From: Richard Riley
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 16:52:54 -0800

Local: Wed, Dec 22 2004 4:52 pm

Subject: Book Review:Maintenance/overhaul guide to Lycoming
aircraft engines, Christy



On 22 Dec 2004 15:52:35 -0800, "Denny" wrote:

:
If the Lycoming or Continental engine were really more reliable than
:commodity general purpose engines, they'd be used in many other
:applications. They are 1930s designs that if not protected by
:certification would have been out of production for decades. General
urpose production engines have been installed in aircraft, usually by
eople with a lack of resources in manufacturing and design, and yet
:flown pretty well. If a company like Mercury Marine chose to get
:involved in powerplants for experimental aircraft, they could put
:Lycoming out of that market segment in a couple of years

..

How about a car company? I mean, if a company that produced high
performance automotive engines got into the business, they'd own it,
right? Especially if they had experience with air cooled engines, so
you wouldn't have the weight or complexity of a liquid cooling system.
They'd use parts that were common to the auto engines, so they'd have
the economy of scale thing going for them And it would help if they
did an opposed engine - you have to see over the cowl, after all, so
opposed or inverted engines have an advantage.

I know, let's get Porsche to get into the aircraft engine business!

_________________________________

Nice try.

Porsche did this very thing of course, calling it Porsche Flight Motors
out of Galesburg, Ill. As you well know.

Your attempt at sarcasm brings up a lot of facts:

1. A 911 Porsche engine in automotive configuration costs as much as a
Lycoming to overhaul. No liability, no certification, just the
willingness of Porsche people to pay stupid prices. Very much as simple
as that.

2. The cam chains have always been trouble on the 911 engine. They
denied it until blue in the face, but the PFM engines had gears.

3. Porsche no longer builds air cooled engines, neither does
Deutz...only H-D, Lyc and Teledyne Continental, purveyors of overpriced
junk to yuppies. As Dave Blanton said, all engines are liquid cooled.
Either by glycol around the valves or raw fuel through them.

4. Porsche would only sell their doubly overpriced-it was quite a bit
more than a Lycoming!-PFM to OEM buyers, of which only one existed,
namely Mooney.

5. You could see over the cowl a lot better with an engine with a
reduction drive putting the crank well below the propeller line and
still be able to have the induction on top of the engine where it
belongs. Additionally, the prop drive could be conveniently isolated
from the crank so that in the event of a gear up landing or noseover,
the engine would not need to be majored.

6. I never see Porsche engines in marine, drag, or circle track racing
and there are no ads for Porsche parts in the hot rod magazines they
sell at the 7-11. Porsches in racing are limited to high dollar road
racing, which Americans could generally care less about unless they are
loaded rich kids or actors like Haywood or Newman.