I'm sure most of ya saw the post on the redneck test stand. I do recall that it had some Machined/purchased parts in it. well i made one the other day out of the scrap lumber i had laying around and a couple aluminum plates. Granted it is 7075 T-6 Aluminum, but i grabbed it out of the scrap bin, so i think it still qualifies. I used some spare wire left from when i ran the electric fence for my throttle, no lever or anything, just hang on to the end and get fuel all over your hand. I guess in the spirit of spad engineering I did blow it and use a real aircraft fuel tank instead of a coke bottle like they did in the previous example, but no one is perfect right?

Looking back, i would have made it heavier or made some way to anchor it because i did have to sit on the back of it to keep it from walking around on the driveway due to the vibration when i had the engine "4 Stroking" due to the rich mixture during the breakin. I ended up smelling like i took a ride on one of my planes when i was done.

but i have about 4 tanks through this new .55AX now. it idles fairly well and consistant, and the throttle response is good already. Man this engine fired right up after i bottomed the needle valve and started from a good initial setting! I have a good feeling about this little beast already.

anyone got any reccomendations for a prop for this engine on a SSE?

here's some pics of the stand.

not shown in these pics is the block i added behind the fuel tank to keep it from vibrating back out of the ziptie and some foam padding i put around it to try to isolate it a little bit.

It looks significantly heavy to me.
Maybe putting some soft rubber on the bottom beams to get more square inches on contact with the concrete will stop the walking issue.

I run a 46 AX on my SSE. The APC 12.25 x 3.75 pulls my plane like a tractor(after I removed the muffler baffle for that extra little bit of ooph). With your 55 AX it will easily have very nice vertical pull. Sounds like a great setup! Check out some taller landing gear if you go for the 12.25 prop as the stock landing gear will put this prop very close to the ground if I recall correctly. I purchased some gear and bent it to get another 3/4"-1" or so clearance which helped.

My .46 AXes are rock solid once tuned. Start very easily and I've yet to have one die. Running A3 plugs on both. Pondering a move to the A8s.

somegeek

miles ahead of ya on that one. I just happen to do fabrication/structural maintenence on fullsize planes in the USAF for a living, so i have a whole fab shop at my disposal. in fact i already made some taller gear for my buddy's SSE. since i was looking to get one at the time, i just happened to make 2 sets. so I have that covered. as far as the .55 goes, that came as a suggestion from the same friend who i believe has a .46 on his as well. tell ya what, that .55 ran better about 30 seconds after i cranked it than my super tiger .45 does after countless hours of flight time. I might just turn into an OS convert as a result. I broke it in with the A8 that it came with. I will play around with props and plugs when it is in the plane and i can do some real world testing. I also happen to have a 12.25 X 3.75 APC prop sitting on the bench (the ST .45 didn't like it much). the manual with the .55 says 12/6, 12/7, 13/6, 13/7. so that 12.25 might be a little less prop than it likes. like i said, real world testing will determine that. I do expect some stellar performance out of it though.

thanks for the input.

Hey Scuba, just to clarify my SSE has an OS .50sx and a 13x4 APC sport prop on it. My Hanger 9 Funtana 40s has the 55ax in it and is swinging an APC 13x4W.

I was wondern if ya wood volunteer to sit on that thar fancy testy stand thingy ma'jig while I work out some issues wit my Evolution GT-35 gasser... I'll bring da shine

my bad... like i said, i was guessin. how's that .55 like the 13/4? the instructions say 12/6, 12/7, 13/6, 13/7... so i was curious where to go with that. i have a 12/6 and a 13/6 (both wood) and also the 12.25/3.75 (I think) APC that the ST didn't like very much.

for that gasser, i say we put some shopping cart wheels on tha thingamijig, drink the shine first and then have some real fun! see who can hold on the longest... RC rodeo!

ps. "testy stand"? sounds like some form of prison camp torture or worse.

looks like you could mount a wet bar under that thing.i have an old cable spool that i use to work on my lawn mowers and such and have several universal motor mounts i fasten to it when i need to test/break in a new engine.

that's not a bad idea either. maybe use the engine being broken in to generate electricity to run the fridge for the bar! I like it. i was thinking about what to hook up for a test stand, and things like the cable reel came to mind, just didn't have any, and i didn't wanna hang it on the end of the workbench because i didn't want it spitting fuel all over the chevelle in the garage among other things, so that is how the contraption you see came about out of scraps of lumber left over.