 Smart Turbo Diesel or VW Lugo Diesel
I have done some research on diesel engines for aviation and I have come
across a thing are two that kinda concerns me . One is DUTY CYCLE,,,the
other is RPM . What a person wants on the front end of an airplane is a
"TRACTOR" motor designed to plow fields,,,so to speak..Same as an engine in
a boat. the duty placed on the engine is the same . The load is continuous
and increases as RPM increases .The power available from a diesel engine is
continuous to destruction . If you overload a diesel engine it will destroy
itself ,break the crank or bust a sleeve or piston rod , headgasket ect..
thus the reason for the duty cycle . Any Aircraft engine in public use today
has a 100% dutycycle at full throttle .check it out,,don't take my word for
it . An engine in an automobile has less than a 20% duty cycle at rated
HP.,,then you want to force it to do more and then put it in an airplane and
fly behind it.?? As you increase the output on an auto engine the duty cycle
goes down . 20% duty cycle would mean two minutes at full throttle out of
ten....then you must take the load off otherwise you will damage the engine.
In the air that's a bad thing. RPM is the thing that gives your engine long
life . The higher the RPM the shorter the engine life .Pertymuch goes for
any piston engine . That's where the reduction gear on the front end helps
the prop,,, putting the peak Hp.& torque at the rated engine output curves
.. To find a small,,light diesel with 65 hp or above with a 100% duty cycle
is too good to be true..even 65hp at 100% duty cycle at 250 pounds..If one
was to be made,,at a price most of us could afford aviation as we know it
would change...Faa would step in and control the amount of fuel one could
carry . suddenly everyone's plane would be a cross country craft as the
diesel would double the time in the air.. just my thinking though,,hope
this doesn't step on anyone's dreams......wes
"bbutlergps" <billbutlergps@> wrote in message
news:1164985047.448240.128360@79g2000cws. ...
> Howdy,
> I am very interested in going the route of a diesel. Would anybody have
> any information on either the: Smart (Mercedes) 3 cyl. 95 hp Turbo
> Diesel (can be chipped up to 112 hp) found in the Smart ForFour or
> VW Lupo or Fox (euro) 3 cyl. 1.4 liter 70 hp Turbo Diesel (can be
> chipped up to 108 hp)
> What I am most interested in is weight and the PSRU.
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
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