Engine choices, choices!

Once I started building a 1923 T roadster with a small block Chevy. I sold it before it was anywhere near finished, but later built a '40 Ford coupe and first put a small block Chevy in it, and literally wore it out commuting back and forth to work and college. A friend owed me money, and one day delivered a wrecked Olds 442 with a big block motor to pay the debt (I'd rather have gotten the money!). Against my better judgement that big Olds went in the '40, man, it didn't want to fit. After much work, I fired it up and learned that the heavy, powerful motor in that car was like having a battleship anchor in the nose with roller skates on the back; it would fishtail at 60 mph if you nailed it.

Later I shoehorned a 327 Chevy into a 1956 Studebaker Hawk, drove it lots of miles and sold it--something I've regretted many time times. Then came the Corvettes, three of them, but that is another story.

So when the selection of an engine for the BD-4 began, at first I gravitated toward auto engines.
After MUCH research and after reading over and over about PSRU issues, computer malfunctions and cooling problems with auto engines in aircraft, I decided to go the tried and true route and found a Continental 0-470L and after negotiating, wound up with it and a BUNCH of spare parts, including most of an entire separate engine, complete with a gaping hole in one side of the case where either a cannonball hit it or a rod was thrown.

I was told the engine "ran fine" (not the one hit by cannonfire!) when pulled out of a Cessna 180 but decided to rebuild it anyway (I was a little worried it had experienced a prop strike even though the owner said it had not) and was very pleased to find bearings with almost no wear--my micrometer actually showed them to be either "spot on" or within .001 of the new bearings I put in it anyway, and the dial indicator showed the crankshaft to be within specifications so no prop strike. One thing I learned along the way is that con rod bolts for a Ford 351 (ARP, 190,000 psi) will fit with a little work where the original bolts (120,000 psi) are about four times the price---substituting a superior part like this is something those with certified aircraft can't do but is legit for an experimental. Parts prices for these AC motors can sometimes be jaw droppers. With an overhaul manual, the engine was one of the simplest I've ever overhauled, 1940s technology but still practical for this purpose. I balanced and polished the rods down to 1/10 of a gram and balaned the pistons with the rods as well--the 6 cylinder Continental is already a smooth engine (except at idle) but this one should be even smoother.

The big 0-470 is heavier than Jim Bede originally intended but BD-4s are out there with Ford V-6s and Chevy V-8s and they are as heavy or heavier than the "real AC motor" I'm using and mine doesn't need a radiator and PSRU!