02-10-2015, 03:26 AM
Gentlemen,
The biggest problem with putting aircraft engines in cars or bikes, even the big V-12 Merlins that are water cooled, is that they are designed to operate at or near full power and within a couple hundred RPM of their maximum. Car and bike motors are designed to operate throughout their entire RPM range and spend most of the time at low throttle settings and low RPM. A piston aircraft engine is flown at full throttle for hours on end about 200 RPM below maximum and the throttle is only moved during take off, climb, descent, and landing. Direct drive aircraft engines are limited to 2700 RPM because above that the prop tips go supersonic and efficency goes out the window. It's hard to get an aircraft engine to be happy operating like a car or bike engine as they are so different. Cheers.
Chip
The biggest problem with putting aircraft engines in cars or bikes, even the big V-12 Merlins that are water cooled, is that they are designed to operate at or near full power and within a couple hundred RPM of their maximum. Car and bike motors are designed to operate throughout their entire RPM range and spend most of the time at low throttle settings and low RPM. A piston aircraft engine is flown at full throttle for hours on end about 200 RPM below maximum and the throttle is only moved during take off, climb, descent, and landing. Direct drive aircraft engines are limited to 2700 RPM because above that the prop tips go supersonic and efficency goes out the window. It's hard to get an aircraft engine to be happy operating like a car or bike engine as they are so different. Cheers.
Chip