Hovercraft Motor

maybe a single stroke from a wrecked motor scooter, if you can find one....

A 1600cc VW air cooled conventionally aspirated engine or an outboard boat motor.

Boat motors are water cooled.

except when they're air cooled...

Hmm, Aircooled, 55+HP, easy to live with and repair..

VW Single port 1600, good for around 60 HP, you'll find them in Beetles and Kombi's around 1969-1978. they have a single carb.

VW twin port 1600, good for around 65 HP, Pancake motor out of Type 3 sedan coupe and wagon. (notchback, fastback, squareback) These are twin carb or Fuel injected. easy to set up FI to carbs.

Don't bother with the 1700 Type 4/Kombi motor its an orphan.

1800/2litre Kombi motor (1973-78/9) is also a Pancake motor with around 75 HP. Also eithe FI or Twin Carb, can retrofit Carbs to FI motor easy.

Plenty of aftermarket bits available, as well as go fast bits.

You might also look at Subaru EA81 motor(around 70HP) yes its watercooled but its a small radiator,

Plenty around out of Leone and wagons 1980-89. Lots are used in Ultralites.

Perhaps a Alfa Romeo AlfaSud 1.3/1.5 flat 4, yes its watercooled but they're light. They're also Italian, hmm may be not..

Another thought would be one of those out of airworthiness hours 4 cylinder Lycoming motors out of a Cessna or similar. Just a thought.

Cheers

Pez

I thought that the VW Motor could be ok, they as I understand very light weight (as this is a big consideration) aren't they?

Thanks

Joe

Two average guys can pick one up and carry easily, one tough guy maybe could but they are awkward.

Hello.

Look into motorcycle engines.

Extremely good power to weight ratio, compact, any mechanic would be able to do maintenance, easy to find parts, air cooled, liquid cooled, EFI or carburated ... you choose, easy to do transmission (Chain link), could use the in-built gear box for your purposes, 4 strokes, 2 strokes, 2 cylinders, 4 cylinders, ... and the list goes on.

The sky is the limit ...

But the added weight of the gear box would be a problem, some Polaris 4WD motors have no gearbox, (gearbox seperate unit) it would be ideal but I am also looking for a motor that is readily available for more machines when the Prototype is complete.

Cheers

Joe

WELL FIRST OFF YOU NEED TO TALK TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE FLOWN HOVERCRAFT"S I HAVE BEEN FLYING THEM FOR QUITE SOME TIME AND HAVE MADE A FEW ALSO. BUT FIRST YOU NEED TO SAY WHAT SIZE ? HOW LONG? OPEN SKIRT OR BAGS? WITH THIS INFORMATION ONE CAN GIVE A BETTER ANSWER. OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD THE GEO MOTOR IS ONE OF THE BETTER MOTORS AND IS USED IN OTHER HOVERCRAFT TODAY AND IS AVALIBLE IN MOST JUNKYARDS. ONCE YOU GET UP TO 55HP IT MAKES IT HARD TO COME UP WITH A GOOD COMMON MOTOR THAT IS INEXSPENSIVE VOLKSWAGON SUPER BEETLES ARE GOOD BUT IT IS HARDER TO GET SOME PARTS.

I concur with others -- VW is the way to go. Rotax is another possibility, but they are very expensive. If you can live with water cooling, Subaru flat fours have also been used in aircraft.

All these have been used for turning propellers, and as a result you will be able to find the necessary bits and pieces more easily, and will have some standard practices that could save you time and money in experimentation.

The VW engine with all shrouds can be operated at full throttle in a static position unlike engines designed for motorcycle or snowmobiles where cooling is aided by air flow of the moving machine.

Rotax no way, have had bad experiences Rotax.

If you looked at power to weight ratio which would be better VW or Subaru? Can live with a small radiator Ok. Space would be tight though.

Cheers

Joe

I think the VW and Subaru are close in power-to-weight, with the VW probably ahead, depending upon state of tune. Subarus from the last 15 years or so are about double the stock HP of a VW, and have the advantage (and disadvantages) of modern ignition, fuel injection, etc. VWs can be modified for a lot of power, but doing so requires a fair amount of knowledge. A relatively stock VW would be happy at 55 hp, and a Subaru would be truly loafing along at that output. (Of course if you really want some HP, the Subaru WRX engine will provide 250 or so, reliably.)

This may give you some ideas.

Daihatsu still makes three cylinder (one liter) engines which are very compact and light -- maybe a few pounds lighter than a VW with its shrouds and fan. (In automotive use, these put out about 55-60 hp on gas -- more in high performance versions.) In production, this might be a good way to go, because I don't know that you could find a good source of VW engines, where each engine is exactly like the last one. Daihatsu is hooked up with Briggs and Stratton to supply these three-cylinder engines (B&S uses them as diesels). The auto manufacturers in general want nothing to do with their engines being used in other applications, for liability reasons... but this hurdle has already been overcome, to some extent, with Daihatsu. Daihatsu had a very short history in the US as a car provider, but is the leading seller of very small cars and trucks elsewhere in the world. Their engines are very reliable, and they have been part of Toyota for a long time.

