I am a newbie to glow engines and airplanes. just finished building plane and had a buddy over to start. He insisted to spin the pop clockwise which is WRONG. We probably spun it clockwise a dozen or so times before I referred to the trusty instruction manual. We only spun it about a dozen times the right way with no luck. My question is DID I DAMAGE MY ENGINE BY SPINNING PROP WRONG WAY?? IF SO DO YOU THINK IT IS FIXABLE OR WOULD I NEED TO REPLACE THE ENGINE? I am going to shop tomorrow to put an electric starteer on it. Hopefully it will fire up! Thanks for the help.... I guess I can say at least I haven't lost a tooth or set myself on fire trying to start the thing

Your engine is fine,most rc engines will run backwards with little effort or accidently,,you need help before starting your engine unless this is some troll..(fake thread)..you are too new to start this thing by yourself if your not sure which way it turns....Rog

Nope, it will not be damaged. Check to make sure that the prop nut did not loosen up.

You need to prime the engine to get fuel to it. The way to do this is this

Fill the tank with fresh fuel

Leave off the glow ignitor/driver and open the throttle all the way
Place a finger over the carb and using you hand rotate the prop and while you are doing that you should start to see fuel moving through the line. Do this until you see it get into the carb.

Now close the throttle, attach the ignitor/driver and try to start it

Another way it to open the throttle, put a few drops of fuel right into the carb, cloe the throttle, attach the driver and try it

Also, with the throttle trim in the middle and the stick all the way down, you should see a very small opening when you look into the carb. This opening should be roughly 1/32 to 1/16th of an inch. If you do not see it the carb is all the way closed and will not allow any air into the engine which will not allow it to start

What plane/engine are we talking about here, that would help allot. Also giving us the exact steps you are using to try to start may also help

Nope, nothing wrong at all. It will be fine. In fact, these motors can actually run backwards when you start it. This is usually caused when the engine is flooded, but it's nothing to worry about. Just kill the motor with the radio and restart the motor in the proper direction.

Ken

As far as I understand all 2 stroke engines can run in reverse (sans water/oil pump issues and other things that glow engines don't have). In fact the new ski-doo and polaris snowmobiles use this feature for the reverse. When you press a button then engine idles down, and right before it stalls, the computer sparks way advanced and the engine starts spinning the other way. Not only is the button much lighter than a reversing gear box, but it's more reliable, and works better too.

Not really rc related but cool 2-stroke stuff non the less.

Have you considered electric?

Your friend is starting it properly. It's just another mothod of starting it. Flipping the spinner backwards will go into compression backwards, fire, then run forward. A flooded engine will just as easily run backwards. Comes up on comp., fire, then ran backwards for a short time. Electric starter is good for balky engines and saving fingers.

Hit her with an electric starter last night and she fired right up. No probs. Thanks for all the info.

Now that's why I like the group...very detailed....helpfull to us 'newbees'