Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Good to see you here again 50, Bruce Tharpe and his Dad fly Pulse Jets, there are videos around, here is a shot of his Dad.

spaceworm

Someone flew CL Dyna Jets at a local park where we flew CL combat (with Fox .35's) back in the early 50's. I lived at least a half mile away from that field and could hear the D'Jet fire up and fly from my house. Always had to jump on my bike and go watch it.

Very best regards, Richard

Charley

My Feedback: (2)

Back when I was a teen we lost a CL flying circle in a residential area park because of the noise of a Dynajet. The city planted trees & bushes in the circle because of noise complaints.

CR

Jim Oliver

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Anyone interested in NIB Fox .59 and NIB Fox Combat MK III and NIB Fox Combat MK VII?

Jim

fredvon4

NIB Fox MK VII ?

Really if true NIB I would be interested depending on how many $$$$$ you need to part with it

Fredvon4 at skybeam---- com

Jim Oliver

My Feedback: (1)

PM sent.

Jim

Lou Crane

Mr. Moderator...

I've just read through a similar forum, and feel my comments there might be worth a thought for this one. A few words changed to make it relevant here.

To the moderator of the K&B Sportster Forum:

"Just a thought... I've just wandered through the whole thing and it is an excellent experience!

However, as with the K&B Sportster Forum reading forward from Post #0 is discouraging at best, frustrating otherwise. (Our sites are not "Genesis" -"...In the beginning was the Word...)

SYSOP. Moderator, or whichever title of service you prefer, would it be possible, perhaps preferred by visitors?, to offer posts in inverse date order? - from today back? I value your service and efforts very highly - just want to offer my thought that we might have more hits - and regulars - and good added comment - if we 'read the posts from today back.' Despite the lack of action from Fort Smith, there are plenty of Fox engines and users still active and still working on things that should support a lively forum for discussion and assistance.Whatever... pleeze keep it going (or would that be "coming?" ) GREAT valuable discussions and info either way!"

Best wishes. We need something like this...

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Lou, having been a Moderator here for a long time, not quite 20 years, I know that the general feeling and the rule is for a thread to live or die on it's own merits. It used to be that moving a thread up without contributing something to it was called, "bumping" but today I don't think that would be acted on. If the thread starter himself kept bumping it, it might get a Moderators attention, probably a PM saying to let it be. I for one enjoy the Fox talk and have a lot of them.

spaceworm

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the order the threads are presented is a user's choice?

I have all of my subscriptions set up to present the newest posts first on opening. And if you were to select oldest first, you can still select "view first unread" from the banner. Good luck.

Sincerely, Richard

Lou Crane

FDF and Richard,

Thanks! No biggie, and I did try to invert the order. No luck. Maybe I didn't do it right... May try again.

The thread is definitely worth it. Thanks!

landeck

My Feedback: (1)

I just heard from Trisha Fox that Sharon who ran the front office has been in an auto accident. She is badly hurt but will live. It occurred in Little Rock. She will be out for a good bit. If you ever had reason to contact Fox you talked to Sharon and she was always friendly and helpful.

Bruce

hsukaria

Yes, I have spoken with her on the phone a few times. That's too bad, I hope she heals quick.

Lou Crane

Spaceworm - to yours of Nov 5, thanks...

It was a chase through the Settings menu, but I think I got it inverted.


(Mr Moderator, - all the earlier good stuff is still there, and I would have read through it anyway. Thanks!)

Great forum, and it will be even more important as the "available stock" of engines shrinks...

hsukaria

Fellas,

I recently acquired a second Fox 45 fixer-upper without a muffler. I figured, no problem, I have 4 mufflers for the Fox 45. When I installed the engine on the bench tester and got ready to install a muffler, I found out that all my 4 mufflers are not the right size for my Fox 45s.
Engine bolt spaceing: 31/32 in. (0.97 in.)
Muffler bolt spacing: 1 3/32 in (1.08 in.)

What's up with that? Are there different Fox 45 versions with larger muffler mounting bolt spacings?

signed,
Devastated in Detroit

P.S. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!!

1QwkSport2.5r

Yes, there are at least two different iterations of the .45. One with a .970" screw spacing and one with a 1.1" screw spacing. Another one of Duke Fox's bright ideas.

I sold another one of my Foxes.

hsukaria

I guess I will be doing some muffler horse-trading soon, I have 4 mufflers that don't fit any of my engines and I have 2 engines with no mufflers. I might make up some adapters, but at that point I might as well use better mufflers with the adapters.

50+AirYears

I ran into this problem with trying to get mufflers for the older Fox .45's (and a large case .40.). The older muffler was no longer available, only the newer up or down slant. So I just bought several newer crankcases and gasket sets and swapped out the guts.

aspeed

Maybe a header and muffled pipe, mousse can, or minipipe may be a good idea. They tend to get less damage in a crash at least from hitting the dirt. Not that that could ever happen, but parts are getting harder to find now.

earlwb

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you all too!

Well, when the Fox .40 and .45 engines first came out, it was Duke Fox's new engine design. The more narrow .970" screw spacing seemed quite reasonable at the time too. He did make a muffler with recessed spaces to clear the muffler screw heads. This early muffler had a very small expansion chamber and tended to restrict the performance quite a bit though. But that was still at the end of a era where people didn't use mufflers, so the muffler was a optional additional purchase at the time. The engine boxes were quite small and there wasn't enough room in them for the muffler to fit either. Now then this does make for a problem at finding a muffler to fit. They sold many more engines than mufflers at the time. This series only ran for a short time though. So they aren't as common to run across, but they still surprise people when they get them though.

