I see where EngineAir is liquidating all assets. Here is a Chevy V8 based
aircraft engine that had everything going for it but failed
to come up with a spur gear PSRU that worked. They should have used
the Ford C6 planetary :) By way of contrast there are dozens of Ross
and Tracy's gear boxes out there working well. There is no beating
a planetary with a rubber coupling.
EngineAir won a few races and did well in others.
The high buck firewall forward installation jobs were immaculate.
The entire firewall forward turbo V8 package sold for $100,000 with
air conditioning.
I got a clue at last year's Sun N Fun that all was not right with the PSRU.
Look at the size of the flywheel in this pictures. A sure sign they
were trying to absorb the power pulses from the V8 using the sledge
hammer approach.
I know of at least four geared Chevy V8 conversion projects that have failed.
EngineAir lasted longer than most. Not all were due to the gear box.
The S51 (Jim Stewart) gear box was cannon proof but it weighed 120 pounds.
In that case and in a few other cases the engine failed after about 300 hours.
Paul Lamar
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