Tony Iannucelli
Posts: 210
Score: 115 Joined: 2/3/2002 Last Login: 6/12/2013 From: Parrish,
FL, USA Status: offline
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Wow, reading this string is really interesting. There are guys on here with over 12,000 posts. 12,000! That's a lot of time spent typing instead of flying, for whatever reason. Sorry to digress, but geez, what's a new guy to think? No offense intended by the way, really, none at all. If you have the time for all those posts and they are based on facts, not just opinions, I'm all in favor. I've flown OS, YS, K&B, Enya, Fox, and a bunch of others for 40 years. I've lost some engines to bad bearings. My fault, I ran them too lean, left some fuel in there, did all the bad things. In the early days I used castor oil and later a blend of castor and synthetic. I used to run Duke's 10% stuff and Missile Mist, have tried Byron, and several others. I've settled on Cool Power 20/20 and PowerMaster 20/20, all synthetic. Since I went to those fuels I NEVER had issues caused by rust in planes or helicopters. I did destroy some bearings when our field was dusty, and under reconstruction. Dust "hones" out engines and gaffes up bearings. But modern synthetic is the way to go on oil, and 3 in 1 "air tool" oil is the way to go on after run. (Walmart has it). I fly a lot and only use after run if it's easy to put in an engine. I put 20 drops in the carb and 20 in the plug hole especially if I know I'm not going to fly that particular plane again soon. I think it's most important to burn off the residue after a day's flying. Castor oil used to be good stuff in engines, and still is, but only an ounce or two added to a gallon is necessary if your engines are adjusted properly. Modern synthetics are really miracle oils, and a good analogy is Mobil One in cars. The old timers even use Mobil One, but still insist on changing it every 3,000 miles in their cars, which is ridiculous unless you get the oil free. You can EASILY get 10,000 miles on Mobil One in a car engine with NO wear whatsoever. Most cars today have 5,000 and 7,500 mile intervals anyway. But back to castor. We run helicopters with 20% oil, 23% oil, and 20 and 30% nitro. We can't use after run, engine position doesn't allow it. We don't have bearing problems generally, and we don't use castor oil at all. How do we get away with? We don't run too lean, and we use quality fuel. Helicopters are high heat environments. Synthetic works great, we don't bake on crud on our mufflers and cylinder heads, and we don't glaze the bearings and pistons with castor. But some people have done the same thing for so long they won't try anything new. They are missing out. Try upping the oil content in your fuel with helicopter labeled fuel. A dollar or two extra a gallon is worth it. Tower Hobbies and Hobby Services are great in my experience. They are fast, honor their warranty commitments, and are fair. OS states the warranty is good if you don't abuse the engine. They even cut slack on that. Welcome back to the hobby. Check out the guys at the field that are having a good time, who's engines always seem to run well, and who are respected for being good guys and good fliers by their peers. Ask them what they do. And you have fun too. -Tony
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