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


We used to have a rubber tired JD D. It had the 2 fuel system and also had compression reducing petcocks that you could open to start it, though that have might have been a throwback to hand cranking.

Darren Dyck


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