ffkiwi

My point entirely! Can you imagine picking one up second hand that needs a bit of TLC in 20 years time and trying to find the right spare parts-even for trivial but essential things like gaskets. Even identifying the part number might be an issue-if there are glow, AAC diesel and ABC diesel variants. As a case in point have you ever tried wading through the myriad of Irvine 20 variants..........

ChrisM
'ffkiwi'

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

Interesting comment on the Irvine .20 variants.

I am rebuilding an Irvine .20 diesel I picked up from US eb*y. I acquired it for parts for not a lot of money. It was sold as a non-runner, which deterred other bidders.

The case was "as new", conrod little end shot. It had been run lean lean and over compressed but never crashed. I decided to rebuild. Scourcing parts has been interesting.

I have discovered from David Owen that there is not enough "meat" on the little end of the conrod to safely install a bronze bush. Luckily the problem has been solved with a serviceable used part. Otherwise a pattern custom made replacement would be required.

Chris, it took about 6 sessions with gel paint stripper and a lot of patience to get the baked on carbon off the piston top. Lots of scraping with a broken cocktail stick. Persistance paid off, eventually all carbon was removed.

I may get away with re-using the piston and ABC liner, witness to how well these parts were made.

ffkiwi

fiery-I'm looking at an Irvine range poster that lists 8 different models of the 20-and that's 'current' production for whenever the poster was produced-elsewhere it refers to Mk III models-so there's the earlier Mk1 and Mk2 to worry about as well. I know at least one 20 model was ringed, whereas the 8 variants listed in the poster are ABC. Now try and imagine a spares list and parts numbers to cover stunt, marine, car, buggy, pylon and diesel options-just in the Mk3 versions alone.
And then trawling the net to try and find spare parts-often listed only by the part number.................

ChrisM
'ffkiwi'

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

I have that poster, which I obtained from Lasse in Finland.

The later (Mk III) .20's also have a different bore and stroke. I came close to inadvertently purchasing a P&L set for one. It would have been of no use.

Headache inducing indeed.

Working parts for the earlier Irvine .20 variants are no longer available from Ripmax or its retail resellers. All spare parts stock sold I expect.

ffkiwi

snip 'I have that poster, which I obtained from Lasse in Finland' . Snap! That's where mine came from as well! Have you ever seen the master Cox spares list? Its a table-about A3 size showing all the part numbers for virtually all the Cox engine parts up to about 1996. That's the sort of thing we need for irvines, enyas, os's, fujis etc-where various displacements have gone through a number of different models and/or variants.

CJM