BJ64

Reminds me of the Stoners at Uni...

BJ

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

While there are some posts in this thread about how miserable the FS400 engine is, in the real world there are probably hundreds of them giving satisfied owners big smiles. I check Youtube every few months for new videos of the FS400, and then add them to my FS400 Playlist. It's now at 154 videos!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...eature=mh_lolz

Here is an example of a newer video featuring the FS400 radial engine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c2gW6cSD5g&list=PL1776ECB24B67BD29&index=151

tim750r

Radial on a budget it might be, but when it all comes together - Phwoar!!!

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

I was adjusting the valves ( every other had a too big gap ). I got the OS adjusting kit, the feeler gauges are fine but the included wrench is too small, what is the proper wrench size for the ASP ? I got a reading that is in between sizes. Thanks

The Raven

If it's like the other ASP/Magnums it will be a 5.5mm lock nut. Conveniently a similar size to that used on many RC cars.

SrTelemaster150

A 7/32" SAE wrench is very close to 5.5mm. Only about .0015" oversize.

The Raven

Oh, A glow plug wrench (eg. Ming Yang brand) normally has a 5.5mm socket on it. Won't help too much with the adjustment other than to loosen it off, use it to tighten and you'll probably break the adjuster....

You can also buy small valve adjusting sets (Saito or OS) for a few bucks....assuming your local the store has them.

BJ64

The right tool for the right job

BJ

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Hobby King's USA warehouse has some FS400's in stock at a very good price.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...arehouse_.html

Dad_Roman

Pretty excellent

Carosel43

Hobbyking now stocking the 400 in both US and Europe warehouse, for those who need another one!

Aluminum Overcast

Okay Guys...I've recently been readying my ASP 400 for a first run this season and then installing into my CMP Zero Build, Finally! The engine has had 3 gallons of fuel through it over the years and has been oiled up and put away with the engine on its nose for the winter to keep the oil on the bearings. I have had this engine for at least 6 years, probably more and its never been in a flying airframe as of yet. The engine has always run very well, making lots of power and starts easily, even on the first crank of the season! I have been following this thread over the years and saw the suggestion that folks replace their E clips, so, I purchased the suggested ones from mcmaster carr and decided that I would take the back off and clean up and inspect the inside as well as replace the stock clips...what I found was somewhat interesting... Spiral fuel air mixture chamber was like new! The crankcase was too, minus some residue. Yes, there was a fair amount of rust on the wrist pin ends and the crank counter balance but not an excessive amount I would say. I did use a small wire brush (typically for a dremel) by hand and the rust came off very easily, pins looked like new as did the crank counter balance, minus some pitting. No big deal as the surfaces that do the work are rust free. Rust happens in model glow engines. I've seen it in Saitos often over my 20+ years in the hobby. I held the engine prop up with the back off and using a can of WD40 with the tube all the way in the engine I sprayed all the debris out. Hold on to your panties folks...the photo attached with the dirty water look is that. Then I sprayed some brake cleaner in there using the same method as before (that is the dried pan photo). I know, you'd say that is a lot of stuff but keep in mind a lot of the stuff is from my wire brushing the rust on the parts mentioned above IT WAS NOT FREE FLOATING IN THE ENGINE! The larger chunks are from one of the gaskets for the uptake tube to one of the jugs. Again, this was also not in the crank floating about as the engine ran at any time. Next I sprayed in some penetrating oil I like to use called Dura Lube to coat everything. This stuff penetrates very well and clings tenaciously to everything and makes for a great long term storage oil. Next came the E clip swap out. I was surprised to see the stock e clips looked very good. In fact, they seemed of a better quality than what I was going to replace them with! The stock e clips are actually a good bit thicker than the ones from Mcmaster. The photos attached show the difference. I think this may be an issue as the thinner clips will allow the wrist pins to have more lateral movement...probably not good. The stock ones are .085 thick and the Mcmaster Carrs are .072! I know, its difficult to judge the metrology of the two clips but regardless of that, the size seems that it will allow the wrist pins to traverse more in a side to side manner and this seems like a recipe for trouble....Any thoughts on this? Any source for known quality clips they meet our dimensional needs here? I have done a few searches and so far have not turned up anything that matches directly. I have seen a few companies that will make them to your spec.,.

blw

My Feedback: (3)

Excellent photos!

