will kirkbride

Photo of the cam and spec card

Hi. BenG. My engine does 4600 static. It will rev to 5000 if I let it but I have the prop set so it cruises at around 4500. It is totally different in a gyro of course. I have built 2 engines for gyros. You are restricted by the size of the intake manifold and the port size. I will try to find my spare cam and give you the grind number or the specs if you want to get your own ground. Let me know if you want anything else. Cheers

Hi. I have a modified EA81 in my Zenith CH750. The wade cam grind is used but was reground by Clive cams who used to be the main guy before Wade was taken over. I have a spare reground cam if you are interested. My engine is much modified with a fuel injection system and crank triggered ignition. Happy to fill you in with any questions you may have. I agree that the engine is getting old now,but has proven to be reliable so far.

I have built a 750. Imported the kit direct from the factory. No problems dealing with them and the support is great. They have a forum with builder resources and back up from the engineers if needed. I can not recommend them enough. There are a LOT of these flying in the US. Spares are delivered within a week or so. The cost of the kit landed here was about 30k. Any more info,I am happy to let you know. Just message me. PS. this was about 5 years ago. Flying for 2 years now. Cheers

Hi Hank. Wade cams are no longer in business but their main man left and formed Clive Cams If you contact Clive on 03 97585977 and ask for the 240 Wade grind for EA81 he will be able to help you. I see you are from Alabama so you would need the Australian prefix before the phone number if you are going to call. I deal with Clive and find him helpful. Message me if you want to know more. Cheers Will

Hi All, I have an EA81 in my Zenith 750. I have completed the first flight and am now doing the 25 hour test flight stage before gaining full registration. My engine is the fuel injected,turbo version without the turbo. It has an SDS computer to control the fuel injectors and ignition timing. The system uses a crankshaft trigger to control the spark and has a coil pack with 4 separate coil leads and hence has no distributor as such. The engine has the custom Wade camshaft and has custom forged pistons and steel con rods which is probably overkill but thats OK with me,better to be overengineered than not. The system uses a waste spark,but as Bushcaddy pointed out,this would probably cause a problem with a carby set up, however the injectors sit in the intake just above the intake valve and my engine revs to 5500 cleanly with no problems. I would not recomend installing this engine if you dont have a good grasp of the mechanics of it all as it takes a lot of engineering to get it to work properly. However, it is a sweet running engine when sorted. Mine weighed 92kg also with the redrive, engine mount and oil. Cheers Will

Ray, The rods were standard length. I doubt that making a long rod type engine would be much advantage because of the short stoke of this engine. The ring pack is quite compact as it is and if you want to use available pistons, it would not be a economical option. If you are serious about using this engine, there is a heap of information on the net. I have mine running now and am in the ground testing stage. So far it looks good. I am happy to share any info. Cheers Will

Hi there Ray. The rods were custom made by Phill at ARGO engineering in Morphet. They were the first of these rods to be made for on EA81 as I recall(the standard ones would probably be more that strong enough) but I wanted peace of mind. PM me if you want more details. Cheers Will

I am fitting an EA81 to my project. The research I did last year showed that the only option you have (in Australia anyway) is the Foxcon redrive for the Terrier. Looks like a good unit with a wide belt but hard to tell if it has a lower support bearing or not. Probably best to get on their website or give them a call. Hope this helps.

Hi there. Just my 2 cents. If you have a carb system, like the Jab, there is no return line. You only need a return line in a fuel injected system because it operates differently and at a higher pressure. The typical carb type set up only uses about 3 to 5 pounds of fuel pressure to the carb or carbs. The fuel is only used as the engine runs through its rev range. At low revs it doesn't need as much as at higher revs/power settings it uses more fuel. Try to think of the carb float bowl like the toilet cistern at home (it is the same principle). When the cistern is full, no water flows into the bowl, even though the water pressure in your plumbing is always there. Release the water and the float drops, the valves opens until the cistern is full again. In your carb/ fuel pump/ set up, once the float bowl in the carb is full, the fuel flow stops until the float drops and allows more in. This happens constantly as the engine runs. The fuel pump is set at a low pressure and once this pressure is reached, the fuel pump is idling (the fuel bypasses internally in the pump until the pressure drops again. When it does, the fuel starts flowing to fill the float bowl again). So the amount of fuel passing through your flow meter should not change as long as there are no leaks etc. The boost pump in this set up is also low pressure, so that it doesn't overcome the float valve pressure setting or the engine driven fuel pump setting. In an injected engine, the fuel is delivered at around 38 to 43 pounds,usually to a fuel rail. The injectors are attatched to this rail and the amount of fuel allowed into the engine is determined by engine load through either a vacumn arrangement on the older systems or by electonics as in the new type of system. The fuel pressure is controlled by a pressure regulator at the end of the fuel rail and the excess fuel is sent back to the fuel tank. This is why the injected type engines MUST have a fuel return line .

Hi. Ian, What you are describing is typical detonation damage. I see it a lot on high performance turbo engine where the boost has been screwed up to gain more horsepower without any other mods being done. The ring lands shatter from the detonation pulse, so I would be looking at the fuel you are using and in my opinion, if you are unable to get AVGAS , I would be adding an octane booster or changing the timing setting to decrease the ammount of ignition advance. The scuffing on your piston, if it runs in 2 lines down the edges of the piston near the gudgeon pin bosses, indicates a piston overheating issue, whereas if it in a fairly constant coverage over the skirt of the piston it usually indicates a lack of lubrication or fuel wash causing the lubrication film to be broken. The usual things that cause detonation are: Compression too high for the octane of the fuel, ignition timing too advanced for the fuel being used ie: fuel mixture too lean or compression too high. If as others have suggested, the Jabiru engines like to run at full throttle to cool the pistons, i would consider going up a jet size or 2 if you cant run at this setting without going above VNE. Hope this helps. Cheers Will

The strip is council owned so no problems landing there. The aero club is unmanned most of the time so I don't know how you will go there. Other than that, the rain does make the strip soggy(it's in the middle of cane country) and watch for the bump about half way up the strip opposite the fuel bowser :big_grin: