Alex7403

And I don’t count crashes.
Thinking the experts didn’t learn the art of glow engines from manuals.
For me it was an OS 46 AX that I didn’t do the right break in, I don’t understand what but it was brown goo spitting from the muffler, I used byron fuel.
Few flights later it was spitting that brown goo from the cylinder head gap it was pretty much it.
Looking back I made a wrong break in and run it too lean.
Well that is how we learn things - from mistakes, for me it was only one so far.

Alex

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

There was probably something wrong with the 46AX from the beginning

davek

The first year I started flying, I was hooked on the hobby so bad I would try to fly in almost any weather. One day in the middle of the winter the temperature was at least 5 below zero. I tried to start my new Asp .46. I hit the spinner with my electric started and heard a snapping noise and the engine turned over really fast. The connecting rod pin on the back of the crankshaft snapped off. I don't know if I flooded it and it hydraulic locked, or if it was just so cold that the metal was brittle. The good part was that Asp replaced the engine with another brand new one. I still have it and still runs fine.

Broken Wings

My Feedback: (20)

Alex, Was this a new engine or did you buy it used? (OS .46)

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

ASP's were known to break crank pins at times

Was probably the cold weather

Alex7403

oh it was a new engine, sent it back and got a new one, that one I didnt know I had to use after run oil so it was ringing like rusted bearing, well the airplane crashed so bad that the engine was broken to pieces and I saw the rust spots on the bearing.
I wish the tuition wasnt that expensive.

Broken Wings

My Feedback: (20)

I killed a Testors McCoy .35 control line engine using Cox 1/2A fuel. It was peppy and ran real good until the rod went away.

You should read this thread.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1890371/tm.htm

I read and follow the manufactures instructions that come with the engines. I've never had a problem.

rcdude7

My Feedback: (264)

I did bend the rod on a OS .40sf when I tried to start this flooded engine with my starter. I knew exactly what I had done and replaced the rod with a new part. I still run this engine today.

I have never turned a engine into a doorstop or paperweight, not yet anyway............

modeltronics

My Feedback: (27)

Broken Wings,
I did the same thing...McCoy 35 red head and K&B 1000 fuel. Got one fast run but never again.

Pete

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

Early/mid 70's (as a teen ) I found a stack of '50's Model Airplane News mags at a garage sale...
In one of those issues was an article about "How to Hop-Up your Engine"...I thought [8D] Yeah! So...
out came my Dremel...heheheh
My McCoy .29 suffered from my "Hop Up" efforts...so did an O.S. Pet .09

I learned what not to do...which is just as important as learning what to do when it comes to modifying an engine.

spaceworm

Like Yogi Bera used to say. "you could look it up", and read the manual for the engine, or ask. I have been running model engines since 1953 (a new K&B .29 Torpedo Green Head) in control line, free flight, and since 1983, RC. I still have most of my engines (except a Wasp .049 that I sold), and have never toasted one. I rebuild them when I buy one with rusted bearings (Saito 180), or the "O" rings dry out and fall apart (old K&B .61 w/Perry carb), or when someone who did not "... look it up" and ran the engine too lean, or too little oil), or too hot in a tight cowl. But, almost all that experience was pre-computer/internet, and I had fellow fliers/boaters and a user friendly hobby shop. I think maybe it is too easy today, or there is too much information or something, because it seems that a lot of people want their problems solved by someone else with no concerted effort on their part.

Sorry, I am off my soapbox now, but willing to help others if I can. I try to teach a man how to fish, not give him one fish that he will eat and then go hungry.

Sincerely, Dick

summerwind

killed a K&B 6.5cc "elephant" once by getting it off on a rich run in Free Flight Comp............engine was built by "Bear" of K&B back in the late 70's.
threw the rod right through the bottom of the case.

rcdude7

My Feedback: (264)

Years ago there were some great posts here with pics of blown up saito 150 and 180 engines that had crankcase failures during flight. Maybe this was before horizon became a site sponsor/advertiser.

I also saw a 3w-150 QS have a case failure, the engine just quit in flight and the pilot made a nice deadstick landing. I think he went to DA engines after that event, it was just before a contest and he was not happy that he could not fly.

mike109

G'day engine nuts.

I haven't actually killed any engines but not for want of trying. I have tortured a couple to death though or at least given them "near death experiences".

