Gas and glow Mixings/ HHHEEEEEEELP!?

liamnave

flyboy
Hi, i was looking at some gas engines and was wondering a few things.#1 I saw a cox engine that said "25% nitro" does this mean oil or what.#2 What is the mixing of oil to gas for nitro engines?#3 I was looking at a couple of "vintage" engines on ebay. They did not say anything about gas or glow. Are vintage engine gas, glow, or both? Thank you so very much!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
The topic of your request is the subject of over 30 years of internet posts.

Gas engines are normally 4 stroke, use spark plugs and gasoline.
Glow engines are generally 2 stroke and run on methanol which can have a proportional mix of what I understand is Nitro-Methane. Glow engines use a glow plug which is just a piece of wire which glows when hot, (hence the name "Glow".
As for old engines there are also some diesels around also.

If unsure remember that a spark plug means gas, a glow plug means glow, and a compression varying bolt and locking bar normally mean diesel.

Whilst this answer may not be accurate for everything you see on ebay it will be enough to get you out of trouble or I suppose into trouble!
 

ElectriSean

Eternal Student
Mentor
Gas engines on model airplanes are pretty much always 2 stroke, and require you to mix gasoline and 2 stroke engine oil for lubrication. 4 stroke gas engines have their lubrication oil in the crankcase.

Glow engines can either be 2 stroke or 4 stroke. The percentage is the amount of nitromethane in the mix. You should use a fuel close to what's recommended by the manufacturer, your supplier should have a variety of different percentages. There is no need to mix glow fuel, you just need to buy the right stuff.
 
There are rare instances where guys with antique engines and that sort of thing might do some custom mixing, but most of us just go to the hobby shop and buy glow fuel with the desired nitro percentage. Nitro is not too similar to gasoline.... except that they both combust in an engine.