Hello all, new member here!

I am looking for some usable information on the ZDZ 80 Super.

I have previously owned G62's and 3W100's

I am between two engines at the moment for a 33% QB 260. (I am not mentioning the OTHER choice at this time ;-) maybe later ;-o

My main concerns are as follows,
I know all of my choices have the power that really isn't the issue.

For this decision on a ZDZ 80 Super my ONLY main concerns are reliability and smoothness. Not longevity reliability, but rather it's running characteristics through out the power range. Mainly one being keeping the plane in the sky At least 2 to 3" at some point during the flight

Thanks in advance and all information is appreciated

I have seen several of these engines run, they are monsters for the weight and very smooth. It would be a great choice!! Having said that it should not be too long now before someone starts beating you on the head with DA 85 propaganda.

Double posted Sorry!

Originally Posted by FastnLow

I have seen several of these engines run, they are monsters for the weight and very smooth. It would be a great choice!! Having said that it should not be too long now before someone starts beating you on the head with DA 85 propaganda.

Ha haaaaaaaaa... Thanks for the input.

Great engine....mine started easy....the idle settled down after it was broken in, and made gobs of power. I had a buddy who purchased the new 3W 80 at the time and was running it on a canister. I has the standard pitts muffler on my ZDZ. It turned more RPM's all say long.

Now the flip side.

I was coming out of the bottom of the blender, just stopped the flat spin, pulling out the bottom and I hear a very odd noise and I see the prop stop turning in under one revolution....that's not normal....it blew a hole the size of a .50 cent piece in the bottom of the crank case. Mike Dooley took care of the problem immediately and I had a new engine iwithin a week. GREAT SERVICE!!!!! let me say that again just so that's it's heard. GREAT SERVICE!!!!! It was deemed as mechanical failure and luckily I was able to spare the airframe from damage as well on the very low altitude dead stick. After receiving the new one....I always had problems with it cutting out in any maneuver that pull some sort of G load. I was never able to pinpoint the problem...whether it was a engine problem, or a installation problem, I never got it tracked down. Mike was great to work with....sent me the revised mufflers and phenolic block at no charge, just a good guy to work with.

I don't whether I would buy one again, most likely yes because it made so much power....but who knows.

"I would love to run one on a full pipe"


Neo

WoW, sorry to hear that story...

Not to bog you down with more particulars of your past bad experience but one needs to know.

Was this motor a Super 80?

Approximately how many flights were on the engine?

About the erratic idle did they state it that this was common characteristic or not ?

Idle is one of my main concerns.

Thanks for taking the time to explain your issues. Like you said, may or may not have been an engine issue many things come into play. Either way it's situation NO ONE wants to hear about.

One more question... What are you flying now

Originally Posted by SuperKaos

WoW, sorry to hear that story...

Not to bog you down with more particulars of your past bad experience but one needs to know.

Was this motor a Super 80?

Approximately how many flights were on the engine?

About the erratic idle did they state it that this was common characteristic or not ?

Idle is one of my main concerns.

Thanks for taking the time to explain your issues. Like you said, may or may not have been an engine issue many things come into play. Either way it's situation NO ONE wants to hear about.

One more question... What are you flying now

Not a problem, how many flights....I'm not really sure....but I was going on 7 gallon of gas or so.

The idle was so much erratic.....but high.......It quickly settled down through breakin. From my experience, I wouldn't worry about that. I never pursued the fast idle with them, figured it was part of breakin and sure enough it was. Idle was very smooth as well, very little vibration.

I'm flying a Century Swift, finish up a Century Predator Carbon Gasser.....can you tell I wanted a bit more of a challenge? I've also got a custom designed, custom built 35% Sukhoi that I will hopefully be finishing up this spring, it'll be getting a DA100 as it's looking to come in a bit heave, and I just picked up a 1st gen H9 SUk, never seen the air, but was stripped to recover and just sat....so it's essentially brand new. That one is gonna wait for a bit now.

Any other q's.....fire away.

Neo

Yea it sounds like it, mixing heli's and airplanes. Only heli's I have flown are in simulator form

I may give them a try some time down the road. I'm just now getting my son into planes, but I have a feeling he's going to be the rotor enthusiast of the family.

One more question will probably do it. What was the end result, a rod journal failure?

I answered that in a PM.

OK, so I made my decision and ordered the engine of my choice. I thought I could wait for more feed back but I couldn't