G,morning.
Was wondering if I could use castor oil from Wal-Mart. They are 10 min away, the nearest hoppy shop is 1 hr. If I can, is there a certain kind to buy. Thanks

Mornin' Gene.

Castor oil is castor oil, methinks.

Coffee and bagles at my place?

CGr

(Dick)

On my way. Can I get there from here?

Umm... I think so. Tampa, Sarasota/Bradenton, even Orlando will get ya here easy enough.. as you guessed, I am down in Florida right now, but on a work related trip. Back home tomorrow, I believe.

Come on down!!!

Dick

RIGHT!!! Tough job but someone had to do it. Shoot by the time I get down there you will be back north. Hummm! maybe I'll go anyways.

So far I've gotten castor oil from the pharmacy and the grocery store. All castor oil is 'degummed'. Definitely look at the ingredients and see if there's been anything added. The pharmacy was $6.00 for 6oz, and the grocery store (price chopper) was I think $3. They both say 'castor oil: 100%'. I am a big fan of castor. Go ahead and get it.

Have to agree, I think I get my 6 oz bottles for like $2.89 or sumthin at the Walls Mort. I use it to mix new fuel and fortify cheap fuel.

Some people are really into castor oil. I often wonder why. I suspecrt there is a nostalgia factor, since castor oil has been used as a lubricant for many years. I believe it was used in the WW-I open-cockpit airplanes when the engine oil lubrication was partly outside the engine and the pilot got coverd with engine oil. He had to breath a lot of oil. Is that why they used castor oil?

I love the synthetic oil used in my fuel. That is the ONLY fuel I use today. What I love is that it does not burn on the cylinder head so the engine always looks brand new. I feel the engine runs cooler without all that burned oil covering the engine. . Sometimes I am embarassed at how little care i give my model engine. All my engines are OS 46 FX or AS engines. I NEVER use after run oil. I NEVER run the fuel out of the engine. Some of my engines are over 10 years old, and I fly a lot; about one gallon every two weeks. Sometimes I wish an engine would wear out so I could purchase a new engine.

If you love castor oil, use it. I'm not certain but castor oil may have been the oil in the fuels when I started in R/C in 1972. Back then I used to rebuild my egines with new pistons, con rods and bearings. I would NOT do that today. I prefer a clean engine than sticking with a nostalgic oil. Sure wish one of my engines would wear out.

I like castor cause it holds up better your synthetic oil will break down before castor ever does

Some engines very specificly say to break in on all castor (20% oil)

Steven

You might have noticed that there are almost no fuels readily available that are all Castor for the lubricant. For sure, some people still want castor in fuel, but almost nobody wants all castor. Things have changed. For the better.

There are no synthetics than normal people can afford that can stand heat the way Castor does as a lubricant. And that's why people who know about fuel want some castor in their fuel. And why there are fuels today with it in them. Castor provides an insurance factor that no synthetic provides. It has a lot higher ignition point than synthetics.

Some people are good at setting needle valves. Some aren't. Some like to know that if they wind up with crap in the needle valve or an accidentally lean setting, the engine will be protected by the Castor. You don't want it or don't think you need it? Then no problem. Nowadays you have a choice.

It's sort of humorous........... almost every engine I've bought since I started flying is still in perfect running condition. So whatever you do (kidding about to start ) don't start using castor and cleaning your engines if you ever want to wear an engine out and HAVE TO buy a replacement. BTW, I love the synthetic in my fuel too. We wouldn't be getting the power we get today without it.

Hi Flying freak
Please treat this as a light hearted conversation and thus bear with me. I am not arguing. Generally speaking, when I use the term "oil breakdown" like you did, I mean that the oil has stopped doing its job. High heat and many cycles causes the oil to react with oxygen and other things and turns it into something else, such as "not a lubricant". This is the environment found in automobile engines and industrial air compressors. In our R/C engines, the oil makes one cycle thru the engine and then goes out the muffler. Not much time to break down. Just a light hearted observation with no importance. I'm going flying.

An earlier post in this thread mentioned the total loss system using caster in WW1 plans. A little side bar to that is: many of the pilots had a chronic case of diarrhea. To much lubrication I guess.

oldernut

Yea, it allows you to run your engine 5 degrees hotter before it seizes! Other than minimal thermal protection there are no other advantages.

