Rudolph Hart

Thank you for the nice words about this part of the world ken,i mean it

Dave most of the guys i see flying cdi conversions just clamp the sensor behind the prop washer with an el cheapo stainless clamp not quite done up tight,adjust it that way.When you said 40 do you mean f or c ? we are going to be riding in plus 40c very soon,it's enough to make a vtec system expire

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

40 F, I've ridden in hail twice, rain many times and thunder storms.

My Saito .80 has flown in the clouds on a rainy day, the plane was a Kombat 60 with the 60 inch wing option. It cut grooves in the fog and rain on final with sprays above and below the wing. Pretty cool to watch.The plane was the big brother to this one.
PS, I found the actual plane picture but it's wearing a LASER .70. I more or less wore that plane out with several different engines. My first Saito 1.00 included.

hsukaria

O,F, I was trying to start a beer argument, Aussie vs. American. But you skirted the argument diplomatically. A Canadian would have been enraged.

I have winterized some of my planes already, that included my 2 Saitos, oiled them and adjusted the valve gaps. The rest of the planes are primarily intended to test something. That's the drawback of living in Michigan, the flying season is too short.

blw

My Feedback: (3)

Like I suggested earlier, Beck's.

I've ridden in hail and snowstorms. The trick to riding on snow and ice is to use the gutters. If there is any runoff water at all you can find traction by keeping the wheels in the gutter at the curbs. When that failed I would just ride up over peoples grass, cut through trees, etc to get to work. I was a teenager then, so the world looked different that it does now and I did crazier things without thinking much about it. I've ridden long trips with one hand in front of my face to keep the stinging rain off and peered through slits between fingers. I had a long Interstate ride so it was 60-70 mph and the rain hits hard.

OF, when I was in Korea we had a lot of guy sign up for another year and they got extra leave time for doing it. They would take a month off in Australia. Every one of them would return happier than ever and they all talked about how well they were treated, the fun they had, and all the women that seemed to be everywhere. The only thing is they said it's hard to learn the language.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

I made a timing plate for the 1.50, it's crude but helped me verify that the 1.50 timing is spot on. I am going to try to rig up a timing light tomorrow. My inductive light probably won't work because of the shielded wire. I think I have an old neon one somewhere. Picture #1 is with piston at TDC. Picture #2 is where the spar4k occurs. The camera angle makes it look like the marks in Picture #2 are not aligned but they are in perfect alignment. I picture #2 the magnet is sitting right where the spark occurs at the point it leaves the sensor.

acdii

Picked up a new Saito today, well used new. 125 looks exceptionally clean, a little gumming at the carb, which will clean up with the first tank, exhaust valve is like new, not a spot of residue in there. Now to find the manual for the props to use. Question, is there a difference between a 120 and 125 as far as which side the exhaust is on?

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

The exhausts are both on the right side.. Great looking engine.

acdii

The engine came with a Pitts muffler that says its designed for the 120, 150, 180, but doesn't look like it will work with it, the fitting is on the wrong side. Thats why I was wondering if the exhaust was opposite.

DGM

As far as I know, all of the single cylinders have the exhaust on the right side, looking from the back of the engine. I currently have a .45FA , a .72 FA and a 115 FA. All in use. Additionally I have had another .45, a .65, a ..80, A FA and GK .91, a 1.20 and a 1.80 all singles and an older 270 twin with the single carb. All started easy either upright or inverted ( did not try the twin inverted, anyway, is there an "inverted" for an opposed rwin?). The 270 twin swung a 20 x 10 wood prop at about 6300 RPM compared to the st3000's 6900 RPM with same prop. I have also had YS and OS 4 strokes but the Saito was most friendly. I also use regular 15/15 glow fuel. DGM

acdii

There was a beautiful 300 twin GK there too, $300. Sweet deal, but I didn't have the cash for it.

rcjunky67

here's some pics of my black , old new fa150s high cam, and of the newer old one that I'm trading for. of and hobbsy , any info on the black one stamped 'a' and of the unpainted on stamped 'g' would be greatly appreciated. thanks

rcjunky67

By the way fella's, does this qualify me for membership status. I think it really say's a lot that this thread has been around for almost 10 years. And still going strong.Speaks volumes as to the quality, integrity, and design of these engines.I'd love to be a part of it. And I'm excited to have so much to learn from. Thanks To You All.

Rudolph Hart

Don't sweat it junky they let me on here so you'll be a cinch.Nice pics of your engine,i never thought i'd say this..can a muffler be sexy looking ? ps don't forget to not give hobbsy your address

Rudolph Hart

Yeh sometimes the slang is different,probably means the same tho.I don't think i'd ride a bike nowadays when it's that cold,we don't sell any snow ploughs over here.But the harley riders here still pay a big price for the lifestyle gear they wear.As you know open face helmets look o so cool when you see someone else wearing one but it's a bit different when it's you doing it.Nice on a sunny calm day at low speeds.I've ridden past some harley riding guys at about 80 mph which is 10 over the state limit and could'nt hear what i thought they were saying to me.Turns out it was just the wind moving their lips and i was'nt watching where i was going enough.Took them ages at the next stop to pick the bugs out of their faces.

