So being off work for the past few days and living off a diet of chocolate and beer - I've gone down a load of rabbit holes on the Interweb.
I started out reading all about the various V-twin industrial engines, finding that what's available in the USA isn't available in the UK, and what is available (honda primarily, and loncin clones) has no real aftermarket performance parts available above the GX390 and it's clones which are used extensively for kart racing.
This got me thinking - could we couple together two GX390's using centeifugal clutches to a common shaft, such that if one engine failed, the other could continue to spin the prop at half the total power?
As it happens for my application, 2 bog standard out the box GX390's would give me enough power, and weight wise I think by the time a couple of half decent bing carbs are fitted and it's stripped down it would all come in at a reasonable weight. (Would hope for 50kg)
When you then add in the redundancy and the fact that an engine out becomes a non-issue, then we can start worrying about little less about reliability and a little more about performance. An abundance of reasonably prices performance parts are available for these engines from billet heads, forged conrods, billet flywheels etc etc. It wouldn't be unreasonable to knock both up to 20hp each for a combined 40hp.
So, someone tell me I'm an idiot before I go and order two of these loncin clones and dust off the welder.
I started out reading all about the various V-twin industrial engines, finding that what's available in the USA isn't available in the UK, and what is available (honda primarily, and loncin clones) has no real aftermarket performance parts available above the GX390 and it's clones which are used extensively for kart racing.
This got me thinking - could we couple together two GX390's using centeifugal clutches to a common shaft, such that if one engine failed, the other could continue to spin the prop at half the total power?
As it happens for my application, 2 bog standard out the box GX390's would give me enough power, and weight wise I think by the time a couple of half decent bing carbs are fitted and it's stripped down it would all come in at a reasonable weight. (Would hope for 50kg)
When you then add in the redundancy and the fact that an engine out becomes a non-issue, then we can start worrying about little less about reliability and a little more about performance. An abundance of reasonably prices performance parts are available for these engines from billet heads, forged conrods, billet flywheels etc etc. It wouldn't be unreasonable to knock both up to 20hp each for a combined 40hp.
So, someone tell me I'm an idiot before I go and order two of these loncin clones and dust off the welder.
