Diesel engine on a trike?

[DieselFan]

The .75 US Gallons = 2.8 litres per hour
Jhb - Cape town on 1 50l tank?

Extract from Ultralightflyer
-------------------------------
Turbo Diesel aircraft engine.
Ultralight pilots have used a variety of engines to power their aircraft. Go cart engines, chainsaw engines, snowmobile engines, rotary engines, aircraft engines, and this year Ramphos U.S.A. introduced a turbo diesel engine.
The engine is not new to the market with millions having been installed in the Smart Car, manufactured by Mercedes in Europe and Canada for the past 5 years. The complete unit installed weighs in at 9 lbs less than a Rotax 912, and can put out between 40 and 64 DIESEL horsepower. The power is controlled by the electronics that are installed in the engine package.

The max torque on the engine comes in at 3,000 rpm. and the torque is equal to that of a Rotax 912 at 5800 rpm. Cruise comes in at 3100 rpm! The engine is very quiet and using an astounding 3/4 of a U.S. gallon of fuel per hour. It can run on diesel, jet A mixed with diesel, and on bio diesel.

The first engine installation was on a Zenair which has about 200 hours on it in Europe. In February of 2005 it was decided to do an engine installation on the Ramphos trike. The engine was shipped to Ramphos USA in New York and the installation was completed and the craft flown just prior to Sun N Fun.

The fuel system is totally electronic and compensates for altitude, temperature, density altitude, and fuel temperature. Plus it has a back up on the chip incase of failure that converts the engine over to a low, medium or high power setting. The engine will also be coming with a computer start up check list. When the engine is first started the engine will self diagnose itself and tell you whether it is safe to fly.

TBO is expected to in the 5,000 hour range.

The only problem to date has been that the quality of diesel fuel used in the U.S. is of a lower grade than that used in Europe, which will require the engine to be re-chipped when it gets back to New York.

Delivery times are currently 4 to 6 weeks.

For more information contact:
Ramphos USA
Box 578 Hampton Bays
NY 11946
631-872-2332
gil@ramphosusa.com


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Also listen to

http://www.ultraflightradio.com/impodca ... 51129a.mp3

+- 6mb

[Cloud Warrior]

This is fitted to the German made Sonic Trike isn't it?

http://www.ramphos.com/e/03_s.html

[Morph]

My understanding, albeit very limited, is a diesel motor once started won't just die. Also no need for plugs, so no plug fouling problems. The only real problem could then be fuel management and quality. Sounds too good to be true.

[DieselFan]

This is fitted to the German made Sonic Trike isn't it?

http://www.ramphos.com/e/03_s.html

Yes it is, I know they use two Smart motors one diesel one petrol. The petrol one returns roughly 5l/h and less torque, but it is a Turbo nonetheless.

Morph:
Diesel does have a reputation to keep going and can cause expensive problems, offroad when wading through water, it won't die and will injest water - This might aid it in aviation circles esp for takeoffs. Diesels are less fussy.

Generally the fuel quality concerns are mostly out in farms areas where it can be contaminated. Because diesel motors can run on gunk the problems only appear way later and normally result in increased wear and tear.

One of the advantages of diesel is it's lower operating RPM and torque
I know that generally petrol generators are overhauled every 10-20k hours, whereas diesel generators 120 000 hours. This shows in this motors TBO of 5000 hours.

I've completed almost 400k km with 3 diesel motors in 4 years and NOT once has any one of them EVER died, yes 20% less power on one occassion but was quickly rectified. The modern fuel management systems are normally VERY fool proof and have mutiple "mini" computers for vital functions.

Services will be way easy - Oil, filters, perhaps some injector cleaner, done.

[IFLYHI]

40 and 64 DIESEL horsepower

As opposed to Petrol HP

Same as 582 but 20 kg heavier

[DieselFan]

40 and 64 DIESEL horsepower

As opposed to Petrol HP

Same as 582 but 20 kg heavier

Promise I didn't add that

But torque is close to 912, so it should still accelerate and make up for the weight?

Biggest factor is the Turbo which means
using formula of 4.5% less air density /1000ft
582
Sea Level = 65 hp
Jhb@5000 = 65 - 22.5% = 50hp
10000 = 65 - 45% = 36hp

Turbo depends on efficiency of Turbo but according to most manus loses no more than 5%@15000, I will make it 10k

Sea Level = 64hp
Jhb@5000 = 64 - 2% = 62.7hp
10000 = 64 - 5% = 61hp

Also the 40hp one is the "dechipped" one to allow for the US's low 40's cetane rating. In SA we have mostly above 49 - same as Europe.

