http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_09_09_2013_p12-609055.xml



“The quest for a small UAS engine that burns diesel or JP-5 fuel rather than aviation or automotive gasoline has been underway since the 1980s.
The latest bump in this long road was the acquisition in July of Thielert, manufacturer of the diesel engine for the U.S. Army's MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAS, by China's Avic.

This has forced the Army and General Atomics to adopt Lycoming's
DEL-120 diesel—an engine that Lycoming did not show at Auvsi, instead bringing its smaller, 63-hp EL-060 (a spark-ignition multifuel two-stroke). One question is when the new DEL-120 will be able to attain the time between overhauls needed for UAS use. The Thielert engine became notorious in the personal-aircraft market for frequent and expensive inspections and overhauls.”


Marc Wieie

The Thielert is an econ box car engine from Europe. What do you expect ? :) Miracles? :)

Paul Lamar


Paul,

Years ago driving 18 wheel diesel trucks, we put additives into diesel fuel to keep the engine performing in extreme cold. Question, in nations where diesel is available and very little aviation gasoline, could an additive be used in diesel so it could run in a Wankel Engine set up for gasoline.  Paul have you heard of anyone that experimented with fuel treatments to burn diesel or is its flash point to low ?

George Curtis


Why do that? You can get car gas all over the world.


Paul Lamar


     When gasoline was 25% or more higher priced than Diesel fuel, I heard of
   some young boys in Salou, Tarragona, Spain, having an air cooled engine
   Citroen 2CV that was fed on   gasoline until engine was hot, then, from
  an independent deposit, Diesel fuel was send  to the carb. It worked,
   don't know for how long.
  A SAE article was about Diesel engines coming soon to an airport next
  or close to you.
   C-W conducted research on the use of JP4 and other fuels by
  direct injection into a Wankel RCE combustion chamber, many SAE papers
  resulted.
  There are some small engine producers trying to enter the market,
  for example, D-motor www.d-motor.eu , Austro and probably others.
    Have a good time. Best regards. Salut †
                    Jose Gros-Aymerich
                      Madrid, Spain

That is not the price. That is the TAX.

None of the Wankels burning diesel were successful in reducing the fuel consumption.  The compression ratio is too limited.

CW published many SAE papers for the benefit of their stock price.

Paul Lamar


Some old tractors had two tanks, one for gasoline, one for kerosene (which is similar to diesel). You would start the engine on the gasoline and after it was warmed up you would switch to kerosene, which at that time (early
50's) was cheaper that gasoline to the farmer. Bear in mind, although I saw this in the 50's, the tractors were old THEN.

Bill Schertz

Yep, I remember those tractors.

http://www.retiredtractors.com/Modelb.html
"All of the John Deere two cylinder tractors at this time (1935-1947) were designed to run on "tractor fuel" or "distillate". This was less volatile than gasoline, so the tractors had a small gasoline tank located behind the main fuel tank, for starting the engine. Then, when the engine was warmed up, a "three-way-valve" in the fuel line could be switched, and the tractor would run on the heavier fuel in the main tank. This early Model B weighed about 2700 lbs. Horsepower figures are debatable, but the engine had a displacement of 149 cubic inches."

My dad had one of these tractors, about 16 hp. I remember riding as a very young boy along with my older brother, both of us sitting on the gas tank, under the steering rod and holding onto the rod - great fun.

After working all morning, in warm weather you could shut the ignition system off (gear in neutral) and the engine would continue to slowly cycle (dieseling) and would often still be cycling after returning from lunch, then just turn the ignition on and give it the throttle and back to work. No hand cranking involved.

Harold

What does kerosene coast these days. I'll bet there is no road tax on it.

Paul Lamar

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