William Wynne

Another Corvair Powerplant Headed For Installation and Adventure Friends, A quick update with a photo of our latest test-run production engine. The photo above shows a powerplant destined for Gig Giacona's 601XL. The engine is a state-of-the-art Corvair from our facility. It features all our Gold System parts, including our Billet Oil Pan, as well as our complete Gold Oil System with Niagara Cooler. The cylinder heads are from Mark at Falcon Automotive. Every production engine we've built in the past few years has included Falcon heads. This engine was assembled by Kevin at VairForce.com. If you'd like to order an engine built to our standards using all of our parts, you can contact Kevin through his VairForce Web site. Gig's engine running on the dyno, as viewed from the back. This engine is being shipped to Gig with its heavy duty Gold Oil System and Niagara Cooler installed on one of our Baffle Kits. This is a good example of how all of our systems are designed to work in an integrated manner so builders at home can smoothly assemble their engines, including the support systems, and get the same reliable performance we've publicly demonstrated in our own aircraft. The view above shows the compact nature of the Gold Oil System. The extremely small and very efficient K&N 1008 filter has a nut and safety wiring capability just like certified aircraft filters. This is the same filter used on modern Mazda automobiles. The digital temp gun reading the underside of the head near Cylinder #4. Above, the engine in the middle of a 30-minute run at power. The Corvair has a cylinder head redline temp of 575F. In aircraft use, we rarely generate more than 450F in any application, including turbocharging. The underside of #4 Cylinder is the highest CHT point on the Corvair. While some builders might suspect the right side of the engine with the alternator in front would run warmer, it is historically #4 that runs slightly higher temps in aircraft. Engines on the Dynomometer have consistently lower oil temps than those run in complete cowlings. After 30 minutes of running at a high power setting, this engine registered only 166.5F on the Gold Oil Filter Housing. Our Gold Housing has a half-inch NPT port to directly measure the temp of the oil in the engine at its highest point. By having all of our builders reference the oil temp before the cooler, I can confirm their engines are running cool enough when they call with test run notes. The efficient cooling of the Corvair cylinder heads, with their high redlines, matched with our Gold Oil System and Niagara Cooler, is a flight proven application for the 601 that allows the pilot to simply operate the airplane at any power setting, airspeed, gross weight and 100F OAT without worry of overheating. We put a lot of effort into designing the complete system as a unit to meet the skill set and experience of 601 builders. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions. We have all the parts shown above in stock for immediate shipment. April 2008 At The Hangar March 2008 At The Hangar February 2008 At The Hangar January 2008 At The Hangar Christmas 2007 At The Hangar November 2007 At The Hangar October 2007 At The Hangar September 2007 At The Hangar August 2007 At The Hangar July 2007 At The Hangar June 2007 At The Hangar April 2007 At The Hangar March 2007 At The Hangar February 2007 At The Hangar January 2007 At The Hangar December 2006 At The Hangar Part 1 December 2006 At The Hangar Part 2 December 2006 At The Hangar Part 3 December 2006 At The Hangar Part 4 November 2006 At The Hangar October 2006 At The Hangar September 2006 At The Hangar August 2006 At The Hangar July 2006 At The Hangar June 2006 At The Hangar May 2006 At The Hangar At The Hangar In April 2006 At The Hangar In March 2006 At The Hangar In February 2006 At The Hangar In January 2006 At The Hangar In December 2005 At The Hangar In November 2005 At The Hangar In October 2005 At The Hangar In September 2005 At The Hangar In July 2005 OSH, Illinois and SAA June 13, 2005 At The Hangar June 13, 2005 Part II At The Hangar In May 2005 At The Hangar In April 2005