Research and Development at Aircooled Technology

Research & Development

When I decided to call my company "Aircooled Technology," I had a goal, and I have achieved it. This goal was to some day have a network of dedicated souls with special talents and intense dedication to help me create a "modern aircooled engine" with the latest technology! The goal was to also create these engines, systems and subsystems based from the original VW/ Porsche crankcases and many of the factory overbuilt parts that came with them. Many of these parts have not, and will not be made better by any aftermarket company- They can't do it and make any money!

This year I began a new direction with my personal work and duties here in the shop. As our engines increase in demand, and as our technology and power outputs continue to grow the business aspect of the shop demanded more and more from me. I could no longer assemble even one engine every 2- 3 weeks and do a job that I considered to be "My best". At that time I decided to do what I had always wanted to do, and dedicate myself only to super demanding, long term engine projects for assembly, and to dedicate the majority of my time to testing, as I call it "Risk and Development".

Test engines have no deadlines, have no customers to keep updated, have no liabilities for me to worry about and they keep me on my toes. They keep my configuration and assembly skills in check and my tools from collecting dust and they are a blast to design, build, and test for the first time, or over and over again till they are worn out, perfected, or completely destroyed. I like to drive hard and most of these engines find their way into one of my vehicles, at least for a few thousand miles of thrashing before being sold to gain some of my capital back that went into them.

This has made our products more sound, increased my contact with the dedicated customer, and opened me up to do more configuration for each engine and even more and more dyno time for all engines. By redefining each member of my teams duties each person is responsible for a narrower spectrum of concentration, but is more dedicated to the one specific task that I have assigned them to, this is something I learned from being in the aircraft field, there it keeps planes in the air and people alive.

This has made every engine we build even better. It is helping our entire industry as well as the general enthusiast who may wonder about how some of the "New and improved" parts he saw advertised in that shiny color ad in his favorite magazine really do work in real life. I am an avid member of many online discussion forums (list of them in the links portion of this site) and have literally made over 30,000 combined posts between them since 1999 trying to share this testing with the general public that does not have access to a dynamometer, flow bench, and real time comparisons or "Wrench time" to back it all up. This does sometimes cause a bit of animosity among individuals that have different views, but in general gives a very accurate conversation with a lot of constructive criticism. I get into my share of squabbles, but my point is always made. Some of the things I try I have seen others do in the internet forums, and then accomplished myself and shared the data with those forums. I learn from forums just like everyone else. Many of the manufacturers of bad parts, or those that are less than honest may not like forums, as they tell the truth and allow the enthusiast to network to make general conclusions about them that otherwise would not exist.

I hope that you enjoy and benefit from my test work, this page will be updated as often as possible with new data, dyno graphs, flow charts and general overviews of products in back to back comparisons. As you read these pages, I ask you to remain open minded, as many of the things you will see defy conventional wisdom, but are a reality that we can back up with data on demand! Please respect the amount of time and money that myself and our network has expended to do this testing, and share it with the public at no charge.

Jake Raby
"Excellence in Research"

Some of Aircooled Technology's previous R&D projects:

3-OH
PART 1: RAT'S LATEST R&D ENGINE:
JAKE'S 3 LITER MASSIVE TYPE 4

3-OH, WOW!
PART 2: THE BLUEBONIC PLAGUE AND
JAKE'S 3 LITER MASSIVE TYPE 4

The "Super 2 Liter Plus"
HORSEPOWER AND FUEL ECONOMY
40+ MPG AND 110HP!- TYPE 4 STYLE

Econoheader
BUDGET PERFORMANCE FOR
YOUR TYPE 4 CONVERSION

Exhaust System Shootout
EVALUATING EXHAUST SYSTEMS
FOR YOUR MASSIVE TYPE IV

RAT Super-finishing
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE TYPE 4
AND SURFACE MICROPOLISHING COLLIDE

Specialty Performance Coatings
REDUCING FRICTIONAL LOSSES AND INCREASING
LONGEVITY THROUGH SPECIALTY COATINGS

More Specialty
Performance Coatings
REDUCING FRICTIONAL LOSSES AND INCREASING LONGEVITY THROUGH
SPECIALTY COATINGS: LOAD BEARING AND FRICTION SURFACES

RABY SDS EFI
FUEL INJECTION FOR ALL
MADE EASY

Kit Carlson EFI 1
TRYING OUT ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION

Kit Carlson EFI 2
EFI RETROFIT ON A 912E WITH THE BETA "KIT CARLSON" SYSTEM

Modernizing the 912
1883ccs OF FUEL INJECTED FURY
200HP OR BUST!

Gallery: Roller Cam and Lifters Tested
THE RESULTS FROM RAT'S LATEST
ROLLER CAM & LIFTERS ON THE SPINTRON

Some of Aircooled Technology's previous R&D projects:

"Roller" 2270
RAT'S LATEST R&D ENGINE:
ROLLER CAM & LIFTER 2270 TYPE 4

Spintron Lifter Analysis
REAL WORLD SIDE-BY-SIDE LIFTER COMPARISONS

The Type 1 DTM
RAT'S LATEST COOLING SYSTEM FROM CONCEPTION TO REALIZATION

Porsche 914 DTM
OUR LATEST COOLING SYSTEM
TO HIT THE DYNO INCLUDING
INSTALLATION PICTURES

Gallery: RAT's Newest Addition
LAND AND SEA DYNO CELL

Some of Aircooled Technology's previous R&D projects:

Squishies & Nickies
Shoot-off
RAT'S LATEST R&D ENGINE:
2332 TYPE 1

Fuel Injection Vs. Carbs
BACK TO BACK DYNO TESTING
OF THE EMS VERSUS CARB

Hybrid Annihilator, Part 1 & 2
RAT'S LATEST R&D:
FINALLY, A 2L 914 3-BOLT
CYLINDER HEAD REPLACEMENT

The Hybrid Head, Part 3
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE MAD
SCIENTISTS OF RAT AND HAM INC

MassIVe Type 4
Cylinder Head Preview
280CFM BREAKS THE FLOW BARRIER