cswann821

Hey guys,

I have an old friend that found an old oldbox in the garage that has 4 un-opened gallons of castor based 15% nitro fuel. I am currently out of fuel to fly my GP cherokee ARF, which I put a thunder tiger .46 in it which has only seen coolpower synthetic. Anyways, I have never used castor nitro fuel, and was wondering if anyone knew from experiance if running 4 gallons through a .46 - 2 cycle engine would be enouph to have to clean the shelak/varnesh/gunk that I've read builds up in the engine after running castor? 4 gallons for 30 bucks is a steal...I'm just being lazy, and don't like the sound of haveing to open the engine and clean her out and if I end up having to do so.... I'd like to know if anyone could tellme from their experiance,about how often I would have todo so. If I get these 4 gallons, I'd prob switch back to synthetic or try a 50/50 mix after I use them up.

Thanks,

Chris

The Ghost

One tank of fuel through the motor will have a caster film on the engine from spray out of the carb, spills, leaks, ect, If the muffler leaks it will be worse. The GUNK you talk about is burnt caster on the outside of the engine.

Cheers

KitBuilder

I went to hte local motorcycle shop and picked up some two stroke castor based oil additive. has worked great... only 8 bucks and to bump up fule from the 17-18% out of the can to the +20 reccoimended for break in takes very little.

Augie11

I won't open up the castor/synthetic battle again. However, I'd be leary of any fuel that's been stored in a garage for a long period of time. Especially in a hot, humid environment like Maryland.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

If it was never opened there shouldn't be any problems with it at all. I just burnt up the last of my old K&B fuel, that was really old!!

Broken Wings

My Feedback: (20)

I'd be all over it for $30......

beau0090_99

There should be nothing wrong with running the fuel, it may make your engine darker on the outside and the film will be greasy on the plane, but it is good protection and you may learn to love the smell of it so much you don't go back to cool power. I would jump on it in a hurry. As Grey Beard said, as long as they weren't opened and hopefully out of the sun they will be just fine.
C

Charlie P.

Buy it. Castor is not a problem inside an engine. Its lubricity increases with heat - which is the opposite of the synthetics.

Squirt four drops of after-run oil (I use Dextron III AFT fluid) directly into the carb or sucked down a short length of fuel line if it is hard to get at to keep the castor from gumming the carb & bearings during longer storage.

expo

My Feedback: (20)

Don't know for sure but I've been told that nitro percentages diminish after a few years of storage. If your engine lacks the power it used to have you can always mix it with higher % newer stuff.

cswann821

I've read about the great benifits of castor, and know that the only ill effect is the maintenance that needs to be done on engines that run it. The guy selling it, I fly with and know he's not trying to pull one on me. I have never ran it before, and was just wondering if anyone knew from experiance how many gallons if any, could I put through the engine before I would need to take it apart to clean. I've been told this takes a light steel wool of the piston, and other methods to clean the dark varnish off.

If it turns out I would only have to do it after I used the 4 gallons or perhaps not even after that amount... thats a bonus! but if a cleaning is needed after each gallon or two... meh.

Thanks!

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

OH goof grief the sky is falling and the next thing you read is your engine will get pregnant if it ever touchs castor oil.

The fuel is a steal and its not going to taint the reputation of your virgin engine

I have always used fuel with at least some castor in it since the fifties non stop and by golly I was not aware I was doing all this extra cleaning and field stripping of engines.

On second thought you better not risk it, just give me the guys phone number so I can buy it.

John

Augie11

Hey, the guy already bought the fuel. The worst thing that can happen is the engine won't run well or won't start at all. It simply means the nitro may be down and water may have come in right through the sealed bottle. I too have kept fuel for years but always in a cool, dark, dry place not a garage that hits 110degrees and 85% RH.

Rodney

As Grey Beard and John said, the fuel should be good to go. If it was sealed chances are not nitro was lost and everything should be okay. I've use castor based fuels for years and have never had a problem internally. Yes, any leakage to the outside of the engine will eventually cause a deposit to form but that is readily removable with a little effort and care. Also, long term storage after using a castor based fuel can cause the throttle linkage to stiffen up and even bind but, just a little heat from your heat gun and all is freed up again and ready to go.

Campy

My Feedback: (1)

The fuel should be OK. I still have a couple of unopened gallons of fuel in the basement - my fuel is going on 10 years old and no problems.

As for the castor...........

Yes it will darken the OUTSIDE of the engine, especially the muffler.

Yes, you DEFINITELY want to use after run oil if the engine is going to be stored (not run) for over 60 days. The castor tends to gum up a little after 60 days, but flushing with fresh fuel USUALLY takes care of the problem.

You WILL APPRECIATE THE ADDED INSURANCE the castor will give you. The castor gets into the molocules of the metal inside the engine MUCH BETTER than the synthetic oils. In the event of a "lean run" the castor will save your engine, with synthetics, at best, it is a "crap shoot".

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

And a big Mollybegolly for cripes sake. Alcohol doesn't go bad, Nitro doesn't go bad and Castor doesn't go bad!! If the fuel is in a can you can store it in the direct sun light until the cows all die. If it's in plastic jugs the plastic goes bed and starts leaking before the fuel goes bad. If, big IF, there was a big condensation problem and moisture gets into your fuel then the engine won't run, dump the fuel and fire the engine with fresh fuel and the sun will shine again and you can use the nasty fuel as a weed killer.
The only time your engine needs to be broken down and cleaned is over time, a lot of time and use. If you store your engine after running castor fuel you just heat it up with a heat gun to loosen it up, add fuel and fire it up again. I still have my old control line engines and they are all still working, none of them have ever had synthitc oil in them and I bought most of them around 1960.
I'm not a big fan of castor oil myself but I use Power Master fuel and it's blended so it has castor in it, works just fine. My engines don't leak fuel or get a lot of blow by from the carbs so they are even clean on the outside.
Look at some of Johns engines when he posts photos, none of his look like old cookie sheets with burnt on Pam either.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Chris for you not to avail yourself of this bargain based upon irrational fears about a little cleaning and even more irrational claims of water passing through plastic would be quite a shame.

I am not going to talk about how solidified castor after long term storage is actually an excellent rust inhibitor. Instead whats even more important to me is that tiny added protection caster offers by acheving a slightly higher temperature than the synthetics before it breaks down and that indeed can and will save your engine often.

Now ready for the big reveal? Ha its called Scotchbrite. Scotchbrite pads like magic when dampened will remove those deposits from the muff and around the cylinder head in just seconds if done every once and a while. Four gallons is hardly enough to bother wetting my Scotchbright. I am sure as heck not gonna dissassemble any engine to clean unless there are other reasons to. Even one that is stuck from long term storage is easy to free up with a little heat.

Do yourself a favor and enjoy the bargain.

Here is a little guy I,ve been running continuously from the sixties right up to lets see last flight several weeks ago, on first all castor fuel and later fuel with a small percentage of castor. This engine has never been disassembled! It has been stuck a few times from long storage between airplanes but nothing a little heat could not fix up and of course a little Scotchbright wipe ever now and agine.

John

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

[[8D] I haven't seen anyone running the old flapper in years, maybe John sould tell the kids on RCU what that odd looking plate over the exhaust port is and does, I'm sure it's a mystery to anyone under 55.
I decided to do a show and tell also. The big FS has been run for years and years with a blended oil, the FS is waiting for GP to send me back my carb so it can go into it's new home, the small engines are my control line engines and get run about every decade of so, they ware always run with straight castor. Why would anyone want to clean them or take them apart?? I just pulled these out of a bag full of them. The mufflers on both these four strokes is the burnt on castor. You can see how worried I am about it, I don't bother cleaning them at all. Who really cares about what the muffler looks like?? Well, I do have this one friend......
Photos took a while to load up, forgive me if they come out as giants??

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Its an OS tachometer. Each pin is calibrated from 8 thousant to 17 thousand and if the handle but was held tightly aginst the cylinder head and say the #11 pin flailed about wildly then that was your RPM if say the # 11 and #12 pin both were flailing then your RPM was about 11,500 RPM.

I,ve checked most of the pins aginst modern tachometers and it was pretty accurate especially if you honed your powers of interpolation.

I purchased it at Ed's Covina hobby near Los Angeles california around 1964 for I think $3.95 which was a bit of a luxury since that would buy over ten glow plugs at the time.

John

MetallicaJunkie

Thats neat !!!!!!!!