My very first engine I tortured to death over a couple of years. It was an OS Max 15 II. I consistently ran it as lean as I could get it because that was what I was told to do for "maximum power". Thanks to castor oil and no nitro, it lasted about 3 years but eventually it was eating plugs and I pulled it to bits (as you do when you are about 13).

My next attempt to kill an engine was a bit more successful. It was a gold head Taipan 15 in a combat model. I ran it and its mate - a Super Tigre G15 on 100% nitro. By accident. After about 1 minute or going like a scalded cat, it seized and stopped but again, thanks to all castor fuel, it was not visibly damaged though its compression was never the same. The G15 only ran for about 30 seconds before it threw a blade off its Topflight nylon prop and shook the model to bits in the air. The G15 suffered no long term damage and I still have it.

The best engine death I have seen was a shaft run by a Super Tigre 60 speed engine which lost its "tooth pick" wood prop and then tried to suck its metal fuel tank into its self. Bits of the tank ended up buried inside the head. On their way through the engine, they destroyed the piston and liner and the bearings. It was very dead indeed. Very spectacular though. And expensive.

scott17

I killed some boat engines when I was young, running them very hard and lean.......didn't know any better...

earlwb

I tore up a couple of engines using tuned pipes and tuning the system to go for more rev's than the engines were really designed for.
Since then, I haven't killed any engines. I also started tuning the tuned pipe engines to run at lower revs.

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

I don't remember killing any engines.

I do remember lots of folks trying to run their engines on compounds other than what we recognize as glow fuel and they ruined their engines. For the longest time, I would not buy used engines because of how common this practice was. I would accept said engines as gifts, or perhaps trade items that were worth far less than an engine would go for had it not be "ruined" by fuel experimentation. Sometimes, the ruined engines weren't really ruined at all. The castor in some of the early run attempts had seized the engine and the owner didn't remember it being so.


Ed Cregger

ameyam

There was this OS 55AX which was my first engine. Wrung it out for just under an year with almost 10 sorties every weekend. During that time, on one occasion, I inserted the glow plug in wrongly after clearing a hydraulic lock and stripped the threads on the head. Replaced the head and it ran fine for another 6 months. Then during the off season, I wanted to clean-up the engine. On someone's recommendation, kept the whole thing immersed in thinner for a couple of days. Cleaned it all right, but it seemed to lose compression after that. A coulpe of weekends later, it siezed the brass bushing on the crankpin which promptly went to pieces along with the connecting rod. With the depbis in the combustion chamber, there was nothing to do but to junk the thing.

Learnt my lesson-keep the engine clean externally reqularly and only use alcohol to clean internally, preferably never. Also changing over to synthetic very soon to reduce gunking

Ameyam

ebenl

Cooked a 55ax with lean run of 4minutes .Replaced piston and sleeve . Running hard again on stick 40 ,but using 15nitro on ritch setting with tower 46 muffler for extra power

earlwb

NKM2K, actually I still have the engines. I kept them with the thought about rebuilding them. But the cost to rebuild is almost the cost of a new engine, so I never did it.
Anyway in both cases part of the lower end of the connecting rod broke off and shot peened the insides of the engines really good. it was interesting in that the engines ran OK, and I didn't notice until I went to fire them up for another flight and then realized something was terribly wrong with the engines.
I am a castor oil in my fuel kind of guy. A little castor oil goes a long way to prevent engine damage.

jeffie8696

Never have killed one, probably because of my auto mechanic training but Ihave tried to beat a few to death.

Dan Vincent

I can't remember ever ruining an engine but I remember a lot of guys breaking crankshafts in McCoy .049 diesels from overcompressing them.

Another common problem was guys flying stunt on concrete surfaces: one bad wing-over and they'd break a crank or worse.

Many a good ignition engine was siezed up on glo fuel.

Bone

My preference is to wear them out rather than ruin them.......there's a subtle difference [8D]

pe reivers

Lost count.
Most engines were ruined by experiments.

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

Had a TT Pro 46 bearing cage break apart and tear up the piston and liner.
Had an OS 40FX piston liner peel
Wore out the ring and connecting arm bushings on an Enya 45SS
Had a new Magnum XLS-46A that would not hold idle and after much work and frustration I gave it away.

None were definitely my fault, although the first three might be attributable to lean runs. Someone better with engines might have worked out the Magnum's problem.