Hi all, I am hoping to hear back from a flyer that managed to mount his 2 stroke engine at an angle that means the muffler ends up at the the bottom. It looks like the original mounting uses hardwood blocks to mount some metel plates to with the engine attached to the plates. [8D]

You are going to have to do a great amount of surgery to the plane in order to mount the engine with the muffler on the bottom. It is a very narrow nose... I guess you could cut the nose at the firewall level install a new engine mount and engine and then rebuild the nose around the new engine location.

"It is a very narrow nose... " > very narrow indeed! It will be a challenge. Have to stare at some more and see if some ideas pop up.

Even if you manage to install the engine sideways, more than half will be sticking out the side and just to get the muffler on the bottom? I flew one for several years with the engine mounted upside down and the muffler on the side and it flew great! Mine finally died due to "forgot to properly charge the receiver battery and check it before each flight syndrome"...

Invicarh , thankx for the feedback, heres my thoughts after looking the plane over; in both cases something has to be cut out for something to be sticking out the side. If I go with the the manual, its the muffler sticking out. If I mount the engine sideways then its the head sticking out. If I go with the head sticking out, the muffler would point straight down resulting in almost zero clean up and probably less problems with the engine running so thats 2 pluses. I have to look it over closer and think it over some more.........[:-]

From experience I can tell you that the installation as per manufacturer is clean and the holes to the fuse are relatively small. If you try and mount the engine sideways you will have a big hole for the head and probably more than that. Remember that the engine mount is on the center of the crank case so the majority of the engine body will be sticking out the side. I do not want to discourage you from experimenting but I think the enjoyment you will gain from flying this plane will more than pay for when you weight the cleaning issues...

I am on my second 40 size Rascal, this time electric - NO COWLING HOLES... Still waiting for batteries but it should fly some time soon.

You've got me thinking sooo I won't be cutting/chopping/mounting any thing yet. [8D]