| Aug 21, 2003. I purchased a EA-81 Subaru engine
with dual carbs. Should have about 100 hp. |
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| The distributor I received looks to be from an 1983 or later
model car and has the ignition "stuff" built into it. We will see how
well it works. I need to get a starter for it and make a bracket to
mount the starter on. Most folks use part of a transmission housing
but that adds too much weight. |
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| Here are some pictures of the carbs. It is a factory
engine option which apparently never was imported into the US (in a car). |
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| Nov 30, 2003. Mike Bice (welder extraordinaire) is
doing the fabrication and welding of the engine mount. We used high
strength steel instead of the iron pipe etc called for in the plans.
The mount should be stronger and lighter than the plan version. Of
course it costs more and requires more work to figure out the angles etc.
Mike is a wiz at custom fabrication which is a very good thing. Mike
had to smooth the 1 3/8 shaft on the lath so it would fit in the bearings.
Mike runs Timsco Corp. (Ph# 903-935-5251). |
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| Here are two more pictures of the engine mount in fab stage.
Mike makes custom aircraft panels and ends up making all sort of odd parts
as required. He made the washers that fit inside the 2" pipe used for
the engine mount feet so the fit was better. The plans called for 7/8"
fender washers and they are real loose fitting in the hole. THANKS FOR THE
HELP MIKE!! Mike found out the flywheel inner surface had a .015
runout so it was machined flat. The UH 1 3/8" shaft has a .004 runout
which seems ok. It is important to minimize the total runout to keep
vibration down and not stress the rubber flex adaptor too much. |
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| DEC 12, 2003. Mike has the engine mounted and
the bearings aligned. Now to mount the shafts and "stuff".
Notice the "extra" mount leg going to the top bearing platform. The
plans have a strap going to the starter but that is not a great solution.
Mike came up with a way to mount the starter on top so it is out of the way. |
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| DEC 20, 2003. The engine mount requires 8
2" by 3/4" rubber mounts to isolate the mount from the craft. It turns
out that the rubber body mounts from a 55 Chevy are 2" and cost about $1 each
(part # 02123).
Hard to beat the price and the rubber is made for this type of application.
The other picture is Mike and Duff working on the air compressor.
There is always something to fix before progress can be made on the
important stuff. |
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| DEC 26, 2003. Mike added the 1/4" steel spacers
to the top of the frame. He also inserted four steel spacers inside
the tube so that the tubing would not crush when the bearing bolts are
tightened. He does good work! |
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| Here is the mount with the pulleys being test fitted.
Still need to add a few things like the belt tensioner, idler and variator
mounts but it is pretty close now. Notice the lower bearing mounts have
"ears" added to support them. |
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| JAN 13, 2004. These are pictures of the belt
tensioner. There will be two springs to keep it biased against the
belt. -- Rob Tilton sent me a note saying it is a nice tensioner but it on
the wrong side. Well, shoot! This is why I maintain a web site
so people will be able to help before I go too far wrong. |
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| Here is the variator mount. I am still waiting for the
UH variator. 1/14/04 the variator finally came today!!!!! |
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| Jan 14, 2004. The variator came today.
YES!!! |
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| Jan 27, 2004. Mike as welded the variator and
idler mounts on to the frame. The tensioner has also been moved to the
right side. Still have to add the radiator and mount then paint the
stand. It is close! |
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   Notice
the variator mount extends below the feet! |
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| Feb 1, 2004. Mike and I are dry fitting all the
shafts and pulleys. Notice the lower idlers are a little narrow spaced
for the upper pulley. Mike will make the idler frame a little wider
after I return the mount. 2nd picture shows what happens when you get too
close with the welder.... |
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| Mike is welding an angle bracket onto the mount to adjust
the tension of the front idlers. |
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| The variator does not have much tolerance in the mount.
