I already thought about the oil issue, but figure that the stock-in-car
engine won't have a problem.  We'll drain it before pulling the thing
out of the car so it will have fresh oil for the demo.

However, even if the thing only runs an hour without water (which has
been done in at least one car that I know of), that's about 59 minutes
longer than any other water-cooled engine will do.

Essentially, I'm not promoting the idea of an engine which doesn't need
water so much as an engine which won't seize and kill you if you lose
the water inflight.  While I expect that it will stay running, this IS a
test-to-failure demo.  That's one reason for the big clock -- if the
engine fails, we stop the clock then challenge any other engine to match
the runtime.

Of course, we'll run a fan through the oil cooler and over the engine,
to simulate inflight airflow, and that should help a little.

Keith

Keith,

Just playing devils advocate here....

How is running a water cooled rotary without coolant until failure
going to show the masses that it is superior to an air cooled reciprosaur?
The air cooled recprosaur does not have coolant to loose....

One thing both engines have in common is a pressurized oil system,
however, if either engine looses oil pressure, they will both seize.

I guess I am just not sure what the demo will accomplish.

Heath Holbrook

A lot of people are installing auto conversions.  Except for the VW and
Corvair, all of these are water-cooled, and loss of coolant has caused a
number of downed planes.

The main thing, though, is to grab attention.  Nobody's ever heard of a
water-cooled engine running without coolant -- "it can't be done!"  They
will come out of curiosity, even if it's morbid curiosity, and get close
enough to see the pile of broken reciprosaur parts and other displays.
We won't be just one more engine idea buried in the show somewhere.

Keith

I don't think this is going to work Keith. You will destroy
an engine to impress two dozen people. There used to be a display
in the flea market area of a piston engine running with out
oil as I recall.

Pilots are not all that concerned with the liquid
cooling per se. They want a simple reliable engine. That means one
cooling radiator and one oil cooler with simple, straight
forward, short plumbing. A carb or simple mechanical fuel
injection. Preferable a couple of mags. Something they understand
and are familiar with. They are also impressed by HP and
performance. Rate of climb and top speed. The ability to
burn cheap auto gas is a big plus for the rotary.
Lots of new aircraft piston engines if not most
require expensive 100LL.