William Morrison

First I pick up the pieces, then try to access what happened and why. After that I have to determine if I have enough model left to rebuild it. I think a model, especially ARFs should be rebuilt at least one time. Sometimes the crash is so violent, there is just a bag of trash to pick up and some things to salvage. I am building up my supply of hardware and fuel tanks..

Saito engines have sealed bearings in the front. I have not run into other engines that did so. Some would retain shields on the main bearing fearing debris getting into or out of the bearing. Personally, I remove the shields on the main bearings to enhance the flow through of lubricant to the cam area. I do not think the shields will totally interrupt the flow of lubricant to the cam box but I would rather have more than less.

You will do fine as is. Just make sure you really put the torque to the first nut. I do it all the time with not issues. Besides you will have a cone to collect the nuts if they should come loose.

I once cleaned the carb on my Magnum.91 (which is the same as your ASP .91) and got the idle needle way out of kilter. I sent a message to the US distributor and he said, turn the carb up side down while off the engine. The low speed needle should be half way across the split in the fuel feed. Very easy to see when the carb is off the engine and inverted. After resetting the low speed needle, after reassembly, open up the high speed needle and start with an excessive rich position like 4 turns out. Use a TACH and reset your high end at peak less 300 RPM to the rich side. If you have to tweak the low needle do it in very very small increments, like a 1/8th of a turn or less. One other thing I do is to insert a 1/4 inch of fuel tubing on the high speed needle valve needle and screw it back into the carb so that the tube is compressed and seals up the high speed needle valve. There is a tendency for the O-ring to not do its job of sealing and this ensures a seal where no extra air is sucked into the mixture. And yes check your plumbing all the way from the sound suppressor (what we call the muffler) to the carb via the tank. I have had the sound suppressor nipple to be blocked, make sure it is clean. Always set up your sound suppressor so that the pressure nipple is up, that way when you are not flying fuel residue will not collect in that area. Also make sure that tube from the intake manifold to the cam box in the front of the engine does not have any cracks or pin holes.

Rust. I would suspect the quality of the bearings. The manufacturer gets the cheapest bearings he can to maximize is return initial sales. High quality bearings resist rust. I live in a moderate dust and humidity region and have little or no rust. But them most of my engines have had bearings replaced by good after market bearings. And no I do not use stainless steel or ceramic bearings. We have two bearing dealers in the states that deal almost exclusively in bearing for our small engines.

I use the Hitec Aurora 9 and generally use the Hitec receivers. But I do have an after market receiver, 8 channel that cost a fifth of what 7 channel Hitec receiver would cost. Does not have the telemetry feature so do not get the battery feed back (which I like very much). But money is money, and saving some of it is always worthwhile.

In Saito engines the front bearing is usually sealed not shielded. The main bearing is usually open but shielding could be present. It would serve no essential purpose to shield the main bearing as that is a debris free area. Internal debris is usually caused by the bearing disintegrating. If your bearing gets that far in to destruction, I doubt a shield will help more likely to contribute to the otherwise bad situation inside the crankcase. I always use some Castor oil in my fuel, it provides short term lean burn protection and long time rust prevention. Brian Wynch is full of bunk regarding the use of Castor oil. Castor does present clean up problems but the mere presence indicates it is doing its job - lubricating and protecting the engine. US Saito instructions and Magnum instructions recommend 20% lubrication that includes the use of some Castor oil. Performance oriented users tend to use less oil and fuel suppliers generally provide less oil in the mix (to save a dime or two). So I add a couple of ounces per gallon of Castor oil to the mix even if it is a blended fuel with Castor already being use in the mix. Better safe than sorry! I live in an area in the US that has humidity in the 30 to 40% range. I have Saitos, Magnums (same as ASP), OS and YS four strokes. I rarely use after run oil but do run my engines dry. I do not have a rust problem.

I used to use Futaba, then tried Spectrum. Had a terrible experience with early Spectrum and their changes and not working system. When to Hitec Aurora and never looked back. What a great tranny!

Could it be your clunck is stuck up front in a corner. That prevides enough fuel to start and run for a bit, then she quits. Common problem if you had a hard landing, tip over sort of thing. Good luck in finding your problem. Its got to be fuel related.

I use a Sub C cell, 1700 milliampere hour rating glow stick. I dislike the power cord arrangement from a power panel. I am an old safety geek and worry about power cords getting into the prop. Once the engine is running, I go around and take the glow stick off the engine from the rear well away from the prop. I have a handy dandy charger that I use to keep the battery charged. It lasts for several days out flying with no problem. But it is up to you and your choice. Good luck.

You should also expect a few more hundred RPMs in the smaller engines. I have one on my Saito .65 and it works great for me. We as usual do not seem to have the noise issues that you do but as said, it does have a more pleasant sound to it.

It is common practice to break in (or as you may say run in) ABC/ABN engines in the air here in the States. Run slightly rich, not overly so. These designs need to heat up so that the cylinder walls expand slightly. The piston rides on a film of oil. The engines also have a "pinch" at the top (top dead center). I have a Thunder Tiger Pro .46 that is so slick inside that the wind blows the prop back and forth while it is sitting on the run stand. Yet it has plenty pinch and runs with great abandon. Ringed engines do require a rich beginning. ABC/ABN do not need to excessively rich at the onset like ringed engines. And the engines run faster in the air than on the bench. So run in the air is the way to go.

I use two Magnum four stroke engines and have no problems. Maggies are just SC/ASP engines marketed in the US. I;ve not had a two stroke Maggie yet. Other engines are readily available used and thus do not waste money on getting new stuff when so much used is sort of just laying around for the taking.

Fully agree with oiling the rockers after a lay up. I use any oil available and make sure some of it dribbles down the push rod tubes to the cam followers. It is a pre lube so to speak. The engines are designed to expel excess oil, so extra oil will do fine for storage but will some will be expelled during running. The crankshaft beats the oil to a fine mist that travels through the engine providing lubrication. And unless you open the engine case up and drain the oil, some is always retained in the sump. I am not saying you should go to the extreme of removing the back case and draining, just pointing out that oil is there.

As an old military accident investigator, our service went to all cause determinations. There is no single primary cause of accidents, there are usually multiple causes, and if one can interrupt the sequence of causes, one can stop the accident from occurring. So, yes most of our crashes are our fault, whether it be a bad batter, bad connection or dumb thumbs, it is still our fault. One should learn from the event and try not to repeat the sequence of events, ergo prevent future crashes. Unfortunately, we like to fly and thus expose our selves to those errors of judgment that lead to crashes. So take heart, keep flying and always analyze the cause and attempt to prevent it from occurring again. But by all means, keep flying. That is after all the objective.