Subject: BSFC
From: ACRE NL
Date: 1/5/2002, 8:55 PM


Veiled insults are not taken lightly here.
I can document the 0.45 BSFC for a Lycoming if you wish.
In your dreams will a Lycoming breaks 0.42 :-)> I stand by my statement!
On average for the average pilot not running lean of peak it is 0.45 BSFC.

Fair enough.  I apologize.

BTW, in my own post, I documented a .48 BSFC for an IO-550 when running full rich.  I have little doubt that you can do the same for a Lycoming.  Insofar as minimum BSFC of the Lycoming 360 series, I quoted my source.  I have not run any independent tests to confirm those curves.

I agree that the average pilot flying the average Cessna full rich on a weekend jaunt below 5000 feet will not see those low BSFCs.  In fact, I don't think even .45 BSFC will be seen in that scenario.  However, I never lumped the readers of this list into that "average pilot" group.  Given an understanding of the effects of the mixture control and a long range, high-altitude trip profile, much better BSFCs are likely to be attained.

The overwhelming advantage from a cost point of view is the rotary will
happily run on car gas while Lycoming totally dis allows car gas.
Car gas is half the cost of 100 LL. 100LL is required by high compression
air cooled aircraft engines as I just bought one. That leaves the range issue
for the rotary which is not that much different.


Thousands of Lycomings and Continentals operate on auto-gas STCs.  It's just a matter of what's required by your compression ratio.  Given my typical mission, where most of my fuel is purchased far away from home, the auto-gas cost differential isn't that much of a factor due to its general > >unavailability.
Rick Price

Auto gas is NO lead. NO lead is death to engine exhaust valves.
100LL is a misnomer. There actually is quite a bit of lead in 100LL.
The auto industry discovered this years ago when they shifted to no lead fuel.
They developed special materials for valves and seats that were compatible with
no lead fuel.

That could be one reason why Lycoming does not allow running auto gas in 
Lycoming engines. Your warrantee will be void.

I have no intention of running auto gas in my new high compression Cont.
O-470 engine. It would be plain stupid as it cost me about $20,000 to over haul
and install it not counting the two AD's that were out on the crank shaft
before I got it flying again.

Paul Lamar
 
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