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Engine cuts when pointed up


Jim Hughes 2
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Also in the newbie thread.
 

Ok apologies for this late but extremely early post 05:20 in the morning! ?

 

A couple of weeks ago I had the first flight with the Mirus - terrifying! 
 

But, successful! 
 

However, we went out last week with it, decided to lean the engine of a bit, after a couple of circuits stood it on its tail - the engine cut. I had to make a hasty landing, the prop broke and I didn’t have a spare. 
 

Good old RC World sent me out some new props rapidly and I was running it yesterday.

 

Same thing, absolutely fine on horizontal, point the nose up, after a few seconds it leans off rapidly and just stops. I’ve tried running it richer and it doesn’t make much difference.

 

Clunk is not hitting back of tank etc, it’s had about 15 tanks of fuel through it - so run in?

It’s an OS 35 Max (new) running on good quality fuel.

 

Any advice would be welcome.

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Morning chaps.

 

It’s an upright mounted engine.

yeah it will run a full tank in the horizontal.

 

Plumbing in tank? Fuel feed line from clunk?

 

I apologise for repost from newbies.

 

And really appreciate there is a lot of knowledge out there! The last time I was involved in this hobby over a 1/4 of a century ago - the internet was in its infancy!

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Most clunks have a cross cut which allows fuel to be drawn even with it touching the end - the usual problem is it being unable to follow the fuel when inverted. 
 

Are you sure that you haven’t simply gone too lean - the rudimentary fuel system relies on suction from the engine (maybe enhanced by exhaust pressurisation) to pull the fuel up hill and with the nose high, a weak mixture can be pushed beyond the point where it will support combustion. 
 

This is simple to check with the traditional nose up full throttle check.  Best practice is to ensure that the tank is as close to the engine as possible and at a height so that the top is around carburettor height (as shown in most engine manuals).

 

Edit. Ken beat me to it!

Martin…A long way south of Ken…Long winded reply dept. 

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I had something similar with one of my Laser 240v installations, the engine would run fine but on climb out after take off one cylinder would cut out. Eventually traced it to a small split in the fuel line from the tank to that cylinder, replaced the line and it ran perfectly.

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Gentlemen,

 

Absolutely spot on.

Second flick and she was away (gotta love an OS!)

 

Wound the needle out two clicks and no problem vertical, wound the needle in a a couple of clicks - perfect in both planes and a full tank through.

 

I’ll try it again later, I think the neighbours are probably awake now!

 

Many, many thanks for all the replies.

 

Sincere regards Jim ?

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well done Jim,you sound as you are a new flyer etc......try and get into a routine of once the engine is fired and running to do any adjustments from behind the prop....preserve the carol singers......

 

ken anderson...ne..1 fingers dept. 

Edited by ken anderson.
crepe grammar dept
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19 hours ago, ken anderson. said:

well done Jim,you sound as you are a new flyer etc......try and get into a routine of once the engine is fired and running to do any adjustments from behind the prop....preserve the carol singers......

 

ken anderson...ne..1 fingers dept. 

Hi Ken,

 

I am returning to the hobby after a very long break, about 25 years!

 

I started as a teenager in about 1985 with a Mick Reeves Hawk, then a Ken Stokes Mirus, then an Acro Wot and finally a Cambrian Fun Fighter Spitfire. I then gave it all up.

 

I was idly googling during Lockdown last year and stumbled upon Nick Reeves on YouTube and realised he’d started reproduction of the Mirus. I had no real intention of starting the hobby again, but one thing lead to another - and here I am!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Evening Gentlemen!

 

More fuel supply woes tonight - no flying and I’m running out of light in the evenings.

 

Vertical supply again…

 

Stripped it out as soon as I got home and could not feel or see clunk in the tank, when I tried to remove the clunk and pipe it was trapped in a cavity at the front of tank ( it had folded back on itself) so obviously that was the issue. I’d had a far from smooth landing last week which I’m sure resulted in this.

 

I don’t wish to name the tank I’m using, as I feel it’s unnecessary-but I’m far from happy with it.

 

I just think it’s a bit on the cheap side. Back in the day I used to use Kavan, and I’ve found one, but I always remember the rubber bungs always deteriorated over time.

 

I think a good quality tank is the answer. What do you guys recommend?

 

 

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What size clunk tube do you use? Myself, nearly all my clunk tubes are 2mm bore I wouldn't try to fit a 3.5 mm tube inside one of those. Any way if the clunk is too rigid it probably wouldn't fall to the bottom in flight even less likely inverted. That's why the clunk tubes on Slec tanks are so thin, so that a light weight clunk falls to the bottom.

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19 minutes ago, Viv Letherby said:

What size clunk tube do you use? Myself, nearly all my clunk tubes are 2mm bore I wouldn't try to fit a 3.5 mm tube inside one of those. Any way if the clunk is too rigid it probably wouldn't fall to the bottom in flight even less likely inverted. That's why the clunk tubes on Slec tanks are so thin, so that a light weight clunk falls to the bottom.

 

20 minutes ago, Viv Letherby said:

What size clunk tube do you use? Myself, nearly all my clunk tubes are 2mm bore I wouldn't try to fit a 3.5 mm tube inside one of those. Any way if the clunk is too rigid it probably wouldn't fall to the bottom in flight even less likely inverted. That's why the clunk tubes on Slec tanks are so thin, so that a light weight clunk falls to the bottom

 

Gents apologies for late reply.

 

And thank you all for advice. I’ve been using a Slec tank, I didn’t want to appear critical on an open forum. I have ordered a new Kavan tank today. I appreciate I could have made the Slec one work better, however I wasn’t keen on the design. It’s opaque construction restricted viewing of what was happening inside the tank - I’d like to be able to see what is going on.

 

Regards Jim

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