Later he changed the screw spacing to 1.08 inches. I am thinking that he did some changes to the engines when they made new molds for them too. But with the shiny wart engines it is difficult to tell as they tend to look alike. This second series of wart engines ran for a few years still. But they could go with a larger more heavy muffler then. At that time, if I remember right, he came out with a cast aluminum muffler, which was the predecessor to the tear drop mufflers. The muffler was a tilt down type, but it had a narrow tubular expansion chamber instead. Then later he did come out with the tear drop tilt up and tilt down mufflers we commonly see on the engines.

The best Fox mufflers were the Fox Quiet Mufflers. But unfortunately people didn't like them as they cost more. People only wanted to use the OEM tear drop mufflers that came in the box with the engine at the time. But the Quiet mufflers were too big to fit.

The big case high back Fox .40 through .50 engines actually was a long running series of engines made from circa 1980 through until Fox quit making engines a year or so ago.
You had the first ones with the narrow muffler screw spacing.
Then he widened the screw spacing and did some other changes to the engines.
Somewhere in this time period, he started bead blasting the engines to give them the dark sand blasted look that engines like the OS engines had. People had changed and didn't like the engines shiny silvery colored like before.
Next he came out with a new redesign version with straight ports instead of the bump on the side of the engines. During this time the .40 and .45 engines were joined with a cost reduced version that did not use ball bearings on the crankshaft. So he then had four engines in the series.
Later the ABC .46 version joined the ranks.
A Quickee 500 version was produced for a while too.
Then the .50 displacement size was being made as well.
But except for those first few years of the early production engines, all of the rest of the series had the more wide muffler screw spacing.

I still have quite a few Fox .40, .45, and .50 engines. Probably enough to last me until I die too. Or until the FAA decides to ban RC flying altogether. Then I guess I will be relegated to bench running and reminiscing then.

50+AirYears

Oh well, with 59 Fox engines ranging from the non-fai .049 up through a .78 rc, I guess I have enough to last for a while. Now, if I can just find a place close where I can fly CL.

Lou Crane

Earl, to your #4419, Dec 26, '15 -

Best for the new year, of course...

I think the introduction of the big banjo-back .40 and .45 was earlier than you cited, possibly around 1974 or 1975. It may have been local-area thing. We were in Omaha, Nebraska, not all that far from Fort Smith, Arkansas.

I clearly recall attempting to fly a wart, PB, large case 40 in 1976, while we were at Monterey, CA. The model was SIG Twister or Banshee (basically the same, with small dimensional, and a few cosmetic differences.) That engine stimulated an intense interest in the relationships between a CL model's fuel tank and engine.

In short, that Fox needed a totally non-intuitive positioning of the reference point in the tank. This applied to both profile (head-out sidewinder) and head-up or -down 'upright' installations. Several things I seem to repeat fairly often, here and elsewhere, grew from that interest. The Twister flew very well upright, but flamed or flooded out immediately on sharp outside 'g' or attempts at inverted flight. As I'd been flying the 'modern pattern' since it was introduced, about 20 years earlier, that was unacceptable. The course at the Defense Language School was challenging, demanding time. We devoted family time on opportunities to enjoy the Monterey and Carmel area. Shop was in a large closet in our assigned quarters - and checking out of military quarters is always demanding. At least, that assures we'd have a truly clean and functioning abode for the duration. There many were tools, etc., I hadn't brought with us.

The engine, despite its greater bulk and weight than other .40s, was excellent, aside from that quirk. After an overseas tour, we settled in Arizona, and have been here since 1980. I made an adjustable tank height test stand, adapted for a Tatone mount. It confirmed my thoughts that each engine layout is unique, requires a different "tank height" relationship, and may or may not tolerate slapping it in per received wisdom about spraybar jet and tank reference point, viewed regarding the 'g' conditions in CL flight. It has proven very successful; I like to use unfamiliar engines, which could cause imponderables like the Banjo Fox 40 had.

Long way around, but airs my experience with an early big, banjo-back Fox 40. After "solving" the tank quirk, I used a later Dykes-ring 40 BB-Schneurle Fox in over 500 flights (of about 7 minutes each) in an own-design CL Stunter, which found me 'a few' trophies, BTW.

earlwb

Yes you are correct. The high back large case design came out circa 1975. It was nicknamed the "wart" engine of course. Later in 1979/80 Fox reworked it to the straight port design without the bulge on the transfer port.

Interesting about the fuel tank height in relation to the spray bar location. That isn't a bad idea at all to check out with the engines.

For CL Stunt, I remember some folks packing the transfer port with a small piece of wood or filling it in some with some JB Weld Epoxy. That was to get the air/fuel speed up higher so that the fuel would not drop out of suspension and form droplets. The droplets of course could drown out the glow plug, resulting in the so called "burp" or worse a flameout. Sometimes you still run across engines with a piece of wood in the port or having it filled with some epoxy. But then a lot of other brand Schnuerle engines tended to exhibit the same thing too. The earlier baffled piston designs tended to not have the problem as much as it is thought that the hot baffle tended to help vaporize the fuel or help protect the glow plug. But some of them could be still quite aggravating with this though. One other thought was some engines tended to have very little in the way of cooling fins on them too. That kept engine more hot when running which would help vaporize the fuel better too. Fox did do a weird thing with some earlier .35 or .36 engines, I forget which, where he actually cut a small recess into the cylinder sleeve so that the upper part of the cylinder between the head and the ports did not contact the crankcase. That would have caused the cylinder to run more more hot then. I don't know why or what his thoughts were on it though.

ochsnm00

Does anyone know what has happened to Fox engine parts since they stopped building engines. I've been on the Fox machine site and there is no mention of parts. Is anyone selling parts?

computermonkey

My Feedback: (90)

What parts are you looking for?

ochsnm00

Both Eagle III 60 needle valves