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<< Lancair Builders' Mail List >>
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I saw your e mail on the fantastic fuel burn reductions that you got from
having LPE - ZEHRBACH rework your Lycoming 360. 15% is a whopping reduction.
That matches the reductions stated by other LPE-ZEHRBACH customers in the
testimonial letters which were on display at Oshkosh for just the ceramics
and not counting the electronic fuel injection and ignition system results
that I saw letters on. The fact that your results match everyone elses
letters sure supports Zehrbach. Some of the customers tests showed 25%
reductions in fuel burn with the combination of electronics and the ceramics.
What now has me absolutely intrigued is the water cooled engine results. In
a package of test results sent to me was the results of a customers third
party tests on one of the Zehrbach engines where the engine returned an SFC
of .32. Since Continental hopes to get .36 out of the diesel they are
developing it would appear that Zehrbach has been able to beat the diesels by
12% on fuel burn. That must come out in total to at least 1/3rd less fuel
burn on the Lancair IV when comparing the Continental vs the Zehrbach water
cooled engine. The other factor is going to be the cooling drag advantage.
With such good thermal efficiency the cooling drag should be way down on the
IV with the Zehrbach engine. I would bet that the cooling drag is probably
about 30% of the total drag on the IV so a big reduction there would mean
lots of speed and more than just pouring horsepower on the situation. I
would guess that the cooling efficiency is why the Eagle engine package has
that enormous ugly bug catcher on the belly to go with that geared auto
conversion instead of everything being inside the cowl like I understand is
being done with the Zehrbach engine.
I understood from the Zehrbach literature that you must be the man putting
the inverted, direct drive, 500 hp., twin turbo charged and intercooled V8 in
his Lancair IV and who has one of their air conditioners in their plane now.
Your email implies that fact. Is that correct? I really like the design of
that direct drive engine. Keeping the rpm down to 2700 will sure help the
engine life along with getting rid of all of that gearbox weight behind the
prop. It also seems that gearboxes are the pox of the attempts of all of the
auto engine converters like the Engine Air or Eagle to run V8 engines.
You said that the temperatures were falling every time you flew with the new
engine. After you get some more time on it I would like to hear the final
lows on the temperature changes.
Thanks,
Zak.
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LML website: http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
Builders' Bookstore: http://www.buildersbooks.com/lancair
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