Engine Doctor

For low use or hobby cars or cars on a SORN a maintenance / trickle charger is a good investment. Dont forget nealy all cars from the 80s onwards had a an alarm or built in computer that draws a few mah that will drian and damage a car battery after a few weeks . I have a trickle maintenance charger in my hobby car , costs around £20 uses hardly any power and keeps car battery healthy and ready to go and far cheaper than replacing battery.

Could you not mount engine on its side ? Picture of model would help .

Could the problem not be simply overcome by flying with the karts behind your flightline and a suitable distance between them and you creating a NFZ ? Obviously not being able to see the site there may be other obstacles .

Hi Rich . Dont forget to allow extra time for delivery as 20 mph will slow the post van 😉

He who hesitates Rodney , he who hesitates. Just buy them Rich postage wont break the bank .

Just change the socket to match the Futaba plug. Far easier , cheaper and more reliable than using an adaptor on an old socket .Also check the associated wiring as if the socket is corroded its likely that corrosion will have crept up the wiring . Just had to do a similar job on a car door plug and socket with 17 wires. Plug and socket unavailable without buying the loom costing £100's . Fixed using hollowed out original plug and socket with ñew pin and socket connectors fitted . Cost a couple of £'s.

Hi Jim . I have to disagree with you on using a large prop on a small diesel. The leverage from a large heavy prop can and will severly damage a small diesel if it hydraulic locks. Ive seen bent rods broken cranks,split pistons and even broken crank cases all from doing just that.

Just keep looking on Ebay for r hine spares. Often an engine ideal for spares will come up. You can always ask on here . Ive been helped out a few times for bits. Are you looking for any parts at the moment ? There used to be a few dealers in old spares but they come and go. Things like needle vakve asemblies and piston rings are readily availabke from a few dealers. Other bits like cranks or cases are now mainly from a breaker engine . Pistons / rebores can be made and a few poeple do this. Judt adk around at a club or on here. The swap meet at Old Warden can be a hold mibe fir engine parts. Yes small props are getting rarer but visit any swapmeets etc . Often find loads of props for very little money but beware of chipped props and nylon props should be left in a pan of near boiling water for a few hours as they dry out and can be brittle. Re the sharp props . Always always sand off the sharp flashing and re- balance props before using. Nothing worse than slicing your finger along a prop on cold day and getting diesel fuel in it ! Child hood memories are very vivid about that. Good luck and keep the diesel revival going

Most of the ED Mk2 or comp specials only had to get a whiff of ether and they would fire . Dont get caught out , only 2cc but can still give a hefty whack on the fingers😖. Lovely old engines and worth getting a proper prop driver .

Thats simple . Turn phone off, , lock yourself in workshop, use slower setting epoxy with decent clamps qnd let the world do one until your ready 😉. If its important any caller will call back or leave your answerphone on, oh and switch off the devils invention... the mobile.

Funny how times change . FrSky started off making clone rx's to use with Futaba , JR etc. When other companies started cloning their stuff they didn't like it and changed protocol to stop them I believe. Still excellent gear though.

As you say a compromise hence the lower power than the electrnic ign models. The timing was also set at a compromise for srarting and best running. Very simple the mag models but you paid the price in weight and a heavy flywheel .

Hi paul . Yes pinking thats what i said. Its nothing to do with injectors but compression and burn speed of the fuel being used in the cylinder. As for how our glow engine ignition works i can only give my practical or real world opinion as I have no degree and im not into the theory side of things. If you run an engine where you can see inti the exhaust port , something like a cox 049 you can see the reflection of the glow plug. As you increase speed you can see the gp coil gets much brighter/ hotter . Connect a battery and it will glow almost white hot. Its the extra heat causing a quicker reaction with the fuel and platinum coil that advances the ignition process. The ignition ofmethanol is partly heat and partly due to a catalytic reaction with platinum and as we all learnt ar school heat speeds up these reactions. Diesel engines or compression ignition work similarly but with a much higher compression ratio typically 16:1 or higher. The faster the engine revs the hotter the cylinder gets so advancing the ignition point /timing. If our model diesels get too hot they over compress and will eventually stop. You may also have noticed if a vintage model when a diesel starts to over compress they eiund heavy and laboured. A long shallow dive often cools it enough to run well again and even induce a occasional misfire or under compression as timing is retarded again.

The majority of small petrol engines , 10 to 15 are JMO a waste of time. At 20cc they start to become useable but weight often make them a poor choice. The DLE 20 though is a good lively chiice although you still have to factor in the weight of a proper exhaust and ignition system , battery etc. Most other designs dont come into their own until they exceed 30+ cc. And 50cc is where they really become a good alternative to glow....but a decent exhsust will often cost as much as the engine. The supplied exhaust deflectors as a waste of time and a cause of many site problems .