Huk how many months of the year can you fly there ?

Dave it's good fun watching your aeroplane fly past with spray coming off it and it sounds nice with a well tuned saito at part throttle.Do you remember the days when made in japan had a stigma attached to it,nowadays it's recognised for it's quality and consistency of manufacture.It's we users that are the main problem,why we are here i spose

ps did you know that in the early sixties a japanese town was renamed usa so that they could say 'made in usa' without the dots between the letters usa.

SrTelemaster150

.

While all Saitos have the exhaust valve on the right side, the ehxaust port on the big block exit the rear while all others exit the side.

I think that the 125 has a unique 13mm exhaust thread also, not shared W/any other Saito engines. I don't think that the Pitts muffler wil fit your 120.

15 x 8 or 16 x 6 is about maximum for a 125.

SrTelemaster150

OMG, that was a steal!

Please dont tell me it had dual carbs.

rcjunky67

AY! there you go with that "don't give hobbsy your address" thing again, what's up with that? Is there something special about this engine that I don't know about? I've learned a little from reading previous post and I'm thinking this may be an early high compression engine? Is there that much of a difference between the early and late versions power wise, or did they make that change to keep'em from being such a prop chucker? And yeah, I've not seen another muffler like this one , it is different looking for sure.

If this engine does have high compression, should I or could I run a fuel with less nitro in it? or would it matter?thanks O.F.

acdii

It had dual carbs. At least it looked like it, I didn't touch it for fear of leaving with it.


BTW, for the life of me, regardless of threads, I cant see how that slimline Pitts would work for any of these. I'll get some pics in a bit when I go back to the shop.

hsukaria

O.F. flying season in Michigan is not so short if you are willing to go out and fly in a frosty but calm day (I'm not willing). The problem for me is that Spring and sometimes Fall seasons are windy and rainy. I say flying season is 5 months max. But that gives me time to build (or re-build in my case) new or crashed airplanes. In the last 2 years, it has been mostly rebuilding crashed planes, some mine some others' that I got real cheap in the hopes of saving money and also improving the quality shortcomings of ARFs.

acdii

Today is a good example, 17-25 MPH winds. Last weekend was great flying weather, calm winds, nice temps, not very many of those left this year.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Here is a link to the Clarence Lee test the 1.50 I have, the A would be the next series, the G would be later. Saito seldom spells out the changes, if any. My address would only tell you that I live 100 miles south of DC where the Potomac river is 9 miles wide.
That 1.50 box is the same as mine came in, I still have the fire hose nozzle muffler and the newer cast muffler but run a TurboHeader. If yours really is a high compression version you'll be amazed at it's performance on 5% nitro fuel, if you try it.

That 3.00 is an awesome engine in either configuration.

http://sceptreflight.net/Model%20Eng...20FA-150S.html

SrTelemaster150

You couldn't mistake it if it had dual carbs. They hang directly off the intake port.

SrTelemaster150

Twin cylinder Saitos W/single carbs tend to suffer from A/F imbalance, especially at idle. When I was contemplating buying my FA-300TTDP back in '97, I never found anyone running a dual carb engine @ the various IMAA meets I attended. Everyone had opted for the single carb engine & everyone was having issues W/cylinder balance. Since I had cut my gear head teeth on Limey bikes W/dual Amals, I was not intimidated & opted for the dual card engine.

The secret to setting up the dual carbs is to adjust the linkage for equal opening of the barrels near idle. I do this W/a small drill bit as a feller gauge. Once that is adjusted, it's merely a question of adjusting the HSNs alternately for best RPM. The LSN are even easier. Just lean them down on one cylinder until that cylinder drops out, then open it just enough so the cylinder picks back up. Then, do the same for the other.

The FA-200Ti suffers horribly from having a single carburetor. One cylinder slobbers out of the exhaust when the other is adjusted for best mixture. That is one reason it sounds like an uneven firing twin as the imbalanced mixture makes the engine "lope" at low speed. Converting to CDI made a huge difference in fuel economy improving it by 70%. Unfortunately, the "lope" is no longer there.

All that considered, it is an amazingly fuel efficient engine on CDI using only about .66oz of glow fuel per minute @ WOT. Far below the usual 1oz per cu in rule of thumb.

captinjohn

Sr Tele, Thanks for the great information. Do you use about 28 degrees for the timing?

acdii

The one I saw had some linkages on it to each cylinder, like I said, I didn't look too close at it.

Here is the muffler and 125 laid out, Not a clue how it is supposed to work for any of the listed engines.