RBACONS

My Feedback: (3)

Start with the carburetor much less open. 1/4 open at most.

erwabo

So I set it to PPM for that Model, but PPM just blinks, whereas PPM does not. I have the manual, but not sure if has much troubleshooting.

Also I DID get the engine to smoke....it actually started for 1/2 a second, then my igniter died...I will try again after its charged =)

erwabo

GOT IT. THANK YOU !!! The manual said I had to turn the transmitter on and off before that parameter took effect. Okay....so ONE problem down...thanks everyone so much for the feed back. Later tonight I will see if I can get the Saito started, and if the carb frees up on the OS, I will try and start that tomorrow and I may just be in business.

Thanks again!! Not holding my breath on the engines though =)

GREG DOE

Is The Saito mounted inverted? Inverted installations are prone to "flood" the glo plug. Everyone hear is happy to help, and make suggestions, but you would make progress much faster if you could find someone to help you in person. An experienced modeler could diagnose your problems much quicker then we can, over the internet. Just to mention two possibilities: old fuel tubing is prone to do many ugly things that can cause problems; and then engines that have set for 15 years without proper storage precautions can rust internally, especially bearings, valves, gears, and cams. There must be a local flying field, and club, where you could find help. In fact tell us where you live, and maybe we will know someone near by, who would be willing to help. If that's not an option, keep the questions coming, and someone here will eventually diagnose your problem. Good luck, Greg

erwabo

The glo plug is on top...it started for second =) Yes, there is a really nice club 15 minutes from my house but they don't open the field till the end of May. I also found a guy in my sub division who is an avid flyer and belongs to the club, but he has yet to come over and take a look. Im just so excited so I have no patience, and I am a geek about learning new things so I just wanted to dive in and see what I could get accomplished while I was waiting.

The fuel tubing seems good, I can see fuel flowing through the lines clearly and its nice silicone tube. I did purchase a new fuel tank and some tubing that I may try out at some point, but because I did get it to actually start for a second Im holding off on that =)

bikerbc

Yes you can stick your whole engine in a container of glow fuel . Something like a margarine container or something small enough that you don't waste too much fuel . If you take the muffler off and the carb off it will help . The carb will need a soak too but will do better if its not attached to the engine . You can take the needle out of the carb and pump a squirt of fuel thru the port where the needle came out off . this will just help to clean the jet . When you take the little valve covers off you should be able to see the valves opening and closing when you turn the motor over slowly by hand . If they stick open they need to be freed up befor your engine will run . After sitting for a long time often glow fuel will become sticky and needs to be soaked in new glow fuel to soften it up and remove it .

bikerbc

If it has started don't worry about taking it apart and soaking it . It sounds as though you are getting close to having it running .

bikerbc

I think a Saito 1.50 is way too big for a trainer with a 5 ft wing span . I have an OS 1.20 on a Sig1/4 scale J3 Cub and it has lots of power . Are you sure you have a Saito 1.50 ? It should be markled on the side of the engine block . What size is your prop ?

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My Feedback: (1)

i put my carbs in hot boiling water for 5 min come free then

erwabo

It just says 150 on the side, nothing else and the other one of equal size says FA-91. The props are 12" for both those engines. I replaced the fuel tank, the fuel tubes and the fuel filter, I took off the valve covers and they looked very clean and they were working properly. I also noticed when I opened or close the throttle, I could see fuel go down the feed line into the engine...but...alas still no start

erwabo

Im gonna give my igniter a full charge and try later. I pulled out the glo plug and tried 3 other ones and they just generate some heat, but not glowing...I think my igniter is spent and that is probably the problem at this point, I don't have a battery to test with so Im gonna have to wait for that to charge....heres to tomorrow =)

GREG DOE

Modern glow igniters are powered by nicad batteries. Brand new nicads will require three to five discharges and charges, to reach their full capacity. Just like old batteries in your transmitter and receiver, old igniter batteries might appear to work, but fail after a few minutes. If your igniter is not lighting your glow plug to a strong bright orange find out why. A fully charged glow igniter should power a glow plug for 15 to 20 minutes continuous, easily. Lack of use is a killer for nicads.

erwabo

Well it's brand new, I just bought it. What is the best way to discharge? I would guess it's had about 2 discharges after me trying to start engines for 15-30 minutes.

GREG DOE

An actual glow plug is a little too heavy a load for a continuous discharge. It wouldn't destroy your igniter battery, but might damage it. Best thing is to just use it, and recharge it when it gets weak. After several discharge and charge cycles it should reach it's maximum output. In this hobby we refer to charging, and discharging our batteries as "cycling". When putting a new airborne battery into service, most of us cycle it 4 or 5 times, before flying it. We have devices to discharge and charge our battery packs.

erwabo

I have an older Hobbico Accu-Cycle that I can use to cycle the batteries...I will have to try that on the battery packs that I recently purchased. Thanks for the tip!

wnewbury

Someone already asked, but you ignored the question. Where do you live? Which city?

