That engine would sound soooooo much better with an exhaust manifold to collect the various exhaust pulses into a single chamber. Would probably help with cylinder scavenging too! :)
Great article in "De Luchtxoxer",quite different from most of the articles we are used to. It's a pity that both links were wrong, but you were easy to find. Great project and a good example of 'out of the box thinking'. Must be very rewarding having it completed and run.
Arnold, I watched your other video of Making the engine, but the one thing I didn't see covered is how you relocated the intake ports after you cut the heads in half. Stock bug heads have the intake ports at 90 degrees to the exhaust port and on your modified heads they are 180 degrees. Do you have any pictures of what you did to move the ports? Brilliant piece of work by the way!
Steven C Take a close look at 0.12 After the head is cut in 2 pieces the intake appears at 180 degrees: at the top and at the side. I closed the upper hole with a prop, and milled te 180° side flat.....and put a intake flange + pipe at it.
Beautiful CNC machine work and design. I wish radial's could be updated with electronic fuel injection and use the latest oil lubrication system and parts (such as dry sump and synthetic oils) along with advanced camshaft designs that do not cost an arm and a leg to test. Radial engines are reasonably efficient and can be housed in very small cowlings in an aircraft. With today's modern computers and fuel management systems (e.g. FADEC) including sophisticated fuel injectors, radial's would be still in service today (in my biased opinion) with very good BSFC characteristics. CNC designed and machined parts also offer improved tolerances and accuracy, capable of delivering balanced parts that can reduce harmonics and wear on the master crank rod and all rotating parts. Piston design along with new understanding of intake and exhaust flow in cylinder heads can be attempted offering further improvements. Adding even more potential is new exhaust manifold header options that when connected to a modern turbocharger and wastegate (or governor / pop-off valve) can greatly enhance horsepower requirements while improving fuel efficiency. Your engine design is a masterpiece ! How you managed to keep the oil from spraying all over the place where the lifters to pushrods are located is impressive. I would imagine if the design was to be attempted for use in an actual aircraft, you would have to build pushrod tubes and deliver oil to the rocker arms and springs as well like a traditional radial engine had. With modern dry sump oil systems this should possible without excessive horsepower loss. Most modern scavenge type dry sump oil pumps have exceptionally long life and offer the ability to ensure oil is not building up in the crankcase and offer the advantage of being belt driven or direct drive though gear reduction. The cylinder heads would be hampered with a complex series of drain tubes adding weight, but worth the effort! Thank you again for taking the time to build a radial engine. Your passion for engineering using CNC tools is impressive and clearly shown! +1
You can do all those things... EFI is not so critical in aircraft where you are mostly operating at fixed conditions but easy enough to add. If you want it all modern, just use BMW motorcycle cylinders instead, and bingo - modern radial :)
spinnetti EFI is very critical if improvements in the radial's fuel consumption (and power) are desired. Aircraft engines require leaning as altitude increases. By using electronic injectors and computers in piston powered engines, precise BSFC monitoring can improve performance and efficiency over manual throttle leaning by as much as 25%.
Good evening sir, My name is Ray Parsons, I am fascinated by the VW Radial engine video. I am curious to know if you have any other information regarding the engine, or the specifics of the engine builder, or contact information ?
Blue Planet Photo Studio getting something new approved by the FAA is like getting a revolutionary medicine endorsed by the FDA, well almost, they approved thin film, thermal and wear reduction coatings recently, a tech we've had available to us since the late 1800's, (we've had lasers that could take down a plane, before we had any planes! Lol But come up with way to get consumers to ingest a toxic, unhealthy, or detrimental substance while selling it as healthy, margarine (hydrogenated oil, = oil & water do mix) or trans fatty acids, knowing it killed lab animals and the turkeys they designed it to fatten up, or hydrofluorosilicic acid, a toxic mining byproduct that's illegal to dispose of and must be kept contained due to its environmentally hazardous caustic properties, well, since it's a derivative of fluoride, let's just dump it in everyone's drinking water reservoirs, it can't be filtered out, so let's use the population as living buffers, well profit from the resulting health issues, just get some dirt on a dentist, blackmail him into convincing them it's sodium fluoride without actually saying so, it'll be years before anyone figures it out! Lol But seriously, they are coming around, maybe they'll be open minded to run the tests, they'll require serious QC on the percentage/contents in the billet alloys, component tolerances, fastener types, case material thickness, etc. If I were to bet, I'd put my money on this setup making the cut! They approved a Wenkel, Rotary a Diesel, why not a VW improvisation? What's harder to kill than a beetle engine? Maybe a slant six? That's about it...
i have just seen your wounderfull radial engine and i woundered if you made any plans to build it? because your Video inspiriered me to try and build a radial engine out of a beetle engine my self. For that it would be realy helpfull to know the dimensions and measurement of your engine kind regards Gregor
that is truly a beautiful machine and looks factory made and it sounds Beautiful and even starts easy I would love to see the torque and Horsepower curves of it
Arnold how did you machine the cam ring and align the gear teeth for proper timing? Did you choose a three lobe pattern opposite engine rotation or four lobe pattern the same as engine rotation. I always saw the cam ring as the major challenge. Although if you study the R2800 the crank shaft and cylinder heads had major development time.--Jay Reiter AEHS member
+Melinda Reiter The cam ring has been machined by a CNC-machine. Engineering this part was indeed a master challenge! The allignment has been made by cylinder 1.
@@pablo_santos29 My guess is 4 lobe turning with engine rotation at 1/8th speed. I am glad you asked this. I see Arnold answered my question and I did not see it. He had more advanced machines than I thought. Are you familiar with the radial? There is currently not much published on them. Even in 1969 I had to draw the angles with a protractor to understand the cam ring. My father could not explain it. He started with American Export Airlines in the 1940's and went with AA after the anti trust decision. My A&P had no radial questions but I still remember them. Now that I am past the age that my father was then I understand how your mind remembers only the high points.
Beautiful! What is the plans of this incredible engine. Putin an small airplane. Are you interested in sell plans for entusiasts make their engine too? I buy for make my engine and put on scale ultralight and custom car.
wildcoyote34 Jack Hereford in New Haven, MO used to sell drawings for this engine. He also sold drawings for a 5 cylinder version. mict04.ottawarobotics.org/making-r-220-a-hci-design/
