Olds V8 engine

W10 Tailwind V8 powered

    The engine is an aluminum Olds 215 V8.. stroked to 265ci. A Buick 300 ci crank will fit with only minor mod.  a new rear oil seal adapter must be made so the rear oil seal from a large block Chevy engine can be used.   This is all in Steve Wittman's  engine planes sold by Aircraft Spruce co.     I did a normal rebuild with all new technology stuff. IE. hyperutectic pistons.  Crane cam etc.   The engine is mounted inverted, no big deal here, some new oil drain holes need to be made.   Turn the block upside down and start looking at how the oil will drain down and into the valve covers, and then to the new oil tank.   One of the new drain holes will be in the rear main oil seal area,  so the oil from the rear seal can drain down and out.   Two holes are drilled from the timing chain compartment back into the crankcase.    Also any holes,  breather or dip stick,  must be plugged.  The old top of the inverted engine must now be oil tight.

Richard Finch's book AUTO ENGINES for EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT... I think there was a lot of good stuff in it and some DO NOT stuff as well, or a least don't reinvent the wheel... There was some good stuff on cooling as well... The hardest part of cooling I found was trying to decide were to put the %$#@&$% radiator... I have tried several places and they all worked well to cool the engine... But I didn't like the looks.. The biggest problem I think is that the engine heat ( exhaust manifold ) is kept out of the cooling air to the rad.... I always duct out side air just to the rad, and let engine heat out some place else... I have had the rad on top, on the side, in front and right know it's on the belly right under my feet... I have been thinking of mounting it back just in front of the tail, Like a P-38 and see how that looks, and works..... Oh, I have see aircraft on the internet that are suppose to have 500, 600 hrs on them,,, seems like mostly 350 Chevy's....

OIL SYSTEM The oil system needs to be looked at with the idea that all the oil must now drain down to the new oil tank. A few extra drain holes need to be made in the block to accomplish this. Also installed some small aluminum pieces, one inch wide by 1/8 inch thick, above the valve lifters. In the event of a broken rocker arm, or rocker shaft, this will keep the lifter from dropping out and causing a loss of oil pressure. Now with the engine inverted, a new oil pan is needed. I took the left valve cover and with some .028 4130 sheet-metal, built a new tank on top of the valve cover. I drilled some holes in what was the top of the valve cover and welded the new tank to it. With the engine inverted, this new valve cover/tank now hangs under the the engine. The right-hand valve cover now gets connected to the new valve cover/tank so all the oil drains into the new tank. It holds 6 quarts. The new oil pump pickup is plumbed into the bottom rear of the tank. The oil pump on an Oldsmobile 215 CID engine is mounted externally, so it is easy to modify and run an oil pickup line down to the tank. A small amount of block modification needs to be done to accomplish this. The original oil pickup line is cast into the block, and the oil pickup screen is attached to that. This was removed and this end of the passage must be plugged. A new aluminum boss is welded to the block near the pump end of this cast in oil passage line. A hole is then drilled through the boss and into the old oil line. Tape the hole with pipe threads and installed the oil line. The pump now brings oil up the line through the new hole...   This is shown in the photo below.

IGNITION SYSTEM, The distributor that I chose to use is a MSD, with dual magnetic sensors. I added the bigger distributor cap, called an adapt-a-cap, for more space between the terminals. This is a high-energy ignition system, and I didn't want to risk cross firing. The dual computer boxes are MSD 6 UAL units. One unit is the primary and the other unit the secondary. They are wired through a switch for either left or right. Each unit is wired through its own coil. The high-energy lead from each coil goes to a splitter which automatically routes the active coil to the distributor. Only one system works at a time, either the right or the left. It's a dual system but only one is used and the other one is there for backup. The distributor shaft has a sealed ball bearing, so there is no danger of leaking oil, even though the distributor is inverted. The ignition system has been very dependable.

THE CARBURETOR. Steve Wittman used an aircraft carburetor on his V-8, but I didn't have one, and they are expensive. But I did have a very nice Holly two barrel. Now if it was only an updraft!! I got out my Holly carburetor book, copied the pictures of a Holly two barrel, cut the float bowl off, and started trying to make it into an updraft. With some sketches in hand and some pieces of half-inch aluminum plate, I went to the milling machine and started cutting. The end result was a Holly two barrel updraft carburetor. The float bowl and metering plate are in their normal upright position, bolted to an aluminum plate that acts as the back of the metering block. It in turn bolts to the main carburetor body. Presto, an updraft carburetor, well with a few more little odds and ends. It worked very well and started nicely, but didn't have a mixture control. Later I switched to an AERO-carb...

