REFLECTOR: radiator cooling

[Scott Derrick]

I can't imagine running a water cooled engine without both a water 
temperature and pressure gauge.  Be like running an Continental or Lycoming 
with only an oil temp or only an oil pressure gauge?  Course the early spam 
cans had damn few gauges and flew for millions of miles.

Do you have performance numbers for your Checy powered V?

CU's
HP apx?
percent power?
RMP vs. airspeed?

What kind of Velocity you flying?

Scott

At 04:44 PM 2/3/2005, you wrote:
>Recently I blew a radiator hose on my chevy powered Velocity.  It was four 
>or five minutes before I could shut it down.  I repaired the hose 
>connection and flew two more times .  On the first I lost three cylinders 
>due to piston ring fragments being hammered into the spark plugs and 
>closing their gap.  I thought the plugs were too long and upon research I 
>did find I had the wrong plugs.  I replaced all the plugs and ran the 
>engine.  I pulled the plugs and they looked fine.  Thinking I had found 
>the problem I flew again.  This time I lost a cylinder shortly after take 
>off.  I returned to the hangar and removed the cowling.  The second plug I 
>removed had the gap closed.  We pulled the heads and found the two burned 
>pistons.  One of those also had a broken ring which made its way around 
>the engine damaging most of the pistons and both heads.
>
>This teaches a couple of things.  First, that the V-8 is one very tough 
>engine.  I have flown it with two burned pistons and three bad 
>cylinders.  Secondly, you should have water pressure and temperature 
>indicators.  You may get zero water pressure earlier than high water 
>temp.  Shut it down and pull the heads if the temp is excessive or the 
>pressure zero for very long.   I will be running again in a few 
>weeks.  Dave Bertram
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