was old,
cantankerous and obnoxious. But I walked away from the meeting
understanding that I had better document the development of my engine
(Ford 3.8L V6) accurately or that guy was going to be all over me.

So I fabricated an engine test stand that is tall enough to mount the
engine in it and have it run with the prop installed. I plan to run
the engine extensively, not just for the benefit of the DAR, but for
my benefit too. It will be fully instrumented and the plan is to run
it for at least 20 or 30 hours. I will of course run the engine at
full throttle for simulated takeoffs and climbs.

This will be a test for the engine, the exhaust system as well as the
viability of the cooling system. In addition, I'll be testing the
ignition systems too. In fact every component of the engine will be
wrung out.

Only when the engine has passed all these tests does it go onto the
frame.

Corky Scott