New Approach to Yamaha RX-1 conversion

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teal

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Hello all, I am new to the forum and to be honest not much into the forum thing at all but I seen this forum a little over a year ago when I decide to buy one of these RX-1 engines. My approach to the conversion was a little different than the others I've seen. I wanted to use a gearbox but incorporate it to the engine and not built a structure around the engine. So I took the OEM cover off the PTO shaft and copiedthe hole locations and bearing support location as well as seal in a billet T6-6061 piece of aluminum. I then machined the Rotax provision 8 pattern on the cover centered over the CL of the shaft. I spent about 10 hours testing on my engine stand and I was very pleased with the numbers. My last conversion was A Honda Aquatrax on my Long EZ so I was familiar with the performance of this size of engine. I currently have about 40 hours flying the Yamaha on a trike I built for the project. I am very pleased with the set up. Some friends are now asking me if I would make some more of these adapters and possibly a complete engine converted. I am considering removing the adapter and taking to a CNC shop to have a number of them duplicated. I would like a few for myself since I have since bought another engine to convert. I am using this forum to find out who may be interested in purchasing a adapter or possibly a complete set up ready to fly. I don't have a cost at this time. Here are a few pictures of my RX-1 project.
 
Wow! Nice work, I'm glad you posted this information and pictures! I've been very interested in Yamaha conversions, and once I get my Gyro rebuilt and get some good flying time in, I would like to do a conversion. Probably won't be until at least next year though. I'm definitely interested in cost, performance, and proven reliability! And a C Gearbox can be mounted on it! Please keep us updated!
 
Last edited:
Something you may want to consider is machining a feature (ridge) that the Rotax C gearbox goes over for centering purposes. The inside of the mounting surface of a C box is round and meant to slip over a feature. I have found the bolt holes are not very good at keeping the C gearbox exactly centered on the output shaft of the engine.

FWIW
Jason


teal said:
Hello all, I am new to the forum and to be honest not much into the forum thing at all but I seen this forum a little over a year ago when I decide to buy one of these RX-1 engines. My approach to the conversion was a little different than the others I've seen. I wanted to use a gearbox but incorporate it to the engine and not built a structure around the engine. So I took the OEM cover off the PTO shaft and copiedthe hole locations and bearing support location as well as seal in a billet T6-6061 piece of aluminum. I then machined the Rotax provision 8 pattern on the cover centered over the CL of the shaft. I spent about 10 hours testing on my engine stand and I was very pleased with the numbers. My last conversion was A Honda Aquatrax on my Long EZ so I was familiar with the performance of this size of engine. I currently have about 40 hours flying the Yamaha on a trike I built for the project. I am very pleased with the set up. Some friends are now asking me if I would make some more of these adapters and possibly a complete engine converted. I am considering removing the adapter and taking to a CNC shop to have a number of them duplicated. I would like a few for myself since I have since bought another engine to convert. I am using this forum to find out who may be interested in purchasing a adapter or possibly a complete set up ready to fly. I don't have a cost at this time. Here are a few pictures of my RX-1 project.
Click to expand...
 
Very interested in your aquatrax conversion if you have any pictures.

teal said:
Hello all, I am new to the forum and to be honest not much into the forum thing at all but I seen this forum a little over a year ago when I decide to buy one of these RX-1 engines. My approach to the conversion was a little different than the others I've seen. I wanted to use a gearbox but incorporate it to the engine and not built a structure around the engine. So I took the OEM cover off the PTO shaft and copiedthe hole locations and bearing support location as well as seal in a billet T6-6061 piece of aluminum. I then machined the Rotax provision 8 pattern on the cover centered over the CL of the shaft. I spent about 10 hours testing on my engine stand and I was very pleased with the numbers. My last conversion was A Honda Aquatrax on my Long EZ so I was familiar with the performance of this size of engine. I currently have about 40 hours flying the Yamaha on a trike I built for the project. I am very pleased with the set up. Some friends are now asking me if I would make some more of these adapters and possibly a complete engine converted. I am considering removing the adapter and taking to a CNC shop to have a number of them duplicated. I would like a few for myself since I have since bought another engine to convert. I am using this forum to find out who may be interested in purchasing a adapter or possibly a complete set up ready to fly. I don't have a cost at this time. Here are a few pictures of my RX-1 project.
Click to expand...
 
I will post some pictures of my turbo normalized aquatrax installation this evening and thinks for the advice for a positioning shoulder (feature) on the adapter to make sure and keep it centered. I have looked into sleeving 2 of the bolt holes in the adapter (like some case covers are done) for this purpose. On my current adapter that has not been problem but theres always room for improvements.
 
I have a CNC milling machine where I can duplicate these for you as needed.
If interested you can contact me and we can talk
Todd 719 499-2378
 
I REALLY like this engine set up. Very clean and simple installation
 
Very nice workmanship on both machines.What attracted you to the Aquatrax in your EZ?
 
Very nice! Please tell me, was the original engine equiped with water cooled exhaust? if so what kind of modifications were required to the head?
Also since the ski/jet pump uses a lovejoy type coupling on the crank, how did you modify the conection to the rotax box?

Very interesting, I like it.
The yamaha looks good too!
 
Yes, it had a water jacket header which acted as a preheater for the water before it entered the engine. No head modification was necessary since the water did not flow through the header and into the head. The Honda crank had a tapered crank like the rotax. The taper was not the 30mm 10:1 thats on the rotax so I machined a adapter sleeve to match the Honda Crank to the Rotax "C" flywheel.
 
People in OZ been talking about using C boxes for years and thousands of trouble free hours on Subaru EJ-22 and EJ25
 
SNEEK PEEK AT THE NEW CNC'ed ADAPTER

SNEEK PEEK AT THE NEW CNC'ed ADAPTER

Enjoy, TEAL
 

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Nice job, that is worth every penny your charging. I like it.
 
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