Happy Landings!

Where did you get that "5 degrees hotter" idea. Because it's not correct.

Yep, you never see any photos of A fat WW-1 pilot, even Herman was thin.
Castor Oil??? Give Brian Winch who writes the engine column for RC Report, The Oily Hand, an email and ask him what he thinks of the stuff. [email protected] I'm sure he will give you A truly informed answer.
He does return emails very quickly.

That is Oilyhand, not ilyhand, why this site always leaves off the o on this address I will never know????[>:]

Hi Gray Beard
I get R/CReport also and read Oilyhand. Could you refresh my memory of what he said about synthetics? I cannot remember which way he goes on this. Thanks.

It is my understanding that when the castor oil gets hot, it will form a protective coating on the engine components, that if by chance the engine is running too lean, will protect those parts. I guess over time that coating becomes unsightly and difficult to remove, but I like knowing that things in my engine are lubricated no matter what. All the manuals I've read (Magnum, Super Tigre, O.S. all talk about using castor oil in your fuel. Magnum says you must use it for break in, OS and I believe Super Tigre suggest fuel with castor oil. I love my OS46AX. It has withstood me running it too lean on my first time starting an engine, has been through two serious crashes, and runs the best out of any engine at our field. When I took apart the engine this last time, under all the dirt was a nice coating of oil. The dirt cleaned off easily, I used castor to lube all the parts to put it back together, and I use Wildcat Extra fuel with 18% lubrication, 20% of that which is castor. I've also added castor to other fuels to always have 20% of my lubrication be by castor oil. I think it's helped me, but I guess its just my opinion.

Heck why not use it. It's inexpensive and it works. If you don't want to maintain your engines by all means use full synthetic. Yes castor will harden and lock up an engine over time (lots of time) But you change the oil in your car why wouldn't you run a little after run oil through your engine to protect it during long term storage? Just my opinion, I'm an engine guy. [8D]

Villa, he doesn't care for Castor. I think it was his second month that he wrote about it. As I recall there were mobs of American modelers covering every airport in the USA just in case he tried to sneak into the country and they all had fresh ropes.
Pretty much everything he said is true but truth dies hard and changes in our way of thinking even harder.
Myself included.
I have been using Power Master fuel for years, 15% nitro and 18% oil BLEND, just because!!!
Because I can't find any fully synthetic fuel in my area and I have never had any problems with what I use. I use this fuel in everything from 1/2A to YS 1.40. I don't add anything to it. I know how to turn those screws on the carb so I don't need any more nitro to get my engines to idle way down low. I don't add any more Castor Oil for break in, that 18% has worked out just fine and I have never seen any sign of oil trouble on A tear down except for some glaze from laquered Castor oil.
By the way, he also wrote about our fuel breaking down over time too. { Or the lack there of} This one should be read by everyone. I have put his findings to the test several times and must agree 100% with him. I was running 10% fuel that was well over 10 years old without A hick up in some rather large four stroke engines. I didn't do it to proove any point, I did and will do it because I fly on A very fixed income and I never turn away from any free stuff.

Brian Winch began his journalistic career writing for the Australian Airborne magazine more years ago than I care to remember. He did engine tests (mainly a copy and paste from previous tests no matter what the engine was) and a column on the engineering side. Some of what he writes is good...some is rubbish. It's up to you to pick out the wheat from the chaff. Brian Winch is provided with all synthetic fuel for his engine tests, work that out for yourself .

There's no other oil that has castor's qualities but they can be enhanced (it's called synergy) by a blend with some synthetics. When synthetics get hot (as they do on the liner in a lean run) they revert instantly to the chemicals used to make them and it's called unzippering. That leaves the liner dry. When castor gets very hot it begins to change into another lubricant so still gives protection. At about 850F it'll burn but until then it's a lubricant (and by then your engine would have melted anyway ).

I think a lot of guys in this hobby have gone through 2 phases.....BC and AC. Before Castor and After Castor. I'm currently in my AC phase and have found no reason to go back.

There are a number of things in our hobby that have two correct answers. Fuel is one of them