Sorry I can't get Robert Gutteridge's web site to cut and paste so here it is.
Name: Robert Gutteridge Title: Mr. Biography: Academics: BSME degree, registered Professional Mechanical Engineer (retired), career involved machine design with emphasis on heat transfer in both heavy industrial and electronics industries. Aviation: 32 years experience, ground up restoration Champion 7FC, extensive maintenance on Cessna Aircraft including engine overhaul, built a Jabiru E-LSA kit with many redesigns to enchance safety and pilot convenience. Completed 16 hour LSA course for Repairman Inspection Airplane, 2 day course covering Jabiru Engine Installation & Rebuild. Currently serving as an EAA Tech Counselor. Volunteer at Pacific Coast Air Museum on aircraft maintenance crew. Private pilot with instrument rating, 2200 hours flight time. Presentations: Wednesday, 7/31/2013 - 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM - Forum Pavilion 01 - Map
Cooling the Jabiru 3300 - The presentation will cover my three year effort investigating and improving the cooling of Jabiru's 3300 engine. We will begin with upgrades to the temperature sensor equipment which improved the accuracy, consistency and usability of those readings. Tell tail signs of over heating will be discussed as well as the effect of high operating temperatures on metallurgical properties and its possible consequence. Finishing the forum will be a discussion of my new baffling system and the results obtained.
Presented by: Robert Gutteridge
* Add this Presentation to My Itinerary

The problem is though, with the stupid LSA regs, you cannot modify your aircraft if you want to use it for training (and keep it as a 24- rego). So you can't fix the cooling, fit fuel injection, fix the intake plenum etc. unless the factory approve mod. If the factory doesn't think there is a problem, they are not going to approve the mod.

XXX. No assumptions please.
No, I'm not a Jab owner, but a couple of decades
Maintaining aircraft you learn a thing or two.
One of our team has probably some of the highest hours,
Hands on maintaining these things also.
As I said, we all want to see them succeed,
But you have to open to industry, particularly considering the
Experience gained in the field.

In my experience, there are too many manufacturers who are quite prepared to produce a mechanical product and release it for general sale without the necessary extensive reliability testing. They rely on the client being the "test bed".

In the case of aircraft engine manufacturers, I would suspect that the smaller the manufacturer, the lesser the amount of effort and $$'s spent on reliability testing.

There should be free and frequent disclosure of any mechanical or design-related aircraft engine problems, and a database available online. The dissemination of knowledge and discussion of faults should override any need to protect a companys reputation.
After all, we do live in the Information Age, don't we? - not the Dark Ages!

Rutan around

The Jab was VH registered and was reported at the time as per the regs.

Titan
If all problems were reported as yours was and the information made generally available faults might be eliminated much more quickly than appears to be the case now. You have probably seen the AD found at the address below even though it came out 7 years after your potential disaster. It makes quite interesting reading.

I know the story says Cessna, but heck it was white, had a single engine and the wing on top, A Cessna to any journo. However I have it on good authority is was a Jabiru

Emergency at Ballina airport as plane flips near runway | Northern Star

7984 is back in the air again. :ok:

Volumex do we know what caused it to fail? So far makeithappencaptain is the only one that has offered a first hand account of the damage - or is this another that will disappear into the Bundy Triangle?

There is a lot to like about Jabs, but having flown 7984 I eventually decided that departing AF to the East in a Jab was outside my comfort zone.

No idea - I just heard it doing circuits on AF TWR frequency this afternoon.

If you are referring to the one in the video, it popped a cylinder / broke a stud. Hence the oil on the front wheel spat.

Cheers XXX, that's the one I meant.

I hear the rumour mill is being fed the line that this engine had old style through bolts that should have been changed as per SB, but weren't hence the failure? Anyone know any more - smacks of the standard Bundy response of operator/LAME error, but who knows.