582 Blue head

[TJay 1041]

A friend of mine said he could give me a real good deal on a Blue head with under a 60 hrs on her with the e box the only thing is I don't know if the e box with 3.47 gears will work good or not.  I would imagine you could swing a big prop pitched up real high and make it work. what do you guys think.

[1avidflyer 1983]

Lots of 3-1 gear sets around. Not as many 2.62-1 sets, but some. If the deal isn't to bad, you could buy different gears, maybe sell the 3.47s. I talked to LEAF a year or so ago, and they would change out the gears for $75.00 if I remember right. E box is heavier than the C with having the starter mounted there. On an already nose heavy plane, something to think about. Might be a good idea to weld in a shelf near the tail plus put an access door so you can put the battery way far back if you need to. Jim Chuk

[C5Engineer 1170]

One advantage of the Ebox is not having the starter polking thru the firewall and being able to retain your pull start. My pull starter has gotten me out of the backcountry twice after unusually cold temps wouldn't allow my battery to spin it fast enough to fire.

[akflyer 1427]

or you could try to trade out the E box for the C box and not have to butcher the hell out of your cowling and put 12 pounds as far out on the nose of an already nose heavy airplane... While your at it, do yourself a huge favor and put the clutch in the C box and make your engine love you and run way past the 300 hr TBO.

 

[TJay 1041]

Hey you say these are nose heavy airplanes? every kitfox I have ever seen with a 582 on it has about 20lbs of lead under the engine mount bolts, whats up with that.

[tcj 150]

Tjay, that's what I believe too.  Older Kitfoxes with 582s  seem to end up near the aft CG limit.  I think it is because of the engine being mounted so the starter is in cabin.

 

My model 4 has a longer engine mount that puts the back of the starter about an inch in front of the firewall and the CG is near the foreward limit.  But its a 503 so I might be full of beans too.

[akflyer 1427]

I've got a c model avid, starter is in the firewall. Still needs 12 pounds of lead on the tail wheel to get the cg back to 18". I'm guessing the guys that are putting lead in the nose are also the guys that take 700' to get in the air and are the ones complaining about not having enough elevator to flare. Dean Wilson told me to run the cg at 18-19" and the plane would fly much better. I did and it did. He did say to not stall it with the cg behind 21" unless you had full flaps on as you would not be able to get the nose back down without them. I love mine right around 18"

[TJay 1041]

good to know thanks