aspeed

They are called the Equinox now, after GM bought them out from Suzuki. I think they are less rattly now. Ran like a top though. I got it because they were made down the street. The son had a little 3 cylinder from the same plant. It wasn't quite as good. Got rid of it because parts were too expensive. Rebuild kits for a 3 cyl. cost double that of a small block Chevy? And it was a Chevy too. 50 MPG. I have had a lot of troubles with the smaller TT. .07, and the .10, .15, are kind of slugs compared to the dreaded OS in my experience. I think the bigger TT Pro's are better. I haven't flown my .40 Pro yet but it seems good.

AllModesR/C

Really? I though OS were the best nitro engines?

1QwkSport2.5r

That's what many people want you to believe. OS has incredible marketing, thus their high prices. Their engines run fine right out of the box, don't get me wrong. But I'd take a Thunder Tiger over an OS in a heartbeat. I'd take an Enya over either of the former if I can. Enya is hard to beat in terms of quality, though they require more time to break in than a similarly setup TT or OS. I take longevity into account when I buy engines. Modern OS isnt known for using real good bearings among other things. This isn't a bash on OS either... I just think there are other equal or better quality offerings at better prices than OS IMHO.

Just my 2 cents worth. Take it with a grain of salt.

AllModesR/C

Interesting. don't get me wrong I like this TT engine a lot as it is very easy to start (if I can actually get it to spin over LOL) I would hate to give up on it but I can't count how many times I packed all the gear and plane into the car, got to the field, fought with it for 30 minutes or more only to get pissed off and pack everything back up and head home. I am thinking of buying one of those heat packs they sell at Walgreeens or Walmart for sports injuries and wrapping it around the engine before starting it. Does anyone know how warm those packs get? It does not have to be real hot or anything just as long as the engine is at room temp it is willing to spin over.

aspeed

Propane torch, with a bit of uncommon sense should be fine. Just on the head and fin area. The brass likely just shrinks at a lot greater rate than the piston, making it tight. I fly indoors in the winter:-)

ocrcdude

My Feedback: (179)

Okay guys I've had Chryslers, Dodge's, Toyota's. Honda's Chevy's,Subaru. They ran good. But the even the best don't always run good. Sometimes you get a lemon. One you can't even make lemon aide with. So get a Sullivan 24 volt starter and hook up two 12 volt batteries and let her rip. This starts all my 50cc engines and a few bigger ones. That should turn over the TT42. Cold or hot, today or any day. Hows that? Oh, only had trouble with one OS engine it had the old air bleed carb, but cleared the hole in front and ran like a dream.

f16man

So you dont think wire size has any thing to do with increased power from his starter emailSo you dont think increased wire size would benefit the starters output eh

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Placing the cylinder in the exhaust of your running car does work...I've seen it done many times...but I've never had to do it myself.

Speaking of Chryslers...I have a Plymouth Grand Voyager...the stretch version...that I removed all but the front 2 seats from. Got a regular "Hangar" space back there so I can put my plane(s) together at home, and then take 'em out to the (already warmed-up) van...and then after a flight, put it back in the van so it doesn't get cold soaked.

Watched some of my 'ole flying buddies use the car exhaust bit...kinda laughed at it at first, but darned it it don't work

Only potential drawback, if you can call it one, is after a few years his engine got some blotchy gray sopts on it...probably from combustion residue from the car engine?

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Another thing I might add, is that with a tight engine, you will probably need to raise your idle speed a little bit just in case. When you get ready to land, when you throttle back, your engine will cool off a lot, and might not want to take the throttle very well if you need to suddenly add power for a go around or some such manuver.

When I used to fly in cold weather (a lot more often that I do now) that might be down in the 20's or so I would wrap a strip of Aluminum tape around the upper cylinder fins to keep it from over-cooling.

AllModesR/C

You're right I do need to do that. It stalled a few times when I was coming in on final and cut the power back.

1QwkSport2.5r

My starter was only modified this past summer in hopes it would start my 1.20 twin two stroke. It had started all of my engines from a SuperTigre .29 up to an Enya 1.20R 4-stroke before the modification at normal summer ambient air temps. It started my TT pro .46 with ease before the mod therefore it would not have had issue with a .40 bushing engine. However, drop the air temp to below 40F and I guarantee you will have issues starting tight engines or engines with a lot of compression. This is with the assumption the starter is in good mechanical condition, and the battery is working close to its capacity and is capable of discharging enough current. If you have a bunk starter or a bunk battery, you're destined to have a hard time no matter what engine you're working on (almost).

loopdeeloop

My Feedback: (4)

