VFR400 engine for use in hovercraft?

[Bitman]

Hi all

I am collecting gear for building a hovercraft. As usual cost is a factor.
I have found a 89 VFR400 Engine on Trademe that maybe suitable but I am asking advice here prior to purchase.

I need a engine that is reasonably light and is quite powerful also.
I understand that the NC30 VFR 400 engine weighs in the vicinity of 75 kg and will produce 60 hp or more with a few tweaks.

Ideally I would like to remove the gearbox and take the power straight off the engine, is this practically possible while retaining the electric start.

Alternatively can you guys suggest a reliable 4 stroke engine that I may be able to use without the gearbox (as light as possible and still retain e start)

Thanks in advance.

Bruce

[=cJ=]

Take a look at somethign from the rotax world perhaps? They seem to spring up in aeroplanes all about the place, so driving a fan shouldn't be too big a step...

[imdying]

Typically they're a pain to work on, but not bein buried inside a small sportsbike chassis might alleviate that somewhat

[hmmmnz]

i think also its neigh on impossible to seperate the engine from the gearbox,
i would be looking at rotax engines, or for kart, jetski, skidoo or microlight engines. all have no gearbox already, some of the jetski engines are putting out an excess of 100hp and weigh less than 50kg

another option is an old ea82 subaru engine, they are quite light when not attached to the gear box, under 75kg anyway
another option is a 2 stroke engine a rg250 nsr250 ect ect they all make abot the same power as the vfr plus being a 2 stroke you could easily seperate the engine from the gearbox (by easy i mean you have to hacksaw and grind the whole gearbox part away) but atleast you wouldnt have to weld anything, just remove the clutch ect and then start cutting. easy

[Pixie]

Aircraft and marine engines (and I include hovercraft in this category) are designed to operate at close to full power for most of the time they are running.
Cars are a little easier on their power plant and bikes are easiest of all,operating at just off idle for most of their lives.

In light of this,I would go for the Subaru motor.A bike motor will have a hard time in a hovercraft.The first problem you may run into may be that the cooling system may not have the capacity to dissipate the heat for long full power runs.