Michael McGee wrote:

Doing some dreaming..

What do you guys think of the viability of a front cover cast into the form
of a standard Lycoming dynafocal-1 mount?

A loose collection of my thoughts so far:

I think it would sell well enough to get the price under $500 for the
kit.  I was bs-ing with the local rotary engine builder the other day and
he showed me a very nice third-gen oil pan that was cast as a replacement
for the stamped steel original.  The reason behind the pan is another story
but the casting work looked great (from this engineer/ non-casting expert's
perspective anyway).  He insists that he has a casting guy that is capable
of making what we need if I can get him a proto type part.

The thought here is a Dynafocal mount would open up more of the market to
those who would CONVERT to rotary engines (like I'm doing) if it didn't
require changing the motor mount.  I realize that we can make a decent
mount without it and use something like the Schertz beam or the bell
housing.  The Dyna-1 mount would be an effort towards more of a
standardization for aircraft use.

I've been toying with this for the last couple of weeks and while it needs
some serious planning for water pump and alternator accommodations, I've
got a bit of it worked out.  As expected it isn't as easy as originally
thought.  Of course if it was it would already be done.  It would be
supplied as a package with water pump and alternator mount.

This does require using a remote water pump like what Paul created.  It
gets the pump down lower for better performance.  If you use a 3rd gen
water pump with its own remote pump housing it could be mounted co-axially
with the crank and get rid of a water pump drive belt.  (3rd gen pumps run
opposite direction to earlier pumps)

It also would require using the 3rd gen crank angle sensor plate and pickups.

There are enough bolts on the front end plate to hold it
together.  Additional reinforcements for the aerobatics crowd would be
added at the oil pan-to-front cover flange and on the top from the EGR port
on the center plate to the top of the motor mount/front cover.  This would
probably be standard for the 20B motors.

-Could be that the sealing surfaces would be a problem as a structural
interface?

-It would put the prop flange about 2 inches forward of the Lycoming
installation.  However that would put the 13B c.g. about the same as the Lyc.

As an RV-4 owner the thought of a motor mount as compact as the dynafocal
mount is appealing.  Yes, I know it has been done on an RV-4
otherwise.  I'm looking at future possibilities.

Okay, enough for now, you guys shoot holes in this for me....

Mike McGee, RV-4 N996RV, O320-E2G, Hillsboro, OR, jmpcrftr-at-teleport.com
13B in gestation mode, RD-1C, EC-2.

 
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