Ron Gray

Thanks Jon, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that the 360v will be the better bet for what I want.

Yes I saw that when comparing prices. I'm a little bit interested as I have a project coming up, the full size of which had a radial engine but I had planned to fit my Laser 360v which I had earmarked for the Corsair build.

Interesting that JE used to advertise the ASP400 (same engine) for £976, now it's listed at £1740, that's some price rise and puts it in Saito (larger) petrol radial range!

I mix in another throttle control using the rudder as the input but is controlled by a switch. This means that with the switch ‘ON’ I control the ground handling and taxi then after take off the switch is ‘OFF’ .

Thanks Jon. As I don't tend to use WOT for much of my flying, maybe the odd burst or 2, I'm not sure that over revving was the cause although, as you say it only needs one instance to cause the damage. Regardless, I will take your advice and up the prop size from the 20x10 it's currently running and also adjust the valve clearance.

🤢

I have double check dates valves and they are all supper smooth with no binding when I push them in. Going through the cycle several times there is also no sticking or hesitation so all is looking OK for a test run tomorrow.

Normally you could say that rust has caused the issue and that may well have been the case here although there was very little signs of it on the inside of the engine.

Yup, it was a lot, enough to shock Neil!

I think it was the excessive play in the bearing that allowed the pistons to move slightly further up the bore (the other piston head also has a very faint valve mark on it too).

The thing with the 310 was that it suddenly became noisy, no gradual build up and certainly not rocking in the prop shaft before Buckminster.

No they all look OK and seem to be operating OK too

Piston crown connected with a valve! I’ve still got to clean off the edges of the dent.

Still got compression John, a very lucky escape.

Ah yes, Woodpidgeon, that’s what I used and have a rather large pot of it now that you’re more than welcome to use.

😉

Well after over a year of flying the Giant Revolver with the 310FT at the Buckminster BoB the engine started to sound very rough, as those who were there can testify. When I landed I found that I could rock the prop from side to side so no more flying. Last weekend I stripped the engine down and sure enough the rear front bearing was cream crackered so much so that the extra movement must have allowed one piston to overtravel resulting in this a nice valve mark in the piston head. The engine has been thoroughly cleaned and fortunately there are no damage marks to either bores so new front bearings from Simply Bearings have been fitted and it’s now ready for a garden test run.

Paints - B & Q tester pots (I'll let you know the colours I used when I go back up to the workshop tomorrow) Aluminum tape - any, it's used for duct joints and for taping joints when using foil backed plasterboard. To start off have a look here Amazon I hunted around in my spares drawer and used this SLEC

1. I left it as is and just sanded it to a nice profile. 2. Correct, blend the corners and flat-ish underside following the main wing. 3. I modified both by trimming the axle back a bit but also a problem with one that kept falling off (wheel retainer that is). I ended up cutting a thread in the wire and use a nyloc. Will do the other one the same when I remember. Note that the rear of the UC mounting plate ‘needs’ raiding a bit to help prevent nose overs. I used a wooden coffee stirrer.

Ah, Bob (cough) Fleming now there’s a presenter to aspire to. Seemingly he freely and frequently gave away gold sovereigns.

I know that others have done that (Chris Harvey) but I don't know if that sort of theme is what viewers want.

The Tempest build VLOG was a bit different to that of the FW in that I didn't break it down into as many (30) vids and I do tend to build more than 1 bit at a time! Yes, I did miss out the actual pinning of the turtle deck onto the fuselage sides and the subsequent carving, maybe I need to ensure that steps like that aren't missed out in future builds!

All this talk of building and lack of motivation gets me thinking about my build videos (which have been on hold due to flying and now me re-arranging my workshop which includes heating!!!). Now here's a thought, is there an appetite for a 'live' build-a-long, whereby I will be building a WR model and you will be able to see me doing that live and you would all be able to participate in that build through chat?

Sorry Chris