123Cat

Im actually going to change this one out as its slowing somehow , lots of flights ,

and put in No2 Swallow

its got good power but its tight and can go hot, easily, I like the challenge of getting the setting right , its hard

123Cat

New plane with Swallow No3 is coming along well, I got some new .008 thou lines and, will look for a bit of plastic and try and turn up my flying handle ,

one of those ones that can also wind up the lines on

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

Head fins look nice.

Is that a home made NVA?

123Cat

Yes a homemade NVA

Im having a few goes at the spring

An aluminium Tommy bar , as I have never seen one

Model should be done in 2 months

I was reading about Hydrodynamic bearings and they say that the oil wedge can build up 6000 PSI

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

I have seen the CS iteration of the Silver Swallow .09 and .15 diesels sell for suprisingly high prices recently.

This on-line Seller appears to stock them (and other CS engines, for those who like them) on this site. The Silver Swallow type diesels are listed as "beginner engines".

Has anyone dealt with this Vendor recently? Prices listed for the "Silver Swallows" are commensurate with what you may expect to pay for one.

http://hobbyist.us/

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

My example of the Silver Swallow 2.47. I have not run it yet.

It looks and feels well made. Fit and finish of machined parts is very good. Piston and liner fit cold is excellent. The case pressure casting is a let down. The edge of one mounting lug ends is crumpled, and the "7" in the capacity designation has not properly formed. Overall, it is not of the standard of the best cast cases from western manufacturers. Other Silver Swallows I have seen have been fine in this respect.

In the box there are a set of mounting bolts, nuts and washers; a spare (larger bore) venturi, and a cylinder removal tool. All seemingly nicely done.

The last image I took from the web. A PAW exhaust is fitted.

I am missing a set of instructions. Would anyone be able to scan and post them?

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

I decided the run the Silver Swallow 2.47 cc shown above.

There were no issues. It fired up readily hot or cold once I worked out a procedure. It went very well indeed on a Keil Kraft 8 x 6 nylon prop. Overall this example, which I suspect is early production, is well executed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxEqo...ature=youtu.be

123Cat

Ive been down the circle with the son and the Diesel in the warmer weather

It will get hot soon,,,,, diesel territory

gcb

I had the same experience with my 2.47 Silver Swallow. Easy handling sport engine. Got it on our favorite auction site years ago. Here are some pics:

George


Edit: Since I did not know the history of this engine I gave it a standard break-in so it could be all that it is capable of.

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

The weather up here in tropical Queensland is already into the 30's (Centigrade, for our US friends). That was the case yesterday. Complete with a late afternoon thunderstorm to cool things down.

An observation. The engine comes with two venturi inserts. It is factory fitted with a massive size venturi. A smaller bore item is also supplied in a plastic bag along with mounting bolts and a spanner. I'd say the fitted insert is designed to be used on pressure. That's a concept: racing spec.Silver Swallow's . I removed the large bore venturi. Small bore venturi was installed and I had no issues.

The engine could never work on suction with the large bore insert. This may explain some of the stories of owners stating the engine was 'impossible to start'. In some cases, this could possibly be the aftermath of fueling up and trying to run on suction with the fitted large venturi.

My engine was set up quite tight. It did take about 40 minutes of rich, short, 3 minute heat cycling runs to settle in and become easy to handle. It is still tight.

gcb

Actually younger folks may not relate to Centigrade because many years ago in the USA we gave credit to the creator of Centigrade and refer to it as Celsius, but thanks for the consideration. :-)

George

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

This is my 'good' Silver Swallow 149.

It starts and runs pretty well. Contra-piston seal is perfect. Unfortunately it never had great piston seal. After some use compression is poor and it will not reliably hand start hot.

123Cat

Stirling Photo's as usual Fiery

The blue looks good , one of my 3 is in for a new rod

as my son has been flying a lot

They are a good looking Diesel

Recycled Flyer

Derek, that has got to be THE cleanest diesel test stand that I have ever seen!

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

The SS 1.49 is (IMO) one of the better looking 1/2 A diesels.

This one will pull the orange broad blade 7 x 4 Robbe Dynamic gfk prop shown at near to 12,000 RPM. No black goo, compression not 'pushed'.

Not too shabby for a beginners plain bearing 1.49 cc of mid 50's design. They are no fire breather but there is plenty of sports power available.

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

I lick it clean after every session

My secret. I gave the mounting block (an off cut from a home built book case) about 12 spay coats of pressure pack Monocell marine grade clear varnish. Just to use up the largish pack.

The exhaust wipes straight off, and I don't think will ever soak in!

I have to say the Silver Swallow anodise is really good.

