Paul,  ten years ago I was toying with the idea of putting the 215 Cu
in Aluminum rover V8  engine in a Tailwind.  At that time, a very
good engineer/machinist friend and I decided upon a HiVo chain drive
as the easiest and cheapest to build.  The devil is certainly in the
details and unfortunately I don't remember much.  I do recall  that
the chain was enclosed and ran in an oil bath.  There is a wide
variety of ratios available.  The whole things was extremely compact
and I believe off set  from the crank center line about  3 inches
though I might be wrong in this.   Have you already looked into this
type of drive and rejected it? or is this something that deserves
more investigation?  Jerry

Yep Very heavy.
Here are some picts. Opss can't find them will get back to you.

----------------------------------------------------

OK I found them. This is the former Geshwinder(s?) HiVo chain
drive unit now taken over by a guy at SZP making scale
P51 powered by LS1's. I took these picts last week.

All those castings sure are pretty, aren't they?

Looks like the esthetic's are a factor -- he's going for the Merlin look.

However, not only are the castings heavy, there's a lot of moving mass
in that chain.  I'd rather have the prop absorb the engine power, not
the reduction.

Keith


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