PeterGregory
CrossThread Industries
My model aircraft involvement had a big break from way back as I entered college til last year, 2014. There was a couple of blips of activity but I had a lot of other interests and didn't stick with it, or join a club, etc.
I wasn't aware pretty much at all of diesel engines back then. With the internet age comes a lot of information and I was intrigued by these diesels. My interest was partly from the phenomenon that I completely missed out on their existence til just a while ago. And, they represent a lot of great heritage of our hobby/sport/obsession.
I acquired quite a few diesels over the last year, but never ran them.
Unlike glow engines which run on essentially alcohol with some oil and some kicker (nitro), the diesels run on a mix of kerosene, oil, and ether. We used to use ether to kick a balky automobile engine into life, back when engines had carburetors and not fuel injection. The sweet smell of ether is very memorable.
Anyway, I got a deal on a nice balsa kit plus three PAW diesel engines. There is a quite a following around the world of PAWs and other diesels. Over the last year I had bought premixed fuel, but also the components of kerosene, castor oil, and ether to mix my own. You can make some adjustments to the mixture for different reasons, for example, temperature.
Well, this little entry is to share with you my first experiences with running the diesel. I essentially figured out the basics to starting my little PAW .061 CL/FF engine, today, which was a big psyche. You have to balance the compression with the fuel you are delivering via the needle valve. On a glow engine, you attach a glow igniter that heats the glow head. If you have the mixture correct the glow engine will catch and start running, you remove the glow igniter, and the combustion process keeps the glow head coil red hot. On the diesel, the compression, itself, ignites the fuel mixture. There is a screw on the top of the engine head that you use to adjust compression.
The intriguing thing about model diesel engines is that you don't hook up an spark or glow power source. The fuel mixture has a lower detonation temperature than glow or gas engines. It is actually the ether that burns first, igniting the kerosene. The castor oil keeps everything smooth and juicy. Very juicy, ha!
Anyway, below is a pic of my engine test setup I used. For $50, a used-on-craigslist Black and Decker Workmate is essential to ease of testing and fast setup and break-down times.
I have a fancy engine test stand I will talk about sometime, but I didn't have to use it for this run-up.
I screwed the engine to a piece of scrap model aircraft plywood, and that to a scrap piece of 2x6.
In turn, the 2x6 is clamped in the workmate. All this took about 45 minutes.
I'll leave you with the pic and take some video next time I fire the PAW .061 up.
I have many other engines to test, so I will post about them, as well.
Again, as I mentioned, this was a pretty cool occasion of taking what I have read on the internet and figuring out how to run one of these little guys.
Cheers y'all - Blue Skies
Poughkeepsie Peter
I wasn't aware pretty much at all of diesel engines back then. With the internet age comes a lot of information and I was intrigued by these diesels. My interest was partly from the phenomenon that I completely missed out on their existence til just a while ago. And, they represent a lot of great heritage of our hobby/sport/obsession.
I acquired quite a few diesels over the last year, but never ran them.
Unlike glow engines which run on essentially alcohol with some oil and some kicker (nitro), the diesels run on a mix of kerosene, oil, and ether. We used to use ether to kick a balky automobile engine into life, back when engines had carburetors and not fuel injection. The sweet smell of ether is very memorable.
Anyway, I got a deal on a nice balsa kit plus three PAW diesel engines. There is a quite a following around the world of PAWs and other diesels. Over the last year I had bought premixed fuel, but also the components of kerosene, castor oil, and ether to mix my own. You can make some adjustments to the mixture for different reasons, for example, temperature.
Well, this little entry is to share with you my first experiences with running the diesel. I essentially figured out the basics to starting my little PAW .061 CL/FF engine, today, which was a big psyche. You have to balance the compression with the fuel you are delivering via the needle valve. On a glow engine, you attach a glow igniter that heats the glow head. If you have the mixture correct the glow engine will catch and start running, you remove the glow igniter, and the combustion process keeps the glow head coil red hot. On the diesel, the compression, itself, ignites the fuel mixture. There is a screw on the top of the engine head that you use to adjust compression.
The intriguing thing about model diesel engines is that you don't hook up an spark or glow power source. The fuel mixture has a lower detonation temperature than glow or gas engines. It is actually the ether that burns first, igniting the kerosene. The castor oil keeps everything smooth and juicy. Very juicy, ha!
Anyway, below is a pic of my engine test setup I used. For $50, a used-on-craigslist Black and Decker Workmate is essential to ease of testing and fast setup and break-down times.
I have a fancy engine test stand I will talk about sometime, but I didn't have to use it for this run-up.
I screwed the engine to a piece of scrap model aircraft plywood, and that to a scrap piece of 2x6.
In turn, the 2x6 is clamped in the workmate. All this took about 45 minutes.
I'll leave you with the pic and take some video next time I fire the PAW .061 up.
I have many other engines to test, so I will post about them, as well.
Again, as I mentioned, this was a pretty cool occasion of taking what I have read on the internet and figuring out how to run one of these little guys.
Cheers y'all - Blue Skies
Poughkeepsie Peter
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