AMB

Fiery the wood stand well its all been said did you make the aluminum test unit that holds the engine?? quite nice martin

does it use a couple of pins that fit into the mounting lugs of the engine to prevent a shift

just a guess will handle up to 40?? Mine store bought forgot the brand issue with some of the little ones interference with the hold downs will not allow muffler to be fitted

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

Hi Martin

My old test stand is still perfectly serviceable. The problem is it does not easily take very small or very large engines.

It is still preffered, for no real reason than I like it, and the unvarnished red gum hardwood base has 'character' after years of exposure to all types of exhaust, and will never be a meal for termites.

I bought the new alloy test mount assembly shown above off 8bay UK. It is pretty good in design and adapts to any size engine with mounting lugs. A downside is it is not as 'heavy' in materials as my old 'over-engineered' mount. I would never run anything over a 1.20 size engine on the new mount.

gcb

One of my test stands for smaller engines (below .30 ci) is an old E-Z Just...it looks like crap, but it has been used since ~1957 and it still works.

George

123Cat

I cant remember if I had a blue or a red one when I launched a small controline Biplane straight up for my son , it came straight down and smashed into lots of pieces

I was tired , it took about 3/4 of an hour to start

as I was using Start Ya ******* spray Pak ether in the fuel and a standard SS 1.5 engine , he has moved on to doing loops now

123Cat

are silver swallows being manufactured any more , or are they coming out of stock ?

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

The engines are long out production. Some may say 'good riddance' but some have had good experiences.

The last manufacturer was CS however they no longer list them as available.

They frequently appear on Zee-bay; however I won't pay the price they go for.

Carlson Engine Imports may still have some of the 2.47 cc displacement engines in stock if you prefer to buy 'new' from a known distributor.

raglafart

My Feedback: (10)

The CS ones were horrible, I have 6 or 7 of them that I've got to sort out for a friend. Almost all of them wouldn't run unless on a prime, turns out the transfer ports weren't opening for more than just a few degrees and were incapable or running on anything more than a prime. The piston fits were far from ideal either.

The best ones were those that had no anodising and came from the batch that was made in the 60's, they were reasonable but even then the 2.5's were known to have shaft breakage problems. They came in a pastel green and white square box of really heavy card that was stapled with industrial staples! They were also wrapped in brown paper and came in a dark brown grease that took some persistence to remove.
The 09 from the same period was a delightful engine. Wish I'd kept mine, only have a later model anodised one now.

It's an engine I'd never ever buy new, even would be hesitant to buy one I'd seen running with my own eyes.................unless it was one of the earlier ones.

brokenenglish

John and Derek, this is an honest and respectful question...
Maybe I'm a bit isolated here, but I just don't understand why people mess with all this Chinese and Russian rubbish... Really!

Quality diesels that are reliable, super runners are readily available... and playing with them is one of my greatest pleasures...

Why do people volunteer for this situation in which the best they can hope for is that they get a low quality engine to run, more or less, sometimes...

Even if a few isolated examples are acceptable, it's still a very "iffy" situation that seems just a waste of time to me...

raglafart

My Feedback: (10)

I'm as perplexed as you on this one. I guess the price has something to do with it and I suppose who would think that engines could be made that were basically so appalling!

The again, have you looked at the Gotham Hobbies Deezil, now that was rubbish, would never run for any length of time if at all.

I digress. The first and last new old stock one I bought was for a cheap and cheerful A$30 and it was the 09 very early one from the 60's batch that found its way to Australia some time ago, probably 25 years ago.
One of the reasons I post my experiences as I personally don't think buying an engine should be a lottery and people should know what they are getting into.
I should take a picture of my friend Howards CS engines, they really are the bottom of the barrel as far as quality and accuracy are concerned.

Life is too short to have hassles and probably one of the reasons I've been reluctant to proceed with Howards engines, I've got no idea why he bought so many. They came from the USA and well known seller. One could say they weren't expensive. I'd disagree. If you pay for something that works marginally or is likely to break it's an expensive exercise unless you only want to see the engine run and have no intentions of building a plane for it. I agree 100% with your isolated examples note and guess that some people don't mind a bit of a gamble now and then. Too high a ticket price for me with such poor returns even if you get a good one.


Then again, I have to say I liked the MK 17's and have had 3 or 4 of them over the years. They do wear out with the non hardened liner but as a $30 engine when I was buying them they were good value. The Marz also is a reasonable engine......if you get one with a decent shaft.
I also quite liked the black case KMD 2.5's too and have one somewhere around the house. These days I wouldn't waste time building a model for any of them though.

I decided a few years back when I gave up engine collecting (I had a pretty complete collection of Racing RV 29's) that I'd only keep quality engines and have pretty much done that, now I just have to build the models for them!