ORIGINAL: Ed Cregger
Yeah, but if you mounted a dashboard mixture control for the auto engine, how long do you think auto engines would last? <G>
That remains to be seen, Ed...
In model engines, the mixture strength is the only control the modeler has over the ignition timing.
The C/R, nitro and glow-plug are all 'given' and cannot be changed 'on the fly'.
Since a lean mixture ignites earlier and burns faster than a rich mixture, what the pilot actually does when closing and opening the needle, is the same as changing the ignition timing.
This is true to some extent in full-size engines, but ignition timing is just ignition timing there...