Very simply ,your engine looses a few revs as the glow plug cools slightly without the electrical current to heat the coil. This efectively retards the timing slightly. As already said other factor all play a roll in the timing of a glow engines. If glow plugs are very old this slowing can be more noticeable. For the same reason you should never run a glow engine at full thtottle with the glow swithched on as this can cause pre ignition or knock and damage the engine resulting in extreme cases with a hole in the piston crown. Prop throwing is a prime example of over advanced ignition often caused by a weak mixture at full throttle. This knock will also shorten the plug life. Modern designs have to a greater degree engineered out this extreme knock. Assuming mixture is correct then its perfectly normal. If the coil in your engines glowplug looks white an crystally instead of silver then its getting past it. If engine still runs reliably apart from that then just fly it. Us oldies will remember when fiddling with our cars that if the timing was set wrong we heard a tingling sound , a bit like the sound made when tapping the bottom of a cup with a pencil . This only occured when engine is under load as when accelerating , its called pinking. Also heard is a lower octane fuel than the engine was designed for was used.

I used to buy my batteries from 7dayshop.com but when Covid struck the supply chain fell down and they no longer list them. I still hsve some left so ok for a while. I have some of their AA cells made into Tx pack probably 8 or nine years old and some AAA packs in models a few years old and working fine giving good voltage etc under load . Never been a fan of Vapextech cells . I bought some when they first appeared and they didnt last very well. What to use when my stock is used up ?

With Nimh cells i have found that anything above 2000mah capacity are more prone to failure and drop their voltage drastically under load as IR increases. I lost a good model sone time ago when a cell in a 6v 2700mah pack packed up. When checked the pack showed 6.3 v but as soon as any load was put on it the voltage dropped to zero ! Just one cell cost a lot of grief .Up to 2000 mah they seem fine. I now only use the ready charged or LSD type as they seem even more robust than the standard type.

Southern model craft used to sell a ltr for less than that ! Luckily i stocked before Dave retired. The new owners have gone quiet but were supposed to be keeping the name going. Fingers crossed.

Every two years ? Really. I ran a Saito 45 for five years on one set and a ys 63 for longer with no bproblems . All my fuel is synthetic based , never use castor except in old engines and diesels with iron pistons / liners.

Look for Sellotape Diamond tape if you can find any otherwise their Superclear tape 8s the currdnt nearest. Very strong adhesive, UV resistant and once on its unoticable as its so clear. The Scotch tape super clear is not very good.

All goo Good tips add up and " Many an ickle makes a muckle"

Once your happy with running the engine and want to add colour to the cylinder fins have try at Anodising. Pic below is a crankcase I made for my Boddo Mills. If you fo try anodising then start with blue or red dyes as greens yellows are notoriously tricky to get right.

Hi Andy. Welcome back to the world of IC power. Dont turn down a Enya 4C if one turns up. They are in the same class as Saito and OS for quality of materials and reliability. Spares may be an issue now but generally they last and last and are very strong. You could also consider a smaller laser . Jon knows everything there is to know about them and can advise. Re laying up for winter . Corrosion will be your enemy. On the last run of the year, run the engine out of fuel while its GOOD AND HOT after flight and make sure its not running rich . Doing this will help evaporate any methanol thats got into the crankcase . Then as soon as you can give the engine a good dose of oil. In the cylinder, through the crankcase breather and inside the tappet cover etc. Dont use any fuel or oil that contains castor oil or 3in1 oil as it set like varnish . Over the years ive tried many different oils for storage and found air tool oil to be very good for this as its designed to protect air tools from any moisture in the air that powers them. Any used engine can be a risk . With four strokes beware of any of the chinese clones that have little or no compression. Check this with a fully open throttle; very low or non existant compression idicates a manufacturing defect and is only fixable by fitting a new head. Also check the thread where the exhuast fits into the head . This applies to any engine with a screw in exhaust. A worn thread means a new cyl head ! Look for any nuts that have been chewed with pliers or wrong size spanners a sign of a careless owner. Lastly remove the glowplug and check thread is ok. I was caught out by that many years ago with an open rocker Enya I bought that had the glowplug glued in ! Spares like castings and specialised parts for all Chinese clones are virtually imposible to find new and parts for current OS or Saito or YS engines are very expensive. Bearings if a bit loose or noisy are easily available for virtually any fs engine and not expensive and available from any good bearing supplier. Never be afraid of asking about engines on this forum , no question is a silly question . If your a member of a club beware of unsolisited help from the " Club Expert " look for any advice needed from an IC flyer who doesnt constantly fiddle with his engine and has consistent flights . Good luck and enjoy the sound

Hi EGB. The weston silencers or pipes are tuned for outright performance or throttle responce and are verh good . Your os silencer mising part is likely the same size as those fitted to many chinese clones like ASP, SC etc. There are loads about secondhand have alook on ebay and check mounting hole centers. Also measure the inside diameter of the exhaust you have and you may a used end cone and through bolt on here .

Any car bulb 12 or 24 will do doesnt have to be a headlamp bulb . Indicator bulbs work fine and we usually have those lying around . I used to just dunk them into a bucket of salty water overnight but was told that it leaches lithium into the water and that has its own issues with disposal; but it does completely discharge them .