Hi,

I fly a World Models P-51 (.46 size) fitted with an Irvine .53, and also a 1909 Bleriot fitted with an old Saito FA40 Special Semi Head. My question concerns fuel - I presently use Model Technics Duraglow 5 - App 9%castor, 9%oil and 5% Nitro. I was advised by some members answering another thread of mine to go ahead and use the Duraglow in both engines. However...

Over here in the UK we have a specialist company named 'Just Engines' and on their website 'www.justengines.unseen.org/' states that Duraglow is good for 4 stroke/cycle engines - but NOT for 2 stroke!! They go on to say that all major 2 stroke engine manafacturers now will not honour warranty on a 2 stroke which has been run on Duraglow.

The only solution I could come up with is to increase the amount of oil by adding soem Castor Oil to the fuel. Your thoughts on the above would be appreciated - and if anyone is reading from the UK and can tell me where to get some castor from, that would be even better!

Many Thanks

If the fuel is 9% castor plus 9% synthetic, that's 18% total oil. OS and many other manufacturers recommend 18% oil content for the majority of their two and four stroke engines. Does justengines say 'why' they think your fuel is only good for four strokes?

Nah...

Check out the site yourself.. no reason given, but was just concerned..

I'm not from the UK but look for Castrol M. Castrol is an English company and even their name is a shortened form of CASToR OiL

Hi!
As you're from the right side of the pond why don't use 15% all synthetic oil like the rest of us is using in Europe!?.
Hardly anyone over here in Sweden are using castor oil these days.
Haven't you heard of the Germans developing new synhetic oils 10-15 years ago for modelengine use!?
15% oil is the norm over here and many use even lower percentages.
The German Aerosynht 2 and Aerosave from Fuchs, has been the most popular brands used here.
I myself use the French brand Motul...You have probably have heard of if from the motorcycle racing world or from F1 racing. Motul has a special synthetic oil made for us glow adicts called Motul "Micro".

Why Just engines in Britain advokates 20% castor oil and not synthetics pussles me??
Being the Swedish MVVS distributor I recommend 15% all synthetic oil for all glow engines.

Regards!
Jan K
Airracing products

http://hem.passagen.se/airracing

Jan,

Hear what you're saying, but I'm afraid I have had some bad encounters with synthetics - and many of my friends also!

Basically, when setting the main mixture needle, if you set it too lean with a castor oil fuel the engine will just stop. However, if you do the same with a synthetic fuel what happens is that the engine keeps running - so the modeller thinks all is well - and flies - only to find that during the flight as the fuel gets lower and the mixture leans out, the engine suddenly starts sounding a little 'strange'.

On landing, you find that the plating off the piston/cyclinder has been damaged due to the synthetic allowing the engine to continue running in an increasingly lean state.

...God doesn't make mistakes - I'm happy to stick to nature's castor as a lubricant.