SonexBuilders.net

The Aerovee uses commercially available engine parts imported from countries where the parts are made. It is a known fact that cam shafts may have casting bumps that cause interference with the rod ends. You have to check for this and fix it if its a problem. It's part of what you do to build your own engine. There is no way that Sonex can check the cams prior to assembly to tell if they will interfere.

Charlie

After removing cylinder #2 and doing some final adjustments, we were finally ready to fire up the engine for the first time. My wife recorded a quck amateur video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RbG3mjt ... ata_player

I didn't give it enough of a prime on the first crank, but after I opened the mixture and let it prime for about 3 full seconds it fired right up and ran smooth. The good news is it ran well and a lot of the sensors worked, but I did see that I had no RPM indication and the alternator didn't put out any power so I need to look into that. I think I need to pull the starter and alternator stator to sand down the stator for more clearance.

Anyway, I certainly consider this a nice extra Christmas present! Hopefully I can keep making steady progress and have this thing flying soon!

Awesome Mike!


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Aerovee/taildragger
Starting on the wings
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I really enjoyed your wife's giggling just after it fired off. Clearly a large burden was lifted!

Man that had to feel great :mrgreen: Congratulations Michael

Congrats!!

i am new on this forum and signed up just to comment on your posts the following is a quote from this post and who has a running aerovee ( (biggest issue) After pistons and cylinders were installed, I rotated the crankshaft only to find specific locations where there was crank lock. This required me to completely disassemble the pistons, cylinders, and case halves. I had to then file down some flat spots on the camshaft as well as file down material on all connecting rods to provide a gap between cam and connecting rods. I filed all rods down around the same amount so I'm hoping I didn't throw off any balances. ) AND ( when I bolted on my camshaft gear I bolted it 120 degrees off of where it should be, leading to my timing issue ) i have no experience building a vw motor ( that is why i was reading your posts ) but i have built 3 small block chevy motors for jet boat use and rods have to be balanced and grinding on the cam would be very bad !! i am sure the timing being off caused the interference of the rods and cam please call sonex help line and tell them what happened and ask if it is recommended to fly or if some parts need replaced . i had a cam problem on one motor it ran great until it just quit 30 miles up a river long float back down :oops: wont be a very long float back down in a plane !! not trying to pick on you the plane looks awesome!! a 701 with vw power is in my future
wentzel88

Well wentzel88, that could possibly be the longest single sentence I've ever read.

After several attempts to read your post I think I understand your point so let me assure you that I've taken all possible precautions to make my engine as safe as possible. All issues on my engine are common on the Aerovee and I feel that I now have a safe engine.

sorry wasn't trying to put down your work. As i said i have never worked on vw so might be way off but grinding on rods doesn't sound good . I don't make my $$ on a computer in fact not very often i even have to write and it is a good thing because if it wasn't for spell check you would really be confused . :lol: Wish you best of luck with the plane

Don't worry...no offense taken 8-)