FT What Did You Do RC Today : Caution Offtopic At All Times

JennyC6

Elite member
I am helping a local flyer get into glow and ended up with two of his airplanes and the engine from a third to go over!

1: 90-size Corsair. OS FS120. From what I can see there is nothing wrong with this engine that would prevent it from running except that it's missing the woodruff key that locks the drive washer to the crankshaft. She ain't gonna run too well if the crank can spin inside the prop! I might also fiddle with the pneumatic Robarts but in all likelihood itt'l get electrics put in it for reliability's sake.

2: Hobbico TwinStar. I'd been eyeing this one myself for a while as parts for the one I already have, but when homey said he wanted to get into glow and wanted a cheap, but good, plane I pointed him in this direction. Basically a brother to theone I have, came from the same estate lot. Two Evo 36's on it. Was able to get them to run and they run okay. Ripped babby's first training pegs out of the mixture needles; starboard engine came good port engine still has transition issues. I might just say 'yo let's just throw bearings at one of these two spare 25FX's I have, swap those onto the twinstar, and forget about the Evo 36s' since I know the 25FXs run properly and my own TwinStar flies mint on the same engine setup. Other than that, all it needs is a bit of hangar rash repair, a thorough dusting, a modern receiver(He flies Spektrum) and a LiFE battery. Not bad for $150. And potentially a YS that he didn't pay for in the first place....more on that in a bit.

3: He got a free glow Edge 540...with a YS FZ63S on the nose. I know, right? He's a 3D guy too he will have a blast with that ship. Thing is, this YS is VERY unhappy. It rotated when he got it but not through a complete revolution so I offered to take it home with me and work on it. Valves stuck fully down, piston was hitting them. Unstuck valves...oh boy. Springs are shot. Intake spring weak but still closes the valve well, exhaust spring so badly sunk that I can use the damned engine as a duck call. Oh joy. Bottom end and rotating assembly is free of corrosion so I cleaned up the valvetrain parts, unstuck everything. It SORT OF built compression, enough that I was confident it would run, so I made sure the diaphragm and regulator weren't gummed up, reset the HSN, mounted it up.

It does run, but it runs like total -beep-. VERY VERY VERY hard to start, leaks like a sieve, transition is terrible. But it did start, it idled fine, and when it finally did come up to full power it had a LOT of power to give. It's a saveable engine. Already ordered 30 bucks of parts for it; would like to re-ring it while I'm in there but those are out of stock so here's hoping the ring is good.

NGL I kinda want to keep this thing. It would be an excellent engine for my Long EZ due to the fuel pump, the supercharging, and the 4-cycle fuel economy. I could probably fly for half an hour of hard aerobatics with the huge tank in that model AND I would never have to worry about fuel draw due to the lengthy fuel lines and tank placement in that model.

Maybe I can work something out where I take the YS as payment for the 25FX's maybe? And perhaps toss him the 46AX on the Long-EZ as well? Hmm. Will have to chat him up about that I think. He doesn't really have any skin in the game on it so I don't think itt'l be too hard to convince him to part company with it.

I spent most of today fooling around with the various things I got at the tri-county swap meet the other day. Among these things were a healthy amount of engines!

The real jewel was this pretty much NIB Tower 46. It's got a bit of oil residue on it here and there, but I think this is oil that was applied for long-term storage; I took a big whiff of the exhaust port and smelled nothing. I'm pretty sure it's never been run, and I'm not going to bother running it until I have it installed in something. I paid $60 for it along with a big box of propellers. I'd consider that a pretty good deal.

View attachment 199939

Not bad at all. Never heard anything bad about those engines. Respectable performance and reliability. The real tell will be in the case; pop the backplate and have a whiff or two in there. If it has been run at all you'll smell castor down there. Or at least, you won't smell assembly lube.
Also got a pretty thoroughly gummed and siezed OS 20FP for 20 bucks. Until I got it home I thought it was a 25FP so I could use it on a twin with the other 25FP I've already got, but I guess that's not the case o_O Either way a bit of heat and Marvel mystery oil was all it took to get it going again. It's a bit overpropped on a 9x6 MAS but it was the best thing I had that didn't involve chopping up a prop. I think it'll be much happier with a 9x4, and it would love that on a slower airplane. Other than that it ran perfectly. Not like that's any real surprise, just OS being OS.

No application lined up for it at the moment, so it goes in the unemployed engine bin. It'd be happy on an old-timer, and that's what I think I'll do with it.

Typical OS. I'd almost bet money it'd work fine with that 25 on a twin, though. I know the power difference between the 40 and 46 LA is basically negligble and they're just slightly modern versions of the FP series. Tach both engines on the same prop and see; if the RPM difference is <250 you won't notice a thing in flight.

