Hello Bud Light,


Multi-cylinder attempts? Yes. There was plans on the table to make 2-stroke boxer twins out of the .049/51/.09/,15 TeeDee style of engines. This was considered during my tenure. Issue: The entire crankshaft wasn't strong enough to support two journals. And without a boxer style, you had no c'case low pressure with which to draw fuel/air. The design would have required a complete redesign of the crankshaft, and the addition of a rear bushing. Then the issue was raised up as to how you would assemble the same. Press fit? All in all, in the little engine, the logistics could not be worked out, and according to my engineering friend, never made if off the drawing boards. Just too much costs in tooling, too much costs in design, and no one was convinced that a twin (a very niche market at that time) was going to produce an ROI (Return On Investment). The whole idea was scrapped.

Our main competitor in the "toy" market at that time was Testors. Their engine casing were junk, but they did turn a respectable RPM, if only for 5 or 6 tanks. There was only one serious competitor. Rumor had it that a competitor had offered to the new owners (Leisure Dynamics) a redesigned .049 and sent engineering a sample. It was turning about 25k with a 6x3 glass prop. I heard it run only once, and never got to see it. Dave, my engineering contact got real quiet about it, and whomever it was became a company mystery. And I never saw anything in the marketplace either. It remains a big mystery to this day. Hindsight being 20/20. I am going to speculate that the individuals design was bought, and promptly scuttled. Not unlike how Microsoft treated their competitors.

This is only conjecture. I have no real hard data for it. But I hear the SOB run.....It was a screamer for sure.....

I've still got some of my old engines, along with an original McCoy .35 red head, and a Fox 36x (finger killer). They run like champs after 40 years..... I haven't lit up one of my cox .049 engines for probably 30 years. They have run in oil in them......But I haven't benched them in a long, long time. They are of the enlarged carb/mylar reed/ hand fit cylinder and piston vintage. I don't have any TeeDee's left.

As far as the Fox .07..... Never had my hands on one.

Regarding boats: They DID produce for a short, short period a small cabin cruiser. I was able to nick one out of the attic. And there was a proto for a marine engine, but it was not an outboard. It was a through-hull. I electrified the boat and ran it for a while. it was nothing special and handled like a tranquilized albatros in the water.

The through hull shaft as you can imagine was a disaster. Turning a shaft @ 18~ k? Ate the shaft in one run. And management decided again not to go through the tooling and engineering costs to produce a water cooled outboard that they were unsure of had a market potential.

I DID have my hands on one rough sand casting for the outboard; obviously an engineering proof of concept thing that failed in some way......But I didn't see any potential. It remained in the attic until the end.

As far as serious engine testing of Testor's .049. It wasn't taken seriously by anyone because of the low quality of the pot-metal c'case. It just didn't live long enough as an engine.

But I am sure there were some jems left over in engineering when the company went under for rev #1.


Dave................

PS: If any of you have a .049 that is in good condition, and that you want spooked up. Please let me know. I now live @ 9165' of altitude so I can't bench at sea level......But I can certainly do a before and after at altitude.