I met a fellow at OSH this year who had his 801 on display with an
ENORMOUS Ford V-8 conversion under the hood.  He is from Jackson Hole,
Wyoming and wanted power to spare.  I can't for the life of me remember
his website.  It was on the tail or wingtip of his plane.  Anyone else
see the same 801 painted in Orange and Blue?  His website was on the
plane somewhere...

Kevin in Denver

Now that is a structural failure waiting to happen :)

Paul Lamar


Stewart,

The V8 conversion Kevin mentioned is by Ben Haas. Details on the installation
are on his website www.haaspowerair.com . A couple of other Zenith websites of
interest are: http://www.zenithair.com/stolch801/update.html and
http://www.ch701.com/Links/Builder_links.htm

Regards,

Jack Hilditch


This is an accident waiting to happen. The motor mount is incorrectly designed
with un triangulated bays and bent tubes in tension and compression.
The firewall forward weight is at least 450 pounds aluminum block or no aluminum
block. No mention is made of beefing up the fuselage to take the vastly increased
bending loads during landing and high G turns not to mention the increased
bending loads on the wing spars.  Zenairs are not over designed to begin
with having very thin skins.

"The fuel burn is better then expected though and
I am presently confirming the JPI 450 for accuracy. Cruise @ 11,000 msl is
producing 5.9 0 -6.3  gallons an hour."

The numbers quoted above shows a lack of understanding about engine engineering
in general. The fuel burn quoted at 6 gallons an hour or 37 pounds
an hour means the engine is only generating 83 HP giving it the benefit
of a BSFC number of .45. In the unlikely event the BSFC is as low as .40 the HP
then would be 93 HP at the absolute maximum. Now you have a 450 pound
firewall forward weight putting out 93 HP at cruise.

Something is seriously wrong.

"The numbers I am shooting for are one pound of engine weight for each
horsepower and a small total  engine profile that will fit in most
airframes."

What he is saying here is he things he is going to get 350 to 400 HP
with a 1.43:1 PSRU ratio. With a 2600 RPM prop that is 3700
engine RPM. No way is that going to happen.

This person is totally clueless.

I am really worried here. Probably one of the most dangerous airplanes
I have seen in a very long time.

Paul Lamar