Aluminum Overcast

Been rereading some of th older post regarding the e clip issue here and looking in closer detial at the pix I posted recently. i found it interesting that the stock e clips apear to be alternated in the way they are installed from the factory. 2 face inward, toward the engine front and the other two face out towards the backplate. The ones facing the engine front do show signs of concentric wear. Please note that in the attached pic there is 1 clip that I have removed to mic it. It has not failed nor come off during engine running.

I don't know, but in my opinion I think it would be best to have all the e clips rough edges face towards the backplate as there would be less or no chance of the rough stamped edges of the clips biting into the soft aluminum con rod hub.


Check it out....enlarge the attached pic. I wonder if this has anything to do with some of the e clip failures reported. I would also be interested if these failures seem to be related to folks who dissasembled and then reused the stock clips. Anyone with these issues care to comment so we can come to understand the problem more clearly?

EQ1

This is an interesting discovery. The clips should face to the back with their "rough" sides, not only because they may damage the aluminum, but because the "smooth" surfaces have rounded edges. Having them facing to the back reduces the resistance of coming off in case of axial forces (the widening of the clip is supported by the round edges). Looks like another quality assurance issue in manufacturing.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Regarding the direction of the 'face' of the e-clip I think it does not really matter. At the factory the assemblers are probably just grabbing the clips and snapping them into place.

If there were a 'sharp' edge, on the aluminum master rod, it would not take much running time before the sharp edge was burnished smooth and damage if any to the aluminum master rod would be insignificant.

The issue with e-clips, as I recall it, was never about e-clips. The issue was the link pins breaking. That had nothing to do with the e-clips but more likely with the hardening process of the pins. A later issue was the stretching of the e-clip once it had been removed, and then re-used. It was discussed and recommended that if anyone remove an e-clip that a new one be installed instead of re-using the old one.

Regarding the difference in thickness of the new clips you bought, I also think this matters little. The link pins are not under any fore and aft load towards the front or rear of the engine. The load on them is the up and down action of the piston and connecting rod. Most piston pins are floating and have the same load as the link pins in a radial engine.

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

How do you guys enlarge prop holes ? I have a tool that only works to 10mm and grilling offsets the center too much even if "stepping" from a smaller size to the end result. Thanks

SrTelemaster150

If you have a drill press, locate the center W/a drill bit the same size as the existing hole. Clamp the propeller down or secure it otherwise, then switch to the larger drill bit & drill it out.

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

I hope this wasn't asked before, but has anyone made resign copies of the actual cylinders ?

1) it would be nice to have front "halfs" to glue on a baffle between the actual cylinders so they look the same as the originals (not scale of course)

2) full copies of the cylinder would be nice to have for a Cub engine to simulate 4 cyl. engine;( one "fake" cyl. on each side) .

I might be interested in both if somebody has made a mold already. I think the might sell well on this forum. Watcha think ?


EDIT: the Cub would be a FS180 twin, same cyl. as the FS400

ultimate-micha

I would like to share my recent experience with a Magnum FS400AR, and I would be glad to receive some feedback and hints from the community here.

I operate the radial since about 5 years and may have burnt about 30 liters with it. My fuel contains 15%-17% Graupner Aerosynth-3 and 5% Nitromethane.
I use the engine on a 2 meter Bücker Jungmeister bipe with about 12 kg, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDMK_zm6Zyg
The engine swings a 21x8 wooden prop at about 6500 rpm. This is not much but just right for that plane. The OS F glow plugs are driven by a Microsense electronic from Austria. The engine starts easily by hand and runs very reliably. Too lean settings result in a rpm loss at full throttle, but usually not to a quit. Important is to glow the plugs for minimum 15 seconds before starting and to run at elevated idle for a minute to allow the lower cylinders to ignite and warm up properly. I replaced the glow plugs only one time in these 5 years. So far, the engine was never opened or disassembled. I have re-adjusted the valve clearance about once a season.

