Never before has so little power been made from so much displacement! (Page 48 of 57)

Don't ask about the car tire on a motorcycle in a forum. Ever. It will get heated. You might as well ask about what kind of motor oil to use.

there is a collective of people that think that larger bikes handle better with a square tire in the back, instead of a round tire.

goldwings, bagger harleys, lowered hardtails, and anything else that doesn't have to / can't lean much in turns can get away with a square tire. it's naturally more stable (because it's not round), but it can be crap for high angle leans (which is why it's not suggested on anything that can lean).

yes, it's a ready-made argument in a bag, but it's a legitimate one for a certain segment of the motorcycling population.

yes, please STFU about the car tires on motorcycle tires. we've made it this far in this thread without getting too derailed.

just scroll up a bit and look at the awesome.

and why not have more commentary on radials to get this back on track. did everyone know just how bad these things leak? it's pretty much a constant thing. they leak, leak and then leak some more. it does not even make sense where it's coming from, it just leaks forever. i even sealed all the surfaces that could leak when i assembled it and it's still leaking.

not enough to be a concern on the track. it's probably 10 drops a day or so but when it sits there doing nothing for a week at a time i always have a small sticky mess under there to clean, usually with the back of my shirt the first time i crawl under it.

the situation probably won't get any better when i put oil in the goldwing and the 3000GT boxes that are operating at an angle that they weren't designed for.

current todo list:
-make 3000GT box brackets to attach it to the engine mount locations
-make driveshaft
-reroute vents on 3000GT box and on goldwing box.
-fix starter mount and finish welding it.
-seal power transfer assy and fill with fluid. make breather extensions to let gravity drain oil back into the boxes.

-fix tach
-new CHT gauge
-tune it?
-fix rear window on MR2 does anyone have a stock MKII rear window for sale?
-race the heck out of it!

if it didn't leak....would it be more likely to hydrolock?

Radial engines leak.  Old radial engines leak a LOT.  Didn't you say earlier that this thing is 80 years old (or something like that)?

BTW, I'm sure you've already considered this, but how are you going to be feeding oil to the engine?  Some radials (intentionally) burn a lot of oil when running.  Sometimes more than a gallon per hour.

the build date on this one is 1938 if i remember right. the design is 1936 and they stopped making them in 1943 so it's somewhere in there. it's only 74yrs old

the documentation i have says that up to 1.5gal/hr is acceptable. i have a 5 gal dry sump oil tank and I'm bringing lots of spare oil. i expect to have to top it off at every pit stop.

yes, we've all heard it. but witnessing is just something else.

because it started as something innocent and likely to fail as opposed to something epic and there were too many people subscribed by the time it took a turn towards epic. heck, this post gets about 200-600view every time i post an update (yeah, there will be disappointed people with this update)

i actually considered it. but it affects the return oil scavenging and the splash oiling. i did not want to play with that.

the rockers need greased every 2 hours of runtime.

i haven't had the cylinders get full, but they get a good cup of oil in them, but considering the combustion chambers at TDC are still just shy of 400cc's it's pretty hard to hydro the motor. a cup of oil only brings the compression ratio to 12:1 .

it takes about 5-10 minutes to clear out the bottom cylinders before they start firing well.

I'll be there Saturday and can bring my gear if you need help refueling.

I may not stick around much past 2 o'clock as I'm considering going dirt racing that night.  But ... well, I'm sure you can find other helpers should the need arise.

Oh great....

I finally get to have my kids come to a race, and they're gonna say, "Dad, why is your car so boring?  THAT car has an 80 year old airplane motor AND it's faster than your little yellow car."

JK... Congrats... Can't wait to see it again.  Hoping to get more than the 10 seconds of footage on the track that I got at Gingerman last year.

I'm not sure the 20minutes is worth the flight, but yes, it will be at that race

tell you what, I'll trade you a lap in that little yellow car for a lap in the airplane car if the airplane car gets over 20 laps then your kids can think you're cool again