I also got a Norvel 049! It was on an old beat up glider that nobody seemed to want. When the meet was almost over and people started packing up, I offered to get it out of his sight for him for $10 and it came home with me. I'm slightly bummed that this isn't the version with the RC carb, but that's no big deal because swapping it out for the Cox RC carb that EX makes shouldn't be too hard. I would use the Norvel carburetor, but they're difficult to find not already attached to an engine.

Originally I wanted to put this on an S-tee but I think it might have a little too much power for one. It was designed to fly on Cox reedies after all. I didn't even get it fully peaked out in this video as it started trying to escape its mount and was duly shut off. Also whoever designed the muffler on this shouldn't be designing parts for engines. I tried pointing it in a direction to get the least oil everywhere but it decided to start spinning around like a drunken ballerina instead. I think if I mount this on anything I'll use threadlock or something to hold the back part of the muffler from spinning around. Speaking of that I wonder if anyone has drawn up a 1/2A sized Kaos? This would be perfect for it.

1/2a Kaos's do exist. I have one. Partially built. Very rare kit though I just stumbled across it on eBay. Mine is gonna get my RC-modified Fox 049 FAI.
 
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OliverW

Legendary member
I am helping a local flyer get into glow and ended up with two of his airplanes and the engine from a third to go over!

1: 90-size Corsair. OS FS120. From what I can see there is nothing wrong with this engine that would prevent it from running except that it's missing the woodruff key that locks the drive washer to the crankshaft. She ain't gonna run too well if the crank can spin inside the prop! I might also fiddle with the pneumatic Robarts but in all likelihood itt'l get electrics put in it for reliability's sake.

2: Hobbico TwinStar. I'd been eyeing this one myself for a while as parts for the one I already have, but when homey said he wanted to get into glow and wanted a cheap, but good, plane I pointed him in this direction. Basically a brother to theone I have, came from the same estate lot. Two Evo 36's on it. Was able to get them to run and they run okay. Ripped babby's first training pegs out of the mixture needles; starboard engine came good port engine still has transition issues. I might just say 'yo let's just throw bearings at one of these two spare 25FX's I have, swap those onto the twinstar, and forget about the Evo 36s' since I know the 25FXs run properly and my own TwinStar flies mint on the same engine setup.

3: He got a free glow Edge 540...with a YS FZ63S on the nose. I know, right? He's a 3D guy too he will have a blast with that ship. Thing is, this YS is VERY unhappy. It rotated when he got it but not through a complete revolution so I offered to take it home with me and work on it. Valves stuck fully down, piston was hitting them. Unstuck valves...oh boy. Springs are shot. Intake spring weak but still closes the valve well, exhaust spring so badly sunk that I can use the damned engine as a duck call. Oh joy. Bottom end and rotating assembly is free of corrosion so I cleaned up the valvetrain parts, unstuck everything. It SORT OF built compression, enough that I was confident it would run, so I made sure the diaphragm and regulator weren't gummed up, reset the HSN, mounted it up.

It does run, but it runs like total -beep-. VERY VERY VERY hard to start, leaks like a sieve, transition is terrible. But it did start, it idled fine, and when it finally did come up to full power it had a LOT of power to give. It's a saveable engine.

NGL I kinda want to keep this thing. It would be an excellent engine for my Long EZ due to the fuel pump, the supercharging, and the 4-cycle fuel economy. I could probably fly for half an hour of hard aerobatics with the huge tank in that model AND I would never have to worry about fuel draw due to the lengthy fuel lines and tank placement in that model.

Maybe I can work something out where I take the YS as payment for the 25FX's maybe? And perhaps toss him the 46AX on the Long-EZ as well? Hmm. Will have to chat him up about that I think. He doesn't really have any skin in the game on it so I don't think itt'l be too hard to convince him to part company with it.



Not bad at all. Never heard anything bad about those engines. Respectable performance and reliability. The real tell will be in the case; pop the backplate and have a whiff or two in there. If it has been run at all you'll smell castor down there. Or at least, you won't smell assembly lube. Typical OS. I'd almost bet money it'd work fine with that 25 on a twin, though. I know the power difference between the 40 and 46 LA is basically negligble and they're just slightly modern versions of the FP series. Tach both engines on the same prop and see; if the RPM difference is <250 you won't notice a thing in flight.


1/2a Kaos's do exist. I have one. Partially built. Very rare kit though I just stumbled across it on eBay. Mine is gonna get my RC-modified Fox 049 FAI.
Is this it?
https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=9211
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Which Kaos? Foam or built up wing? Yes there was a built up wing version if you think your kit is rare. Lot of people back then hated anything foam.
 