After a nice flight last weekend I managed to land it with a flip-over. No damage to plane or engine visible, but the prop could only be rotated half a turn anymore due to some strange mechanical blockage. I suspected first the valves to be guilty, opened all valve covers, but found everything in order there. So I opened the back housing cover to inspect the crankcase. Finally I found one e-clip from a link pin missing. The linkpin obviously slipped forward during the nose landing and blocked the counterweight at both sides, resulting in the half turn blockage. The engine operated obviously quite a while with the deliberated e-clip. The e-clip desintegrated inside the engine and was milled by the crankshaft and the gears into small pieces. I discovered debris of various sizes all over the place, the majority of them in the front housing. However, I have not discovered any significant secondary damage besides scratches and marks in the casings. Pure luck! Gears and bearings seem to be okay, even if I found some chips near the bearings and on the wheels. I have to clean everything properly but it looks not too bad at the moment. Even the unsecured linkpin itself is in a good condition, nothing broken away, not bent, no wear. It was obviously only the e-clip, which failed, not the linkpin.

Remarkable is all the black grease in the front casing, which is different to the Brown oil, which was covering nicely all parts in the crankcase and around the pistons and valves. The main bearing is also covered in black stuff, which I have to investigate further. I would judge that lubrication was sufficient, no signs of corrosion. The front bearing , the needle bearings and the gears are also nicely covered in oil. However, during disassembly I managed to destroy 2 head bolts, casing gaskets and the left-threaded crankshaft bolt (...no comments, please...). And it took me ages to disassemble the Keleo ring...

Besides this incident, I have noticed some things with my engine, which I would also like to share with you:
- The black paint on the upper cylinders, presumeably running hotter, turned into a brown color over time.
- The rod covers are "dancing" in the front casing during operation, resulting in some black stain in these areas.

Now, I am looking for spare parts. When I did a maintenance with my Magnum FT160 two years ago I got the parts from "Reitter Modellbau" in Germany. Another source is "Justengines" in the UK. "Conrad" in Germany was a good source once, but they have no stock left.

Thanks for your comments and feedback!

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Hello Micha, nice to hear from someone who has operated this radial engine in regular service for five years!

I think maybe "divine intervention" made your Bücker nose over so that you would be required to open up the engine and investigate. So now you can clean it up and make it fresh again. Full size aircraft engines need a regular 'going through' also so it is not unreasonable that our model engines require the same.

Just Engines in the UK is a good source for spares and they are a reliable business. I have ordered spares from them myself. Those clear plastic gaskets are annoying. You could always use a liquid gasket maker in their place.

Good luck on your overhaul and continued good flying!

israelillo81

hello guys,


its been a while since i last posted. around two years. I bough my ASP400 from hobby king and only ran it for about a gallon, lesrning lots of tips from this forum. specially the oiling ritual and the valve clearance setup ( I think it wa sonic that mention a very import ant trick regarding re-cheking the clearance on the three bumps and adjusting to the average.
I saw as a pleasant surprise that Olivier now sells the Back cover upgrade for 200 euros. And that CH ignitions worked out a 5 spark module snd sensor. However i visited CH ignitions webpage and I did not see any product for 5 cyl radial.
has anyone tried actually to convert the ASP400 ?


Regards,


Israel

SrTelemaster150

Give Adruan a call. He will return calls promptly. C H Ignitions has many more systems than what are posted on the site.

tim750r

Olaf, are you still looking in on here? I hope you don't mind but I sent you a PM about your Gee Bee...

israelillo81

I will do thank you. where has everybody gone and continue ASP 400 discussion? any other forum ?