From: "Randy Smith" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Received-SPF: none
 receiver=logan.com; client-ip=205.251.152.130; envelope-from=randy@amctees.com
Message-ID: <53B5B14D.1000704@amctees.com>
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 15:38:53 -0400
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.6.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: What to do with this Mazda
References: <list-6962452@logan.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-6962452@logan.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

See my responses below...

On 07/03/2014 11:58 AM, Charlie England wrote:
> On 7/3/2014 9:49 AM, Randy Smith wrote:
>> Folks,
>>
>> Charlie England wanted more traffic, so I will come out of lurk mode 
>> to introduce myself and ask a question or two.
>>
>> My name is Randy Smith and I live in Columbia, SC and am trying to 
>> start building a Cozy Mk-IV.  I've had the plans for over 20 years, 
>> but three things have to line up before one can build a plane.  1. 
>> Money.  2. Time. and 3. Space.  At any one time, only 2 out of the 3 
>> have ever been in line, but they're beginning to converge.  :-)
>>
>> I plan to use a rotary in this airplane and I've been listening and 
>> learning about it from this list for several years.  A few years ago, 
>> a friend of my brother gave me an old Mazda RX-7. It's been an 
>> eyesore in my yard and shop ever since.  This car has a 12-A engine 
>> with a carb.
>>
>> My questions are:
>>
>> 1.  Is this a suitable engine for the Cozy Mk-IV, in the horsepower 
>> department?
>> 2.  If it is, how hard is it to convert it to fuel injection?
>> 3.  How hard is it to add a turbo charger to it?
>> 4.  Should I just sell the damned thing and get a newer renesis when 
>> I get closer to time to needing the engine?
>>
>> Well, I've just kicked the hive, let's see what you guys think.
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> -Randy
> Hi Randy; welcome to the list!

Thank you.  I wanted to drive over to visit with everyone at the 
slobovia event, but after I looked at how far it was and the time 
involved,  I decided to save my vacation time for another time. :-(  I 
understand I missed a good time.
>
> The 12A will make quite a bit less power (140-160 hp is typical) than 
> a Renesis, unless you heavily modify it. I would think that it will be 
> harder to get parts for it, since it's been out of production for so 
> long, and you're probably going to need parts, if it's been sitting up 
> for years. :-)

I will need between 180-200 hp.  I want to keep the engine as close to 
stock as I can so perhaps this isn't the engine I need.
>
>
> I had both a 12A & 13B in my hangar, and bought a used Renesis for my 
> RV-7. FWIW, you can now get a decent used Renesis for well under $2000 
> (possibly a lot less). That's going to be a very small percentage of 
> the total cost of the plane. Everything around the engine (intake, 
> exhaust, control, reduction drive, etc) will have to be fabricated 
> anyway, so I'd start building the plane and when you get close to 
> needing an engine, *then* start looking for a motor. Otherwise, by the 
> time you're ready to install it, it might need an overhaul just from 
> sitting. Plus, by the time the airframe's finished, Mazda may have the 
> 16X in production. That engine would trump anything else available. 
> I'll give you an example from the avionics world: A couple of years 
> ago, I bought a used, but state of the art autopilot, for 1/2 the new 
> price. Great deal, right? Today, it's still not mounted in the panel, 
> and I can buy a model from the same mfgr that has more features for 
> about the same price I paid 2 years ago for the used one. With 
> avionics and engines, don't buy until you need them.

Good advice.  I can certainly wait on both and hope for the 16X.
>
>
> Converting to FI won't be an issue with any of the newer engines, but 
> could be done on the 12A if you really want to use it.
>
> Dave Leonard & a couple of others have managed to get boosted engines 
> working well, but I think all will tell you that it adds a LOT to the 
> development proce$$.
Is there a difference between boosting an engine to get more power and 
boosting to maintain sea level pressure up to a point so that higher 
altitude operation is possible?
>
> Charlie
> (It's a shame you're not considering an RV-x; there's a great group of 
> RV builders in Columbia.)
Yeah, I briefly hung out at the local EAA hangar and found out real fast 
that most of them were building RVs.  Great bunch of people, just not a 
lot of glass experience.