Originally Posted by
Hydro Junkie
You done good. In most cases, the engine alone would cost you that much.
Current going rate for a running 40FP on eBay is 50 bucks shipped, so yeah. Guess you could say I got a free airplane with the purchase of a used OS engine haha~ [quote]
1) Remove the engine and mount and refinish the nose of the plane. I saw what looked like bare wood and, if that is the case, it would soak up oil rather quickly, destroying the structure.
It is bare wood in there, and it appears to have been bare wood for a very long time. It's...hard to tell if this thing's ever actually flown, truth be told. The engine's been run for sure and certain...they don't get schmoo'd up like this just sitting on a shelf...but I can't find any evidence of it having been crashed nor am I finding oil stains in the nose.
FWIW it had an ANCIENT Futaba receiver in it when I got it. 1/2a glow clip with D-cells in it for scale.
Those are adapter cables to allow modern servos to plug into this thing. It's got four reasonably modern servos and they all move freely. I'll know whether they're functional or not when I get an R2006GF in there and get it bound to my 6J. If there's any question regarding their health, I have a full set of brand new S3004s sitting on my desk. They'll be fine in a plane like this.
2) If you remove the engine, I'd tear it down and soak the case in warm used antifreeze. It will, when used with a nylon brush, remove all the grime from the outside of the case which will allow the engine to cool more efficiently. An old, small crock pot would work well in this situation.
Yeah I checked temps when I was running it. Idle temps in at about 250 degrees, and if I let it scream, it creeps up and stabilizes at somewhere around 325-335. Bit hot, but not excessively so. Factoring in the reduced airflow from it not being in flight, it should temp in nice once it's been cleaned off.
Regarding cleaning it, my plan was to get some brass wire wheels for my dremel, set it to its lowest setting, and run that between the fins. Shouldn't mar up the aluminum any. I'm a bit hesitant to pull the backplate on this thing at the moment. It doesn't use an o-ring for a seal here and if I tear the paper gasket it currently has itt'l never run right until a new gasket is fitted. Shouldn't be too hard to track a gasket down, but until I've got one on hand I'm not keen on popping the backplate off.
I didn't film them, but I did do inverted(With <1/4 tank in it) and nose-high WOT tests. It didn't care. The tank is still sealed up well, the clunk is still clunking as it should. Ran an entire tank through it today, more or less, and I only started it once.
3) I'd replace the prop and spinner. Both look fairly beat up and, since you don't know if the prop has ever had a ground strike, it would probably be a good idea to get new one of each, balance it and install them.
I was thinking of swapping the spinner out for a big brass prop nut anyway. The PO had put a bundle of 2 inch brad nails in the nose weighing something close to a pound for CG purposes anyway, and I'd rather have less weight mounted farther forward. Why carry a pound of nails just under the rear end of the fuel tank when a few ounces of brass right on the nose gets it balanced?
Spinner appears to have wear from e-starter use. I noticed pretty quick that this thing has its own wants regarding startup. I tried to start it like I start my 46AX and it didn't even pop. It draws fuel up to the carb just fine, but if you stop priming it when the fuel hits the carb and start flipping to start you get nothing. However, if you damn near flood it, it fires off on the first flip. I'm guessing the previous owner never found the 'combination' and resorted to an e-starter instead. Need to pull the prop anyway to get sizing info on it; I have no idea what the pitch is but if I were to guess I'd say it's a 10-6 or 10-7. I do know the engine pulls strong on it, so it's getting the same size prop put back on either way.