Hambone wrote:As I prepare to return to Pennsylvania to pick up the Sonex, I’m getting the jitters reading about all of the AeroVee vapor lock and overheating issues here in the forum. There seems to be an awful lot of after-build mods that are necessary to alleviate the overheating and vapor lock issues. Not being an engineer, or particularly mechanically-minded, it gives me cause for concern. I’m beginning to wonder if the AeroVee is the engine for me.
FWIW ... I was the first to respond to you when you started this thread. I ended that post with this statement, "I'm a Corvair zealot these days but the little VW worked well enough to make me fall in love with the airplane."
No one can answer the question for you concerning the Aerovee. I flew an Aerovee powered Sonex for 175 hours and decided that it wasn't the engine I wanted in my airplane. The reasons for that decision are only important to me. There have been a number of folks that began with the Aerovee engine and later on went with another option. A few here have went to a Jabiru 3300 to replace the Aerovee (I won't call names but they may speak for themselves).
My research led me to Corvair power. Obviously it's not the choice everyone would make as it's not factory supported and it exceeds the FWF weight limit set by the company (as many other options have proven to do). If you are interested in why I did what I did there is a thread on here that gives a lot of information about the research and the reasons I have for using Corvair power (currently the thread is locked - I don't know why that is).
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4273&hilit=justificationYou will know much more once you get to the plane and get some time flying it in the local area. If you don't feel comfortable enough in it to fly it home you can always pull the wings, put it in a box truck, and drive it home. There's nothing wrong with being careful and having trepedation about such a long flight in a new to you airplane.
Dale
3.0 Corvair/Tailwheel