[The Agent]

I have a product which works on a electric magnetic system inline diesel conditioner.
One of the biggest problems with our diesel is the fact of the water in the diesel. All the water is carried in a form of algea and then this can block up the diesel filters. This system breaks down the molocule to such an extent that they are able to pass throught the filter and the injecter and is burnt in the combustion phase. It will give you more power,betterdiesel consumtion and less smoke, and your injecters and pump will last forever.
I have runit on all my diesel cars and bakkies and the product has been tested with huge amounts of sucsess by all the major truck makers and earth movers in SA.
remember that 80% of the diesel returns to the tank and goes through the system again and again.
I would also be very choosy where I buy my diesel for flying.
SASOL only the upgraded one.

[Bennie Vorster]

Awsome does it come with a can of Quick Start for those cold winter mornings?

[The Agent]

Bennie you only need Qstart if your engine is stuffed and then you do not want to flywith that diesel baby.

[RudiGreyling]

Hi dieselfan,

Good 'fuel' economy! Sorry that the installation looks a bit crude and non elegant. Do you know where we can see more pictures, and possible pricing.

I'm just interested to see what is out there.

Regards
Rudi

[DieselFan]

Agent thanks I will follow up with soon about the device!

With your comment of ONLY UPG SASOL. For the last 3 years there has been two "upgraded" diesels "Total Eco Premium" now "Total Eco Premium +" and "Sasol TurboDiesel". By law Shell, Engen now have equivalents. From what I was told they all now use "Sasol TurboDiesel" but add their own additives. Point is you don't have to fill up with the WAY OVERPRICED (+-30c more) Sasol TurboDiesel @ R7+. The upgraded diesels provide less torque - forget the marketing, they're just cleaner for the environ and injectors.

To those that haven't downloaded the PodCast above, it mentions that the motor has no vibration and is extremely quiet, infact it was compared to a petrol car at idle - and Americans don't like Diesel.

RudiGreyling - I've been very unsuccessful in finding out more. Other than it being a Ramphos adaption from a German trike (as CW mentioned). I can't find any info on the original Sonic trike either. Costs for the car however are $15000 usd - same price as some trikes.

The Petrol aka "TurboG" one is also very cool @5l/h and 70 and 80hp versions.

[V]

The FAI Clobri award in 2003 went to Robert Mair (Germany) for building a (bio) diesel-powered weight shift microlight:

n 2002 Robert Mair built the first aircraft in aviation history (a weight-shift microlight) equipped with a biodiesel engine (running on Fatty Acid Methyl Ester = FAME). The engine can use Bio-Diesel, Jet A 1 and car diesel. In Robert Mair’s concept an aircraft should have very low costs of operation. The engine should be a mass production model, like a modern car-engine with an expectation of long life. If possible, a different type of fuel should be used. He chose a light-weight aluminium Volkswagen Diesel engine. After several modifications, this engine was made to run on car diesel, Jet A1, Bio-Diesel (FAME) and finally ordinary vegetable oil. The project was handled in two stages. The necessary theoretical work was carried out in cooperation with a group of apprentices of EADS, MTU, Dornier and Lufthansa in a Technical College in Munich under the leadership of Robert Mair. The second step was to change the fuel system to permit the use of jet fuel and FAME, and finally vegetable oil. The principles were: fuelling must be possible all over the world and to reduce waste by using renewable raw materials. So a significant part of this solution would consequently be to avoid the waste of fossil energy and replace it with alternative and sustainable sources. His innovation reduces harmful greenhouse gas emission in aviation. In the meantime he achieved two of his 7 World Records with his Diesel-Microlight, one of them using sunflower oil.

http://www.fai.org/awards/award.asp?id=24

Imagine growing your own fuel around the hangars ...

Herr Meir's records achieved with his diesel microlight:

http://records.fai.org:81/pilot.asp?fro ... ht&id=2019
- Distance in a straight line with limited fuel : 144.82 km
- Distance in a closed circuit with limited fuel : 126.80 km

limited fuel = 7.5kg fuel

(there are pics on the site too, click on the camera icon)

And the original news of the event "Pilot's greetings to the sun with salad oil in the tank":



Cheers,

V.

[t-bird]

A diesel engine in a gyro will work very well.
I have looked at the VW 1.9 TDI engine.
92 kw and lots of torque.
The problem that I have is to establish the weight of the engine without the gearbox. I have even phoned them, but nobody seems to be able to assist me.