In just a couple of days my club will head to our field for our January 1 Frozen Finger Fly. Since this event takes place in Minnesota we generally have temperatures well below zero -- although that will not be the case this year as temps are forecast in the low to mid teens. I take my generator to the field and string an extension cord to the starting tables. An electric heater and a crock pot of chili, some coffee, and apple cider in the trailer and we are good to go for the day. Folks use hair dryers and heat guns to warm the engines. A very small shot of starting fluid if needed starts the engine immediately and NO -- the lack of lubricant in the fluid does not harm the engine. Provided of course you don't empty the can into the carb. If you don't like that idea, keep a small spray bottle of fuel in the car or heated area and use it to prime the engine. Obviously a fully charged and properly wired battery and starter are necessary for warm or cold, winter or summer use. Fully charged igniters are also required. There are also two ways to use a starter. 1) Place the starter cone on the spinner and hit the switch. Chances are on bigger engines this results in the inability to spin the engine until it gets past that first rev. 2) Activate the starter and then pop the starter cone on the spinner. #2 is my technique and large or small, the engines start immediately. The first person up and the person that makes the most flights get bragging rights -- no prizes -- just bragging rights.

By the way, the person that thought of plugging a heat gun into the 12 volt system of car needs to understand what that requires. You need an inverter that converts 12 volts DC to 120 volts AC. Since a heat gun requires about 1500 Watts of power on high, that's about 12.5 amps OUT of the inverter. That means you need to put 119 amps of 12.6 votls DC INTO the inverter to power the heat gun. And that number does not include the losses in the inverter which can be as high as 15 - 20%. Your battery would be sucked dry in a very short time. It is very impractical to run any heating appliance from a 12 volt system. The cost of a 2000 Watt inverter makes this impractical as well.

I might add that I fly two strokes, four strokes and gassers, with a mix of DLE, Evolution, O.S. (highly over rated in my opinion) Enya, Fox and Magnums (my engine of choice in both two and four stroke). These things are bullet proof and half the price of most of the competition.

1QwkSport2.5r

Well said! Good luck at your frozen fly event! Sounds like a fun time. Did you get some snow down your way this weekend?

CLBetten

My Feedback: (16)

Way off the subject but Geo Trackers were a rebadged Suzuki not Toyota. Back to the subject, I had a GP .42 and as has been made clear it was very tight. I had it on an air boat. On occasion the boat would flip and it would get quenched and seize. After quenching my procedure was to pull the glow plug, shake any water out, put M.M. oil in it and work it free. On a few occasions it was so tight I had to take it home and heat the cylinder to get it loosened up enough to run. Powerful, light and bulletproof little engine for sure.

H5606

I bought a new TT .42 for my brother-in-law who lives outside the U.S., is just starting in the hobby, and doesn't own a starter. When I visited him, we used a locally available fuel (I believe it had 5-15% Nitro) and I thought it may have had low oil content because the engine "squeaked" when turning over. Mind you, this was warm climate conditions. Now, I see others have experienced the same issue in that the engine is unusually tight. I only use a starter for four strokes or engines that have low compression. I believe there is some risk while using a starter of damaging the airplane and should only be used as a last resort. They can burn an unsightly ring into a plastic spinner if spun up before making contact with it. In spite of the apparent tightness of the engine, I had no trouble hand starting it. Balance and sand the LE and TE of a new composite prop so it can't cut you or use a wood prop (balance it) and orient it to be on compression when horizontal. Before attaching the glow driver, open the throttle, cover carb opening, and flip prop through compression until fuel can be seen reaching the carb. Attach glow driver and grab hold of prop. Turn over through compression - if you feel it bump - you're ready to start. If you can feel it bump in colder weather, its ready to start as well. Use your thumb and forefingers to flip the spinner backwards against compression. The engine doesn't have to go past compression and should start easily. No starter and 12V battery required. As others have stated previously, warm the cylinder with car engine exhaust or hot water from a thermos and/or use lighter fluid as a prime in cold weather ops. Consider lapping the piston to the cylinder with polishing compound if it's too tight. If engine starts backwards, simply place clenched fist against spinner to slow engine until it "bounces" and runs in proper direction or restart if it quits...

Here's some additional advice after what I read in previous posts: If the engine quits at low throttle settings or when advancing after a lengthy stay at low power, the low speed needle needs adjustment. A properly adjusted low end will help ease start-ups and should allow throttle advancement to full power without hesitation after any amount of time at idle position. A properly adjusted low end will exhibit a slight rpm rise before quitting when pinching fuel tubing at idle for shut-down.

1QwkSport2.5r

You never lap a tapered bore engine unless you want the engine to prematurely wear out. Proper break-in is paramount to a proper piston/liner fit.

