Aerovee overhaul

[Mattyboy]

Hi there, I have an aerovee vw conversion in my newly purchased Hn 700 Menestrel which I have my doubts about, does anyone know of any vw overhaul facilities in the uk that could have a look at it... Preferably with it in the airframe, but if not I would be happy to take it out.... I'm based in the South West, any ideas would be gratefully received. Cheers, Matt.

[ThePipster]

Hello Matt,

I suspect that the problem is prop related rather than the engine itself. VW based engines are very RPM dependant and if the prop is too coarse you will see poor performance and possibly overheating issues. Rupert Wasey of Hercules Propellers has good experience of both prop design and VW conversions, give him a call as it could save you a lot of money.

Best regards

Phil

[Mattyboy]

Thanks Phil, I spoke to Rupert a few weeks ago regards the prop as I thought it was primarily the problem,but I'm doing the permit renewal at the moment and compression is well down on the number three cylinder, and it has already had a top end overhaul after cracking the number two head with the previous owners...all this on an engine that has done 150ish hours.
I need to look at the cooling by the looks of things, it has been running relatively hot on the very few times I've flown it since purchase, but I've put that down to the new heads bedding in, but I would quite like a VW expert to strip it so I know what we have, so to speak.

[Nick Allen]

Although not local to you, you could try talking to Ken Ballington (http://www.ukaircraftparts.com/) who has a lot of experience with different incarnations of VWs.

Out of interest, have you got CHT sensors on all the cylinders? If not, it might be worth trying this, to see if you are getting some cooling anomalies from cylinder to cylinder.