Laser Engines - Technical questions

[david james 1]

Jon

 

You are absolutely right - at least one of them is broken.

 

Given your comments about lead times for a service, can I buy replacements from you and diy.  I have replaced valve springs successfully on OS engines so I hope I could do it on  a Laser !!!

[Jon H]

Hi David

 

The long lead times are because i do not have any valve springs available due to problems getting them made. There is a thread explaining the whole thing somewhere. 

 

If you want to have a crack it when i get some springs then by all means, but if the springs have gone it likely needs bearings too and you might as well do the ring while its all in bits. 

 

Give me a call tomorrow and we can discuss it if you like

[Nick Somerville]

Thanks Jon for reply regards my rpm on the 180. Weather has been very kind this week so have managed 3 outings with the 180 engined P47 and have used half a gallon of the new Optimax fuel with plenty of needle tweaking.  I fitted the Falcon 18 x 8, as the APC prop looks rubbish, and today registered 7980 rpm so pretty happy. 
 

 

[Nigel R]

Great shots of the jug nick

[Jon H]

Looks great Nick, and you could even try 19x8 falcon looking at those numbers

[Edgeflyer]

Hi Jon 

Could you please help with identifying these 2 Laser engines and if possible advise whether I can obtain the parts missing from one. I think they may be 70 or 75s . One is complete the other in parts is missing push rods and guide tubes, at least.

Thanks, Phil 

 

 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Well Brexit has killed the British model scene, a local friend who is building a big Lancaster was looking at 4 Lasers with the taxes he will

be going for Saito's, unless he takes a trip to the UK,,,

 

My RCV piston ring at £10 has in fact cost me 21€ with the post and customs charges ( 6€ cheaper on line ) 6€ so a total of 27€,,,😡

[Jon H]

The assembled one is a mid-late 90's 70 and looks pretty decent. The dismembered one is a pre 1987 engine and likely a 75. I can supply pushrods and tubes for it but nothing else. The 75 was discontinued in 1992 an we no longer support it for spares so i do not recommend spending any money on it. 

 

Paul. the tax is not the problem, its the 90 euro handling fee that screws up the deal as you discovered yourself. We are working on trying to find someone in europe who can deal with our engines but there are a number of criteria they and we need to meet before its remotely possible. 

 

How big is the Lancaster he is building? and he is welcome to collect the engines if he wants. 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

4 metres Jon,,,

[Jon H]

nice. 4x 70s or 80s then

[Edgeflyer]

4 hours ago, Jon - Laser Engines said:

The assembled one is a mid-late 90's 70 and looks pretty decent. The dismembered one is a pre 1987 engine and likely a 75. I can supply pushrods and tubes for it but nothing else. The 75 was discontinued in 1992 an we no longer support it for spares so i do not recommend spending any money on it.

Thanks Jon. How can I get the pushrods and tubes please? 

[Dirk Witvrouwen 1]

21 hours ago, Jon - Laser Engines said:

... working on trying to find someone in europe who can deal with our engines but there are a number of criteria they and we need to meet before its remotely possible. ....

 

Even better, find a secondary production facillity on EU soil and have them build under license. Drops custom costs even further and frees some UK production hours for your local market and experimentation.  

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

3 hours ago, Dirk Witvrouwen 1 said:

Even better, find a secondary production facillity on EU soil and have them build under license. Drops custom costs even further and frees some UK production hours for your local market and experimentation.  

I wouldn't trust them and secondly their profit and expenses wouldn't make them feasible at British prices,,,

[Dirk Witvrouwen 1]

On 15/10/2022 at 18:31, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

I wouldn't trust them and secondly their profit and expenses wouldn't make them feasible at British prices,,,

 

Not thrusting them might be a bit short sighted, but the proof would be in the pudding.  

 

As for cost, even if only slightly less expensive as importing in EU, at least it would mean money spend supporting a companies operations rather as shoving more money in a tax hole.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Dirk Witvrouwen 1

[Don Fry]

Talking out of backside, perhaps Jon needs a trusted courier/post office in the EU. 
One, not necessarily an aeromodeller, engineer type, or just sensible, a lorry driver, who goes to and through the sea crossing (Portsmouth/Southampton?). One who can pick up boxes, pay the duty, watch if boxes get opened, and knows how to repack the box properly. Thereafter, it gets posted within the EU. A possible route for no damage. 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Sorry but if my question has already come up, ( I couldn't read 92 pages 🤢) is there any reason ( important ) why Laser don't do a tube to adapt the carb like a saito so that it is more in line with the centre of the engine ?.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Paul De Tourtoulon
thinking of the laser 100

[Mike Mc]

I had the same thought when I was just installing my new Laser 70. 

