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Old 03-05-2006 | 01:00 PM
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B.L.E.
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Default RE: Increasing 2 stroke performance - how?

Re-porting a two stroke shifts the rpm where the maximum torque occurs, it does not increase the maximum torque very much, it may even reduce it.

Don't overlook the fact that it is the "drawbar" horsepower that counts. (Drawbar horsepower is a tractor and locomotive rating that measures the power actually delivered to the drawbar.) Drawbar horsepower is shaft horsepower times propulsion efficiency. If your engine and propellor combination is delivering 5 pounds of thrust to the airframe while going 110 feet per second, it is delivering 550 ft-lb of energy per second to the airframe which is one horsepower. If it takes two horsepower to turn that prop, then the propulsion efficiency is only 50%.

Retuning an engine to turn super high rpm means you will have to use a smaller diameter prop which reduces the propulsion efficiency, perhaps canceling any benefits of the increased shaft horsepower. Increased propulsion efficiency is the reason electrics and a lot of full scale aircraft, especially the experimental planes that use auto engine conversions as well as the WWII propellor planes, used gear reduction drives to the prop. It is also the reason that I and a lot of others don't prop our engines for "maximum scream".