Hi all,

I'm going to install zdz 50 on DP extra. What is the recomanded mounting orientation ? is it inverted or side mounted ? I guess the pros for side mounting is the is does not stick out of the cowl, and gets better cooling because of the cowl openings design. Would airplane with side mounted engine of this size will suffer from balance problems (and if so, wouldn't it be easy to solve by wing tip weights? )

Thanks,
yanival.

Anybody ? This is my first gasser, so I would really appriciate any kind of help with this issue.

Most of the big engines I have mounted on that size aircraft were mounted inverted. Primarily so that the carb intake was on the side of the aircraft and easy to get to. Side mounting the engine would either place the carb on top or bottom of the cowl. On top hard to get to. On the bottom you don't want to go there.
Gas engines don't care if they run inverted.
Hope it helps.

I always mount my gas single cylinder engines inverted. I don't believe I have ever seen a side mounted one.

Thanks guys.

yanival.

Usually you want to keep the carb above the exhaust. That should produce the most reliable idle for landing and taxi. With a pump carb however, it is not required, but it sure won't hurt either. There is nothing wrong with mounting the engine sideways and having the carb on top. Most of the twins are arranged this way. The cooling would be excellent if you used baffles.

As far as balance goes, this would not upset the aircraft in a major way. I would avoid using wing tip wieghts however. This would cause the moment of the wieght to be far outside the center of gravity. Having wieght this far outboard will affect roll characteristics. I would strive to use the wieght you have in batteries (reciever and ignition) and other gear to attempt to offset any imbalance the cylinder head might cause.

Chuck