Looks to be a very simple option that would make instillation so much easier in some airplanes.

 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

I did think of bodging one, I played around with my Enya 120 4C and got some very different results, the best idle was like the Laser the carb fitted directly to the head, but fully open it threw fuel out of the carb.

 

I would rather have a Laser ( another😇 ) but the fuel tank will be a big problem in my Seafire.

[Andy Stephenson]

This problem (which I have said before I don't think really is one but everyone disagrees) could be solved with a Cline/Iron Bay regulator if you can still get them. It's a demand valve rather like used on SCUBA gear where only the suction on the output will allow flow and no amount of pressure on the input will get through. This would allow the tank to be placed higher than the "rules" say.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Thanks but the less gadgets the better only another thing to go wrong, especially with 40 planes to fly that sit around with dregs of fuel

for ages with the dreaded c word oil in them,and especially as I use all sort of fuels that I can get my hands on.

[Engine Doctor]

On 02/10/2022 at 09:14, Andy Joyce said:

Is this picture below a latter version of the ST carb?

When you need to adjust the position of the fuel jet/slot , the two retaining screws that hold it in the carb body  only need to loosened to turn it. Had you just loosened them then your older carb would still be running. The last laser I had I fitted it with  an SC carb . It ran very well . Any decent carb will work just find one with the same spigot diameter. 

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

 

 

 

14 hours ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

Sorry but if my question has already come up, ( I couldn't read 92 pages 🤢) is there any reason ( important ) why Laser don't do a tube to adapt the carb like a saito so that it is more in line with the centre of the engine ?.

 

You are correct in thinking that Jon has discussed this idea previously in this thread...

 

On 09/02/2022 at 16:49, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

Can't you make a carburettor elbow extension to bring it up a bit ?.

On 09/02/2022 at 16:57, Jon - Laser Engines said:

 

Then you suffer all of the performance and reliability penalties connected to that design. We have discussed doing it in the past, and it was tested, but it made the engines worse so we didnt see the point. 

 

Just lower the tank so its inline. Its not a massive job, especially on a kit build. 

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

Thanks Martin, you saved me a days reading, there isn't enough room to lower the tank ( a few pages read somewhere else )

the only other solution is to mount it sideways with the head sticking out.

[Jon H]

Yep Martin beat me to it. 

 

We were actually discussing this again the other day as lowering tanks still seems to be causing great distress for some reason. The problem is it will make the engines worse...so why would we do that? i can make a carby with a os style header and sell it as an accessory? I could take your £75 and sell you something to make your engine worse if you really want me to? Although, plot twist, OS/Saito style intakes are actually more sensitive than ours to incorrect tank placement 😉  

 

I also work on the basis that i use the same engines in the same models and do not have problems with tank placement. I just do the work and get on with it. If i can do it, so can everyone else as its really not difficult. This is especially true as i ask the customer what model they want to power with the engine and then look it up. I then advise on engine fitment and tank placement so the hard work of figuring it out is done. 

 

 

On the cline regulators point, they simply dont work. Many have tried, most have failed. Like the pressure isolated header tank idea, they can work under certain circumstances, but they cannot be guaranteed to work in every model. They are also not cheap and lowering the tank is free!

 

lowering the tank is guaranteed to work on any engine, in any model, anywhere in the world. If you install you engine like that and it gives trouble i can help, but if you instead invented some complicated fuel system then you are completely on your own when it comes to trouble shooting running problems as i have no chance of troubleshooting that over the phone and its a complete waste of my time to try it. All i will do is tell you to lower the tank as it puts the engine back to a known good configuration. 

 

Its getting a bit tiresome having to go over all this again and again and again. You guys dont see it, but its a daily occurrence for me and its immensely frustrating. Its always the same as well. Someone buys an engine, i explain the installation, and then a few weeks later they are on the phone with problems. 'Did you lower the tank?' i ask and the reply is always the same 'well no, the guy at the field/something i read on a forum said i didnt have to so i just left it'. To say this grinds my gears is a bit of an understatement.

 

I dont make these recommendations just for a laugh. Mechanical things have operating requirements and if you arent happy with those requirements, dont buy one unless you are happy to conform to its needs.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike Mc]

Explaining stuff over and over is all part of good customer service.