After seeing some of the advice given on this forum lately, it's amazing people don't have more problems. Lapping an ABN engine? Really?

CLBetten

My Feedback: (16)

Any experiences with pealed liners?

1QwkSport2.5r

I personally haven't, but I use the right fuel in my tapered bore engines and I break them in the way they should be broken in.

I've never heard of a TT liner peeling; they use a better plating process than some other manufacturers use.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

It would seem that the TT .42 just has a bit of pinch at the top. As QWK has stated, you would never want to lap this as it would ruin the engine. This will eventually wear in and not be an issue. Until then make sure the engine gets good prime and try to bump start as suggested by one of the posters. If your starter does not have enough power to turn it over then Imwould suggest upgrading your starter battery. I personally use a 4 cell lipo of 5000 mah for my starter as I have a couple large 4 strokes. As for the quality of different brands of engines, IMO most are on a level playing field these days. OS was once King of the hill. Back in the early '80s I worked at one of the largest retail shops in the US. Back then OS was distributed by Indy R/C and then World Engines. We sold 10 OS engines for every 1 of any other brand. We stocked K&B, Rossi, Picco and Supertiger as well. Very few customers were experiencing issues as compared to other brands. IMO it is Tower Hobbies that is driving OS to manufacture engines that come closer to the competition in price point but still retain the same amount of profit. The end result is that we get a product that is somewhat lacking compared to what it used to be. It's a real shame, IMO there are no more top shelf 2 stroke engine manufacturers other then Jett Engeneering. Truth be known when it comes to glow engines I won't buy anything new except for YS and when I want anything else I shop forum classifieds and ebay until I locate an good example of what I want.

aspeed

I have had to lap maybe three ABC piston/cylinders. They were just too tight to turn over. CS piped .049, Russian Ucktam .15, and the Norvel .07. I think most of the lapped motors have a taper on the cylinder, or should if they don't. ABN is usually OS, and they are usually pretty good. I have also had to lap a crankshaft that was too tight, and heated up. Thunder Tiger made Magnum .28. They all worked fine after. Haven't used the Norvel yet. That was only a few motors out of maybe 150, and they were crude examples. I wouldn't recommend lapping unless you are absolutely certain of your abilities. Speedracer. Are the Novarossi's still 'top shelf'? I always thought they were pretty good. but never had one because of the cost. They are much more reasonable now.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Aspeed, of course this is all opinion based and I have not run any of the newer Rossi engines. I have however used some of the older Rossi engines and they were extremly well built. I raced with both a .61 3x2 pattern engine and a side exhaust .45. In the 3 years using 2 strokes the Rossis netted me two local championships. I always had a starter handy but almost never had to use it. IMO if the current Novarossi offerings were anywhere as good they would have to be 400.00 engines. The fact that they are low volume production and reasonably priced makes me think they are in line with today's market. All opinion based of course. I think lapping a true ABC engine is feasible because the chrome plating penetrates the brass more then nickel would penetrate steel. If there are any currently manufactured 2 strokes that come close to what we had 20 years ago it would be some of the car engines.

1QwkSport2.5r

I'll get out a heat gun before I get out the lapping compound. In fact, I doubt anyone could ever convince me to lap a tapered bore engine. That is; a plated brass liner. Iron/steel are different balls of wax. On topic; heat is ones friend to run glow plug equipped model engines. It makes like much easier.

aspeed

Lapping is a last resort. The aluminum on the piston will be removed, not the chrome or nickel on the liner.

Mr Cox

I have never lapped any ABC engine, just pre-heat and run in as usual, even on the Utkam .15 ones. I guess it is slower than lapping, but there is less risk of damaging anything, to me at least.

With the Norvel rev-lite engines (such as the .074) one should be particularly careful I think. They are very tight but the cylinder coating (ceramic or simply oxide) is very thin and full of pores. The cylinder coating also feels very abrasive when new. Pre-heating is all it takes, but even after some running one has to be careful. The oil can be washed away by fuel and possibly cool down the cylinder to a point where the pinch is too much even during running, and the engine will throw the prop off...

During winter I take a small propane torch with me in order to preheat the engine. The all castor fuel goes very thick in winter though, so the needle has to be opened up.

aspeed

My Norvel .074 is an odd one. I lapped it just a bit with swirl mark remover. Very fine abrasive. It has a nice shiny ring on top of the piston. It had been turning over fine until priming with fresh fuel when it locked up. I don't think the lapping has changed this. Indoors, it is better, I think it is just the liner shrinking in the cold like the OP's TT. I will just wait until the warmer weather is here to use it anyway. Don't have a plane ready for it yet.