Sorry Mike this is about the best I can do. The lower cowl was on all the
time I was there. I will be going up in a month to visit so will take more
pictures then. The cooling system is not working very well despite an
obscene sized intake and outlet so I imagine there will be major changes.

It is very hard to pressurize an entire cowling as air leaks out every
where. Even the piano hinges have to be sealed with tape and as of OSH
they have not tried that. A pressurized cowl is the current set up.

It is better to have a small sealed inlet diffuser and let the air find its
way out through the cowling where it wants to. I am sure Power Sport will
soon come to that conclusion. I will upload a picture of the current inlet
and
outlet next.

Paul Lamar

Thanks Paul,

Mike Wills wrote:

  When you head up there can you try to get some details on that oil/water
heat exchanger. Size, weight, construction, etc...? Are they making this in
house or buying it from somewhere and if so, where? How is the coolant side
plumbed? In series with the rad or in parallel? As you know, I considered
using one of these for a long time and finally chickened out and decided to
use a conventional oil cooler. I couldnt find an exchanger that had
sufficient cooling capacity to make me feel comfortable going that route.

  Do you have temperature data? How high were their oil and coolant temps
and where were they measured?

  I considered the pressurized cowl config for a while but finally ruled it
out for a number of reasons including those that you mentioned above.
Sounds like that was a good call.

Mike Wills

I will try to remember all those questions:-) It is made by Long up in 
Ontario Canada I think. IMHO it is part of the problem. A third bigger rad
is  required because of that oil/water heat exchanger. 

IMHO Power Sport is faced with a slight packaging problem due to the 
off set in the gear box. This lowers the engine leaving less room underneath 
for a large rad and an inlet diffuser. It would be better to use a smaller
water rad and a separate air/oil cooler and mount it someplace else with its
own inlet diffuser. Another factor they need to deal with is; this is an RV6 nose
dragger which uses up even more room under the cowl. All this is not to
say they cannot solve the problem. I am sure they will as they have a talented
bunch of guys up there. 

BTW I do believe the airplane would look better with
a more blunt cowl. More like a stock RV6 which would give room for dual
vertical mounted oblique radiators like Jim Rahm's V8 powered Lancair IV and Jim
Mosur's
Mazda powered RV6. Last I heard Jim Mosur's RV6 was cooling great but of course
it did not have as much power. Jim Rahm finished second in the NC to OSH race
at 320 MPH so it must be cooling well. Only the factory Lancair beat him.

Paul Lamar
 
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