Mike will make a spacer to keep the variator nuts from hitting the pillow
block bearing. I thought the screw on cap on the variator covered a
zerk fitting but it is just a cup that grease is put in. Kind of odd
but simple. |
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| Feb 10. 2004. Mike Bice is helping with
the engine also. We located an intake system that was designed for a
gyrocoptor and are going to use it instead of the Soob "stuff" |
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| The Soob intake plumbing looked like a nightmare
and it just added weight. This system is very light and basic. I
will use a Holley carb on top of the intake. |
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| Feb 27, 2004. This is what happens
when you take a 52 lb bar of aluminum and turn it down. The 2nd
picture shows shavings from the milling process. Doug Clarke at Vision
Manufacturing (Ph# 281-320-2202) designed and made the pulley for me. |
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| The upper pulley was made from aluminum to (I
hope) eliminate the failure of the wood pulleys over time. The collet
on the wood pulleys eventually pulls into the wood and can no longer be
tightened up. 1st picture is the tapered bore being machined.
2nd picture shows the cut V-grooves |
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| 1st picture is the face being machined.
2nd picture shows the taper being checked. |
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| The 1st picture shows the pockets being milled
out of the pulley. The turned down aluminum pulley weighs 8.4 lbs. The
2nd picture shows the pulley on top of the wood version for reference. |
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| Here are pictures of the pulley mounted on the
engine mount. I am using a new Toyota radiator that I got off Ebay. |
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| April 4, 2004. The engine end plate
is being milled to get rid of the excess metal. 2nd picture shows the
inside starter plate. |
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| 1st picture show the inside plate and flywheel.
The flywheel has had about 8lbs of cast iron removed. I will have an
aluminum flywheel machined later in the month. The stock flywheel is about
25 lbs and the aluminum one should be about 8-9 lbs. Getting rid of weight
in the rear of the craft is a big deal and should help with craft trim. 2nd
picture show the outside starter plate and the starter mounted. Mike
is going to add a support strap from the engine mount to hold up the back of
the starter kind of like what is shown on the plans. |
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| Side view of the starter mounted to the engine
and rear view of the mount installed..
This system should save a lot of weight over using a cut up transmission
bell housing. I am hoping I can save about 20-30 lbs total over the
standard engine mount, flywheel and bell housing combination. I wish I
could find a lighter starter as the stock one is quite heavy. |
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| April 25, 2004.1st picture is a different
shot of the starter mount. 2nd picture is Mike making some fine
adjustments to the engine. All the engine seals and the water pump are
being replaced. The next is the exhaust and it should be about ready
to run. |
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| July 18 - Aug 1, 2004. I received the new
aluminum flywheel. Doug Clarke did an excellent job machining it!
Mike has also power coated various parts and the engine mount frame is next. |
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Pictures on left show the flywheel being made. |
| August 7, 2004. I decided to
rebuild the soob engine while it was easy to do. It turned out to be
an all day affair to get it apart. Glad I did as I found that the
valves on one head were not closing all the way. The exhaust valves
also did not have valve stem seals which caused the engine to burn oil. |
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| On the plus side, the cylinders still have the
cross hatching so this engine did not have many miles on it. Other
than the valve adjustments, the engine was in great condition.
Mike Bice will clean up the engine and we will put all new seals and "stuff"
on it. |
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| Here are the pulleys anodized gold. The
top pulley, flywheel and tension pulley came out really nice. The UH
pulleys are apparently made from cast aluminum and are porous and don't look
all that great. Mike may powder coat the UH pulleys black so you can't
tell.... |
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| Sept 28, 2004. Engine mount is
finished and powder coated - finally!!!! It has undergone a number of
design changes since the beginning as I learned from others that have 18sp
crafts. Some of the major changes being the removal of the variator
mount (and making a separate mount for it), adding the belt tension system
and making the mount from 4130 steel instead of from iron pipe. It is
a one of a kind for sure. Of course when Mike agreed to make the mount
I had showed him the simple plans.... Thanks for all the help
MIKE!!!!! |
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| Now I have to put the engine back together and
make it run. |
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| Jan 20, 2005.
Been working on the lift fan mount, variator mount and the belts. 1st
picture is the engine mount with the pulleys and belt tension pulleys
mounted. 2nd picture shows the variator in about the position it will
be mounted in. |
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| 1st picture shows the lift fan assy in position.
The plastic wedges still need to be cut to get rid of the extra material.
2nd picture shows the variator and the reinforcement wood for the side of
the seat to mount the variator to. It looks like it will actually
work!!! |
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| Feb 17, 2005. Added a reinforcement
section to the inside of the seat area to mount the variator to. |
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Notice
the variator mount extends below the feet! 
