well hello all i need some help from some experienced fliers...
i am a newbie i had my plane out yesterday to fly everything was going well but the tower .46 kept just shutting off... the experienced person who was teaching me how to fly said it was from the engine not being broke in after a couple of flights and the motor shutting off the instructor placed the glow starter on the engine and it flew fine until the glow starter died. the instructor said i needed a glow plug with a idle bar i am running the tower hobbies glow plug right now any ideas on what is causing this it happens any time any place usually about half throttle...... the motor just dies....

p.s. do you think i should try a OS #8 plug for this motor



thanks for any input

yes get that plug it works great for this engine............make sure when you break it in it is rich and then after 10 flight lean it out till it drops then back it off just below max power..........make sure the fule tank it straight or that will mess it all up.

Sounds like bad fuel, how old is it and what nitro.

the fuel is omega 15% fuel I don't know how much nitro or oil it has but it is brand new bought last week....

15% is the nitro content.

Sounds like it might have been running a little too lean.
Dennis-

Change the plug and see what it does. Sounds like it is getting hot. Might richen it as stated.

Rapter is right try different plugs I had the same problem with my tower engine .





Tower engines are the best!!!!!!!!!

Wots the difference between all the glow plugs? I mean, they all use the same chemical reaction, don't they?

After many attempts to get a Tower .46 to run correctly finally the motor was returned to Tower which promptly sent a new motor. Problem with this motor was that when the plane was tilted up it would excessively lean out and usually quit. If yours has this problem it may be due to a similar defect in your particular engine.

differnet sizes, lengths ect

You were asking the difference between glow plugs. In a nutshell, they have different heat ranges, just like spark plugs do. Cold plugs are for racing and high nitro content and hot plugs are for lower nitro and sport flying. A cold plug will not run well in a sport engine on 10-15% nitro. 4-stroke plugs are usually very hot because the engine only fires every other stroke.

years ago when nearly all engines had a deflector plate on top of the piston, plugs had a small "idle bar" or shield on the bottom to keep incoming fuel from directly hitting the element. Modern schnuerle ported engines do not require this type plug, although it does work and some people use them.

The next time you are at a hobby shop, ask to see some different types of plugs. See if they have a "hi performance" plug. Look at it and the regular sport plug. The hi performance plug has a smaller hole and thicker plug body around the element. Since the body side walls are closer to the element, heat transfers from the element faster, making it cooler, hence the name, cool, or cold, plug.