I could send you a Daihatsu engine to use, but my son would be upset, I fear, when he tried to start his car. Suzuki has also made three cylinder one liter engines, as used on the Suzuki Swift and Geo Metro.

Rotax are popular in those sizes.

Snowmobile engines are also appropriate sizes, and readily available used.

check ebay and Craig's list.

Good answer, there. I was going to say the same thing. The ultra lights use these type of motors and it will be a two stroke which are lighter and more hp per pound.

when I brought my motorcycle in to the BMW motorcycle dealer years ago there was a hovercraft powered by a bmw mtorcycle engine there also. can't remember if if was a 900 cc or 1000 cc engine. believe it was a 900 cc. this was decades ago. power has gone up since then. keep us posted anyways.

Before I chat about motors, please fill us in:

1/what are you wanting to do with the hovercraft?

2/how many on board?

3/race or cruise?

4/big or small payload?

5/ type of terrain you want to traverse?

6/ open or closed cockpit?

7/ overall dimensions you had in mind?

8/ complexity and cost level of control system you envisage?

9/ have you built one before?

10/have you any experience piloting hovercraft?

I have successfully designed radio controlled and full scale hovercraft and don't mind sharing some of the up's and down's of the game with you. Contracts prevent me from sharing drawings and specific formulae, so it will just be hot tips for you to use on your project. Welcome to go to private message on specifics.

Greetings,

1/ I have an idea for a Tourism Operation, giving people the opportinuity to operate small hovecraft over a variety of surfaces.

2/ I would hope that the craft could fit 2 adults.

3/ Cruise, but with a bit of grunt.

4/ About 225 Kg Payload Max.

5/ Small Surf Swells 350mm, rivers including very minor rapids, mudflats, swamps and sand.

6/ Open Cockpit.

7/ 1.8m wide 3.0m Long aprox.

8/ Steering via cable, throttle cable, dead man control lanyard switch, possibly some automation for ignition, starting and monitoring temperature and oil pressure, and run time. Total craft cost about NZ $12500.00

9/ No I have not built a hovercraft, but I have rebuilt a Scatt hovercraft from the just having the body and fan and frame assembly, I did not use the Rotax motor I replaced it with a 250cc Polaris 4 wheeler 2 stroke motor. This works fine and operates up to a speed of about 55Km/H at a pay load of 125Kg.

10/ Yes, I have about 25 hours operating the Scatt. I do realise that this is not a long time, but I have an understanding of how to ballance on the bubble of air under the craft, its a bit like riding a motor bike and I have done thousands of hours on motor bikes.

I would appreciate if you could reply to me via my email joe@aesl.net.nz

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/45769/Why-You-Shouldn-t-List-Your-Email-Address

A big BMW Boxer bike motor might be the ticket. Or even the K100, but I think they're a bit complicated.

Use the usual Gilmer belt reduction to the prop.

There should be a few of these around if you go into production. The motors airfreight rerasonably cheaply.

Stu.

BMW stands for Bloody Money Waster. I think in this application the Boxer or the K series motors may be problematic. They're also expensive to buy (even 2nd hand), feed and care for, parts are OEM and stupidly expensive.

There's plenty of VW 1600 and EA81 Subaru motors in NZ where the OP is.

Be interesting to know how he is going with his project.

Hello

I found this by accident... If you would like hovercraft specific information, I suggest you join this forum:

http://hoverclub.org.uk/index.php

Few VW engines are used in hovercraft these days - they are too heavy. Subaru EA81 engines are common, being well suited to larger craft(4.5m+), smaller craft use a lot of Briggs engines in the 22hp-35hp range, also common in mid-sized craft are the BMW boxer twins and flat 4's.

A craft of the size suggested is unlikely to be able to carry a 250kg payload - you'll need to go bigger, in the area of 2.2m x 4.5m.

If you are interested, I'll see you on the other side and can provide lots of advice & design guidance.

Ian

You want to put anyone who can rent one in a hovercraft and send them off. well i hope you have good insurance because this is what put scatt out of bussiness!!!

Check out what the Ultralight pilots are using to power their modified hang-gliders...that's got to be one of the lightest air-cooled gas engines around & fast/reliable pull restart too!!!!

Just added my 2 Cents for what it's worth!

Motorcycle engines are a glut the market, because motorcycles get wrecked but their engines are usually fine. So they are inexpensive, and good for experiments. The downside....they are not so good in static situations because of the lack of airflow. Though anybody who can build a vehicle like a hovercraft would not have trouble attaching a fan to to the prime mover.

Good luck!

What about an older air cooled VolksWagen engine?