VW based engines. Pros and cons from users?

[Thruster88]

34 minutes ago, danny_galaga said:

Have I misremembered it? I wonder what I was thinking of...

There were roller cranks for the vw  back in the day, they are pressed together like a 912 crank.

[spacesailor]

Jowett Jupiter 

Absolutely beautiful. 

spacesailor

[facthunter]

The roller cranks are OKRASA pressed up as I've mentioned a few times. They came out years ago and I don't know anyone here who used them, They were for race purposes, Possibly the con rods were better bur I can't see them as an answer. VW big end bolts  needed up grading, The motor wasn't produced with racing in mind. It was cheap and mass produced and fairly rugged..   Nev

[danny_galaga]

I also believe they weren't really meant to go beyond 50,000km . Which would take a long time for the average German family in the 1930s. Probably why even into the 70s the odometer clocked over after 99,999 😄

Edited July 4, 2023 by danny_galaga

[facthunter]

Notably, it didn't run an oil filter either. Just a screen. The bearings were ALUTIN not very tolerant of dirt. Nev

[facthunter]

Some users got big miles out of them, (For those times). I think they were cars that did longer runs to get fully warm and not be doing stop start work. The valve guides were short and wore fairly quickly and the studs holding the rockers pulled the threads out of the heads. The REPCO exchange motors were notoriously bad and we ceased fitting them,.   Nev

[danny_galaga]

12 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Notably, it didn't run an oil filter either. Just a screen. The bearings were ALUTIN not very tolerant of dirt. Nev

Yes, and you would remember that you had to use non modified/non detergent oil else small particles would just keep circulating the engine instead of building up in that screen. I only ever cleaned my screen once. Didn't look very grotty. That either means not much wear, or a whole bunch of crap just kept circulating, not fazed by the screen 😄

 

You could also get an aftermarket oil filter kit. Would they be using something similar in the Aero versions do you think?

[facthunter]

Haven't seen one on a plane.  A full flow one is not easy to arrange. There was a Ryco kit that bled a bit of oil from the main gallery (Bypass) that would eventually clean even dark coloured oil but no all of flow protection. With the flat bottomed sump you couldn't guarantee there wasn't a lot of sludge gathering on the bottom of it. One motor I worked on had 1/2 a piston skirt sitting down there and all the pistons were OK so Its been there a while. Love/hate for me, but there's NOT many engines I really Like anyhow. Nev

[danny_galaga]

This is the sort of kit I was talking about. One side effect would have to be you've reduced road clearance but on a plane it wouldn't be such a big deal

 

https://www.heritagepartscentre.com/au/ac1151792-maxi-pump-2-with-oil-filter-mount.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw44mlBhAQEiwAqP3eViRvfIRluPrzWk3rN6rRHJdlyQMGznrXgaTe0VMluyXo2ykVjE5eIxoCITUQAvD_BwE

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by danny_galaga

[facthunter]

You could probably take it from the oil cooler mount pad too.  Nev

[Thruster88]

6 hours ago, facthunter said:

Notably, it didn't run an oil filter either. Just a screen. The bearings were ALUTIN not very tolerant of dirt. Nev

The o-320 lycoming in my Musketeer only has the brass screen, it is very fine. Much easier to check for metal contamination the the paper filters. It is on track to make TBO.

[facthunter]

Your Crank is nitrided.. So are SOME lycoming cylinders.  Nev

Edited July 4, 2023 by facthunter

[facthunter]

The brass screen type is unlikely to ever block up if you do anything like the right thing in the inspection department. A magnet in there would help also, reliably attached.  Nev