Jim Lane

Questions about Alcohol Injection,

What type of alcohol is used and to what ratio?

Can industrial grade 99.9% alcolhol be used and what are the benefits and side effects?

Just wondering.

Jim

bannerd

We use AI in our aircraft(s) with the EJ motors. It has a alot of uses, when we push the EJ aircraft engines or if the pilot is really running it WOT for a long period of time you get serious heat. Letting off the throttle while running alcohol injection helps cool down the engine. With that said it also has the affect of increasing thrust or power if needed. When AI enters the combustion chamber you're actually changing the mass and in return are using up more fuel(running it lean). The cooling properties also allow you to push the engine faster without burning up the block and decrease knock so you can invert and what not without the engine beating itself up.

The way it works is we have four injection nozzles that allow the pilot to manually turn on the pump. The pump is attached to a small tank, from there the nozzles atomize the mist at the intakes. That's the basic system, newer designs with computers allow it to happen when the computer feels fit.. We've been using aquamist kits, they have a nice sensor that actually tells you if the pump is flowing. If it's not it could be a matter of life and death.

If you're looking for fuel economy you wont find it. I'm not sure how this will work on a diesel engine but I'm sure it would be different. It wouldn't surprise me if you could just run 100% water.

Jim: depends on the alcohol type, what you're looking for it methanol. We still use window washer fluid with a red bottle of HEET mixed to the gallon.

cougar

From all the different threads and article I've read, methanol seem to be the most common choice. Mainly because it has the most available energy and has the least detrimental side effects. As far as ratio, depends on what your engine will support and for what purpose. Power, cooling, or both. As far as how much? When the fire goes out you know you have too much.

Greed 93

I don't mix more than a 50/50 ratio.. I get the methanol, from jiffy lube they have it straight then I mix with distilled water. Over 50% meth adds a lot of heat..

Jim Lane

Hey,
Wow you got me sidetracked now,

By EJ's are you talking about the Subaru engines?

What did it take for the FAA to approve an automobile engine for aero use?

Does it have magnetos, Kettering or electronic ignition, automotive or aviation spark plugs? single or dual ignition?

Which direction faces into the airsteam?

Liquid or air cooled?

Does it turn a high speed or low speed propeller through a gearbox?

Is there a gearbox for a hydraulic feathering prop or electric motor?

Does it have an oil pan or a dry sump, can it fly inverted?

Does it burn Avgas?

Compared to Continental or Lycoming, would you trust them?

Sorry for all of the questions but I am curious.

Jim

bannerd

Yep, the engine subaru makes or fuji industries. Been using them for a long time in our smaller aircrafts. When the engine goes in we have to split the block in half. Through trial and error we've been sticking with the semi closed decks because the open decks are causing flexing off the heads which warp them. Currently using a supertech silicon piston material along with their valve springs and titanium valves. Can't use the factory pistons as they're cast and very weak sadly. From there we use a cosworth oil pump, since the subaru engine is designed to give oil to journals and the galleys really focus on hi friction points the stock subaru pump can't get the oil there fast enough. The bigger oil pump allows more than enough oil to flow and reduce friction so there is no premature wear. The crankshaft is ported as well so oil is tossed around a lot. The nice thing about the EJ engine is that it has oil plugs on the top of the engine in several locations so you can plump oil feeds into them for a top oil lubrication (helps on inverts).

Whose the FAA? I don't deal much with them, I use to handle the mechanic side! I would say since the airfield is privately own and the owner has a few acres of land that they don't have much say.

As far as ignition, the subaru stock ignition is more than enough. They use coil packs which are timed by the ECU. The way that works is during start up there is sensors that detect the came positions, crank and avcs timing which tell the coil packs when to fire. I still like the points and condensers on the old distributors. Computers fail and are very expensive to replace.

With the oil and a secondary tank the engine is air cooled. I have thought about liquid but I didn't really get into it much. The intake is a (cosworth) and the air filter points to the front of the prop.

Most of the props on the planes are single and a direct drive right from the engine. Gearboxes wouldn't work as with the pressure it would rocked the splines and the box would probably grenade. A cvt would be a better solution.

I would trust the ej engine, it's designed for it. It takes a lot to actually get there, you literally have to take the entire motor apart and make sure everything is good(clearances). The EJ25 engine that sits in the STi car is a very good motor to work with. The nice thing about it all is there is a huge aftermarket for subaru. A few people I know use the old 2.0L EJ22 engine in their portable helicopters and it gets them around. I like rotax engines as well but the aluminum quality in subaru/fuji motors is nice. Few Reynolds/Alcoa stamps on the blocks.

Oh, it does burn avgas with ignition timing advanced. It burns race fuel the best though and does just as good, just heavy

I don't work there anymore, I ended up landing an Computer job. It seems to follow me though and makes you think. I picked up some old Evinrude Snow sleds and the engines are old airplane engines.