JennyC6

Elite member
Which Kaos? Foam or built up wing? Yes there was a built up wing version if you think your kit is rare. Lot of people back then hated anything foam.
Mine is the GMC Models 1/2-a-chaos kit with foam wings. I have no prob with foam wings; how Speedyboi is built and that thing is a riot to fly. Especially now that it has saito power.
 

JennyC6

Elite member
Spent the eve working on the YS since parts came in.

20210513_200320.jpg

Old exhaust valve spring compared to the new springs.

20210513_202849.jpg

These keepers are MICROSCOPIC! While I was in there I also replaced a few seals:

* Valve cover gasket. Observed large fuel leak here when running the engine; YS pressurizes the rocker box through ports in the intake passage.

* Backplate gasket. Engine did not seem to care on the test stand, but this gasket tore, and since the engine uses the case as a supercharger it is a good idea to replace this.

* Cylinder-to-case gasket. Had to pull the jug anyway to service the valves so might as well slam a new one of these in it. Can't hurt.

* Throttle barrel lip seal. Observed a huge fuel leak coming out from between the throttle barrel and carb body during the test run, but only when on boost. Upon further inspection, the lip seal in there was totally gonezo.

Surgery seems successful. Patient is in recovery now and will be mounted on the test stand this weekend. Compression up 250% at hand flip speeds...IE it's there in the first place. If she ran with barely any compression I can't wait to see this thing running with the sunk springs replaced and the leaks plugged!
 

JennyC6

Elite member
End of day report:

Speedyboi ran like a swiss watch. 4 times up line-of-sight, 1 time up FPV. No problems to report! Lost a few more scraps of covering but meh. The plan is to literally fly the covering off of this thing then redo the whole livery from scratch.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
my brain is such a scattered mess i'm kinda in the same boat. i have way to much stuff, taking up way to much space, and now i need more to build this plane. at some point something has to give. :unsure:

i guess the first step is always admitting you have a problem. :ROFLMAO:

me :cool:
Tell me about it... :rolleyes::ROFLMAO: I already have stuff coming out of my ears and just within the last week I brought ten or so new planes in and only one left. Man, I am hopeless... :unsure:
 

mrjdstewart

Legendary member
first time seeing it w the wings on. :love:

20210520_160615.jpg


still have lot's to do but taking my time and in no rush.

i had planned on having the whole summer (june & july) to do nothing but work on a few plane builds but got suckered into teaching summer school. that time frame just got cut in half now. tomorrow was supposed to be my last day but that is now pushed to the end of june. i should still have time but it definitely put's a crunch on all the things i need to get done before starting back up the first of august. good news is the pay is actually not bad and will cover a very nice vacation at yet to be determined, foreign location. or, i may just blow it all on planes. :ROFLMAO:

laters,

me :cool:
 

speedbirdted

Legendary member
Mini-project time. I noticed a used whippit at the side of the road on my way home (those no2 canisters that degenerates use to get high) and I just had an irresistible urge to turn it into a muffler for something, because why not. I had one of those 049 throttle rings lying around, and it leaks so badly that the amount of RPM variation I can get with it is basically nil, so I don't feel bad butchering it. It had a weird little exhaust extension thing coming off the side, and I cut it down and filed it to fit flushly with the round canister muffler thing. I also drilled the internal diameter of the extension out to 1/8" to get some extra gas flow through it. Modifications to the canister were as simple as drilling out the port to 3/16 inch and drilling a couple 1/8" holes for the exhaust inlet and tank pressure. JB weld holds it all together: I would have soldered it, but the canister appears to be steel so that won't work.

PXL_20210523_013402781 (2).jpg


I'm going to see tomorrow how well this engine runs like this. I'm expecting a RPM drop, but that's okay as I think I'm gonna stick this on a floaty plane anyway. Next step is to wait for EX model engines to get their butt in gear and make some more of the Cox RC carbs so I can slap one on this.
 

speedbirdted

Legendary member
PSA: don't fly after it's rained a bit and your field just got mowed. Bad things will happen.

PXL_20210604_005101029.jpg


The runway was so wet actually that one of the times I went in to shoot a touch and go, the nose wheel sprayed around so much water that a bunch of it went into the carb intake and killed the engine! That resulted in a deadstick obviously but I had enough extra runway to just keep it straight and put it down there. The carb intake, as with most 4-stroke engines when mounted upright, faces downward, and in this case is almost directly above the nosewheel. Cowls are nice things to have...