verbails

Having done every mod in the book and still overheating the dam on the outlet was last ditch!!! It works great full throttle for the whole flight no problem. As I said little mod big result! The article that turned me on to this had done some in depth testing and claimed up to a 60% increase in airflow in some installs hard to believe but I am a believer now!

Chris

masteromodels

My Feedback: (11)

Verbails , I will try it this week and let you know. Thanks.

dgiatr

ESM SPITFIRE 50CC with DLE 55 RA
second flight after repairing form crash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eLqiEHNtTg

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Not much good to post a video link that is private! lol

masteromodels

My Feedback: (11)

I was not able to view it either.

dgiatr

sorry i must have done something wrong, i will try to fix it,

its ok now!!!you can watch!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eLqiEHNtTg

kahloq

Nice flight, Good to see the dle55ra can be made to work in the esm spit. If you haven't already, maybe post a pic or two with the cowl off to show exactly how you have things setup so others can reference that as a guide.

dgiatr

i dont have any photos right now but its very easy to fix the problem. you just put some balsa baffling at the back of the muffler between muffler and carb and you try to make that baffling as wider as you can in order to cover as much area as possible so not to permit hot air from muffler to come into carb. if you dont understand then i will take my cowling off to get some photos.

kahloq

Makes sense. Should be helpful for anyone using this engine

masteromodels

My Feedback: (11)

I have decided to add an extension to the carb to actually go into the fuse. tube to help to keep the hot air from the muffler getting into the carb.

kwik

Yes, put a trumpet on it. Perhaps even let air come from the radiators, and make a tunnel up to the trumpet.

masteromodels

My Feedback: (11)

I added the carb extension and it worked. I happen to have one laying around and put it on this morning and my buddy came over and we ran the engine with out the cowl first and everything was good then we added the cowl and ran it for approx. 7 minutes. holding high and mid range and idle up and down each for a minute and no overheating. I like to thank the fellow that sent that thread. I forget who it was off hand but it solved the problem. Now I still have the air scoop on top , I will leave on for a while until I fly the plane a couple of times and then take it off. I also realized That My lead weight could also be a problem, My buddy made it into a horse shoe shape and it is approx. a little over 3 lbs. and is only an 1/2 inch from the muffler so that lead could also hold the heat from the muffler and transfer the heat to the carb. But for now it's working so i will fly it first before I make any more alterations.

Freewuns

Any chance of pics with your final setup mastermodels? I have the same setup with the same problems. thnx

Claydoc

Thanks guys...

I too was having flame outs in flight on my DLE 55RA on my ESM ME-109 .... Could not understand it... fine on the ground everytime, but after 5min or so min flight... dead stick... and no way would it start again when hot.... Spark plug dry as a bone too...

Did this simple mod and put a baffle between carby and muffler... Problem fixed! ***???

Regs Chris

dgiatr

Nice to hear my friend!
i fly my esm spit 50cc with dle 55 ra fixed with that baffling between carb and exhaust for 2 years now and i have no problems!
i have done the same thing to my esm bf 109 50cc too!

masteromodels

My Feedback: (11)

The easy fix that I found and was told to me on this forum was to add a Velocity stack so the carb would suck the air form the fuse. This worked fine and never had a problem again. This prevented the carb from sucking the hot air from the muffler. Just cut a hole in the firewall directly in back of the carb so the stack can run through , it does not have to run all the way through just part of the way. Just loosen the 2 bolts on the carb and bolt the stack on , that is it.

jeffrey solomon

Dear Mastermodels

I have the same problem with an ESM P-51D Mustang and the DLE 35 RA. I can appreciate your frustration with this problem and some of the recommendation well intentioned people have given you. I too have the cylinder head completely exposed to the air flow and yet recommendations to baffle the scoop have been made and I have installed a baffle. My problem occurred when I (no cowl ran great, cowl with smaller skeletonized back plate, ran great, waiting for scale back plate to try)
placed the cowl and scale ESM spinner on the enclosed cowl. I even reversed the mock exhausts to act as inlets rather than outlets. Is it possible that a baffle could better direct air to the head
more efficiently than the head in the air stream on it's own ? It seems counter intuitive. But I was able to use a toilet paper roll as a scoop baffle and even one above that. I have even sent the solid back plate to a machine shop to drill eight hole in it to allow air to enter from the spinner by the prop and pass through the back plate into the engine, will even try a baffle of aluminum behind the stock box muffler to channel air out of the cowl. No one mentions the spinners possible contribution to the overheating.