THE PROP. An electric IVO-Prop was chosen so that I could set the pitch where I needed. It has worked out great. I can get 3500 static on the ground and up to 3800 in the air. By selecting increase pitch, I can pull the engine down to 2500 RPM in the air. The electric motor in the prop is controlled by a switch, and I can select any RPM between 2500 and 3800. Best airspeed is reached by selecting a RPM range between 3000 and 3200, with wide-open throttle. For those who are wondering, yes the diameter is short enough to allow this.

Direct Drive. A prop shaft extension bolts to the crank and runs out through the bell housing. Standard shift bell housing. An adapter is made to fit the bell housing, and hold a bearing that supports the prop shaft ext. and take thrust loads. This needs to be a high rpm bearing of top quality. The shaft is tapered to fit early prop hubs. I put a normal prop ext on that, and bolted the IVO-Prop to that. The engine crank and ext shaft were all machined to have a ZERO run out and then installed in the engine block. Again checked for run out.   The bell housing is fine, I did weld a aluminum plate into the clutch fork hole, just cause mostly.. the bearing I put in was rated to 8000 rpm as I remember, and sealed. It doesn't even get hot after flying for an hour or so.. I can put my hand on it for a little bit.   The bell housing is fine, I did weld a aluminum plate into the clutch fork hole, just cause mostly.. the bearing I put in was rated to 8000 rpm as I remember, and sealed. It doesn't even get hot after flying for an hour or so.. I can put my hand on it for a little bit.

RADIATOR AND COOLING The first place I put the radiator was on top of the engine like Steve Wittman did. A air inlet on each side behind the spinner let air in on each side of the block and up through the radiator and out the top of the cowl. I built duct work from the inlets to the bottom of the radiator. Keep out as much engine heat as possible. this worked very well, but I didn't like the hole in the top of the cowl. I started to but one on each side, but that proved to have too many building headaches. Couldn't get at the plugs easily to change them. Up front like a P-40 worked very well, but put a little to much weight on the nose and didn't look good. Right now the radiator is on the belly right under my feet. Air is ducted from the front lower of the cowl, under the engine and into the top of the radiator. It lays almost flat under the belly with the front edge a little lower.   I know this will probably stir up a hornets nest but here goes.... USE A THERMOSTAT... I have always used one. Yeah I know, you say they will stick shut. Buy a BRASS one, not aluminum one.. Without the stat, water runs around the cooling loop to fast, slowly heating up. I have tried it both ways. Also an aircraft rad can be smaller then a car rad. 100 + mph of air through it. No stop and go traffic with the A/C running and ETC.. In the book I mentioned, ( Finches ) there is a pic of a rad setup that is mounted behind the engine and as high up as possible. It looks to be 6 to 8 inches tall and almost a wide as the firewall. It has been proven flying. It is Jess Meyers of Belted AIR Power co. You do need a little more room behind the engine through. Oh, I also run 100% Preston anti freeze. Probably would not have to, but with aluminum I just do and it works great..   Some reasons way I use a thermostat.   Well for one thing, you never know what the out side temp is going to be. 2. the engine warms up faster with a thermostat and keeps it at a constant temp, This keeps the intake warm to help vaporize the fuel mixture. 3. All engine run best at a constant temp, 4. gets the oil up to temp and and keeps it there to dry out any moisture in it..   I know, everybody is worried that they will stick closed,   They are more pron to stick open, Besides, if it does stick shut, you well see it on start and warm up.   I have never, that I can remember, had a thermostat stick shut. open yes.   I also run 100% Preston. It was made for aircraft liquid engines way back before WW-II.. Yeah I know, this will get a lot of OH NOs !!!!!

    This is a dual pass rad.   The hot water comes in at the center.  There is a divider plate across the tank were the weld is.   The hot water flows across the front of the radiator, into the far tank and back across the back of the radiator to the water pump.  The very first picture at the top of the page shows the block vents on the left side.   Two lines come from the heads just above exhaust ports 2 and 3 and then to the rad to vent this area.  

                        To  be  continued..

                    For  questions   reistec@srt.com