hoog76

Hoog,

the root of your reasoning is sound, as the future of aviation is in diesels. You seem to forget, however, that the recommended engine for a Cozy is the O or IO-360 Lycoming with about 180 HP. You would need to put together quite a few of your 30 HP diesels to make it work.

What I'm planning to do, is use one of the new V6 turbodiesels currently being used in most modern cars in Europe,

like the VW 3.0 liters V6, or the Mercedes Benz 3.0 liters V6, etc.

In stock form they put out 225 HP at about 4000 RPM. Slightly derated to 205 HP at 2800 RPM they would both make superb aircraft engines.

Keep thinking outside the envelope, that's what experimental aviation is for.

Kumaros

It's all Greek to me

Found this cool site for new and used diesel engines while browsing.

http://www.usdieselengines.com/diesel_engine_classifieds.asp

Yeah, I know that it's a pipe dream to have an open roomy engine area with a couple of small easily replaceable engines in there but you never what technology will bring in the future. I still like the thought of being able to heave out a 60 hp engine and throw in a new one whenever you need to. To minimize the complexity to a few sensors, throttle, and gas lines would be sweet but probably to simplistic to be attractive.

hmm, just by searching around a bit there are lot's of different options when using an auto-diesel conversion, thanks for the tip.

Anyway, anyone have any guidelines in how you determine optimal hp or thrust that a plane needs?

Thanks,

Hoog

I've been reading many websites about cozys for a few years now. This has got to be one of the best resources yet.

I'm very ignorant when it comes to the details of hp, thrust, props, rpms etc so bear with me if this seems extreme.

One of my biggest interests beside a glass cockpit is engines.

What I'm confused about is the requirement for larger hp engines. Isn't the main goal to get the prop turning at a specific rpm for maximum thrust?

So wouldn't a prop driven by a 60 hp engine turning at 2400 rpm give the same thrust as a prop turning at 2400 rpm by a 200 hp engine?

Is a larger hp required since turning a prop at x rpm's has to much resistance for lower hp engines?

Would a different prop design with a smaller hp engine work to create the same thrust as a larger hp with a less efficient prop design or would the resistance of the prop be too much for a lower hp engine?

Like I said, my knowledge is really limited and I see the formulas shooting across but it might as well be in a foreign language.

The reason that I ask is because I'm really interested in diesels. I see a lot of smaller air cooled diesel engines in the 30-60 hp range. Kohler, honda, ford, cat, deere, BS, etc. The engines are fairly low cost,light weight and have a high mtbf. Most have peak power at the 2200-3000 rpm range and could be direct drive. Some of the engines are small enough that it seems that if you could take through clutches or one way gears and combine the power of two engines to a single prop it would also provide some redundancy if one engine were to develop problems.

I'm not suggesting to throw lawnmower engines into a cozy but engines that are designed for long term mid range use. Seems that most of the issues/failures and costs are associated with complex engine setups that are in a lot of cases unproven and untested.

Just curious as to what the thoughts are about my ramblings.

Thanks,

Hoog