ORIGINAL: iacolb12
Another contributing factor between Nitro versus Gas power is the nitro methane. The original intent of nitromethane was to make small engines run as reliable as possible and produce better power. Most early RC engines ran pretty poorly on gas and diesel, especially at idle. To my knowlege there isn't that much physical difference between the engines.
Do you already have a plane needing an engine? As others have alluded to, a gas engine of comparable power will need to be larger CC than the nitro counterpart. I really only think this is an issue if you have the size limitation based on chosen plane or if you want a performance plane.
If your choice for gas is budgetary then there are lots of inexpensive tricks to boost power.
Hello,
Model ignition engines had left the scene years before carborated R/C engines arrived in the late fifties. Glow fuel had replaced gasoline many years earlier. The first R/C engines had dual needle valves and were called two speed engines. So no one ever tried to idle model ignition engines commercially.
Dave