Just got a note from Kevin DeShazer about a little project he’s working on in his basement. It’s a three cylinder radial engine made from the cylinders of a Continental 0-360 aero engine.
The crankshaft comes from a Moto Guzzi. Three geared cams with Harley lobes operate the valves. It uses an aviation electric oil pump and that orange can on the front is an aviation alternator. Ignition is electronic and Harley hydraulic valves get air and fuel from a Mikuni carburetor. It displaces a healthy 2400cc. Moto Guzzi also provided the four speed transmission and rear end.
Kevin figures about another four months or so and we’ll see it on the road.
Let’s see, just take a few cylinders from an aviation engine, some valves from a Harley, crankshaft from a Moto Guzzi and the transmission and rear end while we’re at it, fabricate a frame and Presto! we have a radial engine motorcycle. Cool! We’ll be sure to keep you posted.
B50 Jim says
Wow — it’s the exact opposite of the Musket — fabricated from aluminum stock with parts borrowed from a variety of machines — but the same ethic of visualizing what you want and building it. Workmanship appears good even if he has no tubing bender. Don’t worry; tube bends fabricated from short lengths of straight tube flow just as well. Can’t wait to hear how it sounds! I do wonder about ground clearance, though. The radial arrangement always means a bike with a very tall front end and questionable handling. But I doubt he has track days in mind; the idea here is to build something no one else has, then go out and have fun riding it.
Jim Kunselman says
I agree w/ B50 Jim, “WOW!”
It’s a great build Kevin, hope to see a video of it running when you’re done.
Giolli Joker says
This is really out of the box thinking: taking half of horizontally opposed engine from an aircraft, making it into a radial (that says aircraft by itself) and building a bike around it!
Chapeu and good luck!
Dudley Clark says
The Continental O-360 is 6 cylinder (usually about 180 horsepower) engine, which means that the 3 cylinders would be 180 cubic inches, or approximately 3 liters (3000 cc). By the way, the orange band on each cylinder indicate that the bore has been chrome plated. Nice work, and keep wrenching.
Paul Crowe says
Hmm, … learn something every day. And looking that up I see it applies to other manufacturers, too. It also indicates they are standard (non-oversize) barrels. A little bit of engine trivia. Cool.
Tanshanomi says
Not my cup of tea, but homemade motorcycles are almost by definition awesome. More power to him!
However, we should start a crowdfunding campaign to buy him a JD2 bender and some dies.
Ductech says
Having tried this type of intake on a Ducati it may never warm up (long thin wall intake tract = charge fallout). Displacement is a function bore and stroke, I suspect the Guzzi crank has a shorter stroke than the Continental O-360 is 6 cylinder
Paulinator says
Monstrous torque will be a given, but this engine should be able to deliver enormous HP numbers if it can spin. My limited knowledge of aviation engines tells me that there’s about 3/8 inch of extra aluminum cast into the crowns of these pie-plates…I mean pistons…that is asking to be machined off. Its there for survivability against detonation which can cause big problems at inconvenient moments.
Love it.
Richard says
Nice, but will there be some protection for the lower head? Seems quite close to the ground, I wouldn’t like it being clobbered by something!
E. R. Ellquist says
Just giving some thought to different engine types, wondered whether anyone had developed a diesel engine to run on LNG or LPG? Supposedly there’s an abundance of it in the U.S., so I had wondered if it were even possible. I know that a spark activated LNG/LPG engines are fairly common, but I had never heard of a diesel set up for it. Thanx, Eric
B50 Jim says
E.R. — LPG-powered diesels are common in the U.S., generally in local-delivery trucks and waste haulers (garbage trucks). There are few obstacles to overcome, and conversion is easy. They’re quieter, very clean-burning and economical to operate, as we currently enjoy a glut of natural gas here, the result of a huge increase in production by means of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”. There’s a lot of debate over the practice, with opponents claiming it contaminates ground water and causes localized earthquakes, while proponents claim it can be done safely with little environmental impact. What’s undeniable is that it has unleashed vast quantities of fossil rules that were heretofore inaccessible, sharply reducing energy costs and putting the USA on track to be an energy-exporting nation. It’s a sea change from the climate of scarcity we had just a few years ago. It goes to show that human ingenuity will find a way when the chips are down. I guess this is more information than you asked for, but it’s an important subject in terms of the world’s energy future.
Paulinator says
LNG conversions are getting popular in the transit industry, as well. Diesel engine architecture lends itself well to the fuel because it can benefit from the high compression and robust construction. I talked to one firm promoting the power-train modification and asked them about the compounded benefits of using both LNG with electric hybrid technology. He explained that the business model didn’t work because operating costs with LNG were already so low that the payback window for the hybrid system (with re-gen braking) was just too far out.
Lee Wilcox says
A little off the beaten track but I knew a person who said he converted Cummins diesels to work on NG. He essentially took out the glow plugs and replaced with spark plugs. The engines ran water pumps in fields. The intake was hooked to a NG well and running was apparently free and they were virtually unbreakable.
Of course he was telling me this in a bar in Bucklin, Kansas so it could have been a lie or I may have imbibed enough to scramble some of the facts. It’s a good story anyway.
Jiro says
Seems like natural gas (NG) fueled compression ignition (CI) engines is quite different from the 3 cylinder radial, but… another way to mix CI with NG is to use the diesel as a pilot injection with the NG as most of the fuel. That avoids the conversion of the engine to spark ignition.
On the radial, I would love to see more measurements, numbers, weights, power, dimensions, etc. I am impressed with the skill and the hutzpah! I personally would love to see a 5 cylinder radial made with VW Type 1 barrels and single cylinder (SCAT) heads, or a 3 cylinder two stroke supercharged/turbocharged (without crankcase compression).