Person to person help would be infinitely better.

erwabo

Yeah I found a club 15 minutes from my house that opens in mid to end of May. I found a guy in my subdivision too, but we havent gotten together yet. I was just so excited to learn all this stuff and didn't want to wait, so just trying my best to learn stuff in the interim

bikerbc

A Saito !.50 should have a prop Around 16-8 to 17-8

erwabo

Hmm...well this is the exact engine

bikerbc

It is difficult to see from the pic what size your engine is. The displacment is located on the other side . It appears to be in great shape . The information I got on the prop size came from the Saito site . If you Google it you can come up with lots of information on your engine . I have even printed out portions of manuals when I have needed information on needel settings etc. By the way Saito is one of the best engines you can buy . Saito and OS Max are both great engines .

erwabo

Sorry...no thats not MY exact engine, thats a replica of it. Mine is quite a bit dirtier =) Im almost positive it says 150 on the other side. But grandpa said thats how he flew it for years...with that 12" prop. Interesting. One thing I was also wondering about. I CAN adjust the needle valve from behind the prop, but my knuckles get a little close for my liking if that was running at 2000RPM, He HAD an allen wrench stuck in the end of it to turn it, but thats stripped out a bit...do they make extended rods for those, or do I just need to buy a new needle valve? It doesnt extend out the body of the plane...I could cut a bigger hole in the front of the fuselage to maybe get my finger in there, but that would just look stupid.

Thanks

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

That appears to be a stock photo, not a photo of your particular engine. Can you take a picture of the other side of your particular engine? It will show the size on that side just above the mounting flange. I can't believe a Saito 150 on a trainer with a five foot wing span. That is way too much engine for the plane.

As far as the stripped glow plug hole goes, I am not aware of a Saito that has a head separate from the cylinder. You can't replace just the head with the head from your other Saito because it does not come off the top of the engine. You will have to take the screws out at the base of the cylinder, slide the complete head and cylinder assembly up over the piston, and then somehow depress the piston ring and slide the head/cylinder assembly from the spare Saito down over the piston of the engine you are trying to start. THIS IS NOT A JOB FOR A 100% NOOBIE. You would very likely end up breaking the ring at the very least.

But, let's assume that you now have an engine with good compression when you rotate the prop. The glow plug glows a bright red/orange color when the battery is applied. Fuel is flowing through the feed tube to the carburetor freely.You have had the little valve covers off and you know that the valves are working as they should when you rotate the prop (this would have to be true anyway for you to have good compression). So now everything is as it should be for it to start. Except the low speed needle. These are two needle carbs and both have to be free of obstructions and adjusted close to properly for the engine to start. So if the engine refuses to start now when spinning it rapidly with an electric starter and with a fully charged glow battery attached to a known good glow plug and with fuel flowing freely through the high speed needle valve, it must be the low speed needle valve that is not working. Now it becomes critical to know what engine we are trying to start for us to tell you exactly where the low speed needle is. Most of them are directly opposite the high speed needle valve, but not all. And most of them do not come out when "unscrewed". So what you can do now is remove the high speed needle valve and squirt some carb cleaner through the high speed needle valve body onto the low speed needle if it is directly across from the high speed needle. Immediately after squirting carb cleaner onto the low speed needle, turn the needle several turns in both directions to free up any congealed fuel that is clogging the low speed needle. Do this while it is still wet with carb cleaner as you don't want it to dry up again. Do this a couple of times and hope it cleans up. Now replace the high speed needle valve, gently seat it against its stop, and then open it three to four turns out. Adjust the low speed needle to about four turns out from its stop also. Try to start the engine. If it still does not start, you might have to remove the carb from the engine and do a more thorough cleaning of both needles again. This comes back to what I stated earlier about fooling with a gummy engine. If that engine were thoroughly cleaned before trying to start it, we would not be going through all this. I use the crock pot method to clean engines, but that is a whole other controversial subject.

erwabo

BIKERBC - You have 19 planes!!? Where do you put them all. I see you have a Tiger-60. Thats the trainer I have...only its a much older model that was hand built with Balsa wood and MonoKote. Id love to recover the entire plane with a new color and it needs a new cockpit cover, but I would have no idea where to start. I have the iron and the heating gun that grandpa gave me and all the cutting tools and what not, but I dont know if you can REMOVE it from the entire plane =)

erwabo

Jolly Popper - I will check it out when I get home. Im hopeful because it started for a second before I ran out of juice in my igniter...I found 3 good glow plugs I can test with. I have everything cleaned except for the low speed needle you mentioned. If i still have issues I will take the other suggestion of soaking the entire engine. I dont have any carb cleaner, but I can pick some up tomorrow. I also probably flooded it so I am going to clear that out before I try all this again. I figured out what I did with the other Saito. I noticed I had two different style of glow plugs, so when i tighted one in that was evidently the wrong style, it stripped that. That motor also has a seized up carb, so I am just going to send that one in for repair since the other one is "almost working."

I soaked my OS carb in fuel all night, so hopefully I can break that loose too. I tried boiling it, but to no avail. The OS looks like its in a lot better condition to begin with. I have 2 other OS engines but they look too small to fly the trainer and the mounts are different and the throttle linkage is different....ugh....so much I have to learn

So will the plane fly with an overly powerful engine? If I use a smaller prop and lower pitch prop, will that compensate for over powered engine?

(FYI, I figured out why that 150 is on there haha. The one that WAS on there was the FA-91, but the carb was totally seized and it had the stripped glow plug hole. When I looked through the old engines I noticed another Saito that "Looked" identical (same size and build), so I just swapped the carbs and remounted the engine....so the FA-91 was probably more appropriate, but it looks like the 12" prop was still too small based on what I saw on the internet)

GREG DOE

One of several services that can Helicoil your stripped glow plug hole is Lee Custom Engines, 10112 Woodward Ave., Sunland, CA 91040 (818) 352-3766. Clearance wrote an engine clinic column for RC Modeler magazine for many years, and is very reputable. He usually has an add in the classified section of Model Aviation magazine. The Accu-Cycle you mentioned should work fine to cycle your batteries. Just make sure your polarity is correct.