What if any was the solution you found to this problem ? Was it several things you must do ?

Chris Nicastro

My Feedback: (3)

Everyone is talking about air but what about oil?
What oil mix ratio are you using? What oil are you using? What does the engine temp at when testing on the ground?

Then an in terms of cooling the basic method is 3 to 4 times the area of the inlet equals the area of the outlet. I've run with baffles and without them. I've flown several DLE 35RA, 55 and 55RA installations all inverted and cowled. Depending on the cowl situation you can add baffles otherwise they are not always needed.
Lon the Yellow P-38 the engines got baffles, heat shields, carb Venturi intake and diaphragm intake mods. These two DLE 35RA's run very well and cool.

Meschmidt

My Feedback: (15)

Seems the DLE RA is good for aerobatics and 3D planes but not warbirds. 3d planes are rarely full throttle and warbirds are full throttle most of the time. Seen a lot of DLE warbirds with this overheating problem. Of course the DLE engine does not last very long in a warbird either if you fly it frequently. Use a Sachs, Quadra, or Zenoah or equivalent quality engine. Need the nose weight anyhow.

predman

My Feedback: (7)

I have the hangar 9 30cc plane with the dle 35ra in it. The cowel is super small and overheating could be a problem. The way I solved my overheating issue from the beginning was I made a plate out of plywood and mounted it to the stand offs between the top of the muffler and bottom of the carb. I run 30.1 oil mixture in all my engines. This might solve your problem.

radfordc

My Feedback: (14)

Wow, I better go junk all the DLE 55 engines that I'm using in my Warbirds now....who knows when one of them will self destruct!!

The stuff you read on the internet....

Chris Nicastro

My Feedback: (3)

The DLE engines I've run from the 20 to 55RA, and soon the 61 this spring, have all been solid with zero problems.
I fly only warbirds and scale planes with these and have solved any heat issues with minimal effort. The P-38 was the most technical to solve and then I took it further because it's a twin so reliability was my main concern. In my P-51 it was no problem fully cowled with the 55 side exhaust version and wrap around pipe.

Things you should do with a new DLE - change the spark plug to a NGK CM6
Things you might need to do if your having a starting issue - sand the intake reed block faces flat and set the reeds to be sure they are sealing.

Thats it. I had about 50 or more flights on a 55RA in a TF Corsair with a Xoar 22x10 wood or carbon prop and the only issue was the muffler. I fixed it and it's still in use with its new owner.
The plane flew with and without the dummy radial and the temps were ok either way. I even filed the top fins so the engine was not sticking out of the cowl as much. The RA engines make the best installations they are so compact.

In terms of the oil and ratio I'm still using Klotz Technoplate and have tried Bell Ray, Golden Spectro and a few others. So far for me the best combo has still been Koltz with Non Ethanol 92 octane gas. I've been using a ratio of 32:1 with no issues. The engines fire up quickly and upon inspection they are very clean inside and free spinning.

TF 60 Mustang - DLE 20, DLE 20RA
TF GS Mustang - DLE 55
TF GS Corsair - DLE 55RA
TF GS Stinson KIt built - DLE 35 RA
TF GS P-40 - DLE 61 (spring 2017)
Zero - DLE 35RA
YA P-38 - twin DLE 35RA

All of these installations have run great, cool and reliable.

Then there are a bunch that I have helped out tune or fly for club members in various types of planes.

ForcesR

The heat shield I have installed on my DLE55RA's; since installed I have never had a problem with the engine quitting in flight due to vapor lock. It's made from 1/8' plywood covered with self adhesive aluminum tape and attached to two standoffs with 4 tie wraps. Works great!!

I also have the ESM 50cc Spitfire which has the 55RA with heat shield installed. The only things remaining before assembly is complete is installing the resin fishtail exhaust manifolds and addition of nose weight to achieve CG.


Roger

raptureboy

You have the same issue as I had with my 60 size mustang and P-40. The pitts muffler is causing the carb to heat up and vapor lock the engine. Like the others have said you can cut all the holes you want but if you are not forcing air through the cowl with ducting it is just swirling around in there doing nothing .

ccostant

My Feedback: (38)

I did exactly the same baffle as ForcesR, i.e. Roger, on a Top Flite P-51 with a DLE 55RA. So far this engine runs better than the 2 DA50s I have. Top end RPM @ 7000 and idle @ 1350. Ran it all last summer at high temps, absolutely no problem running wide open for the entire flights!

Changed the plug to NGK CM6 and running 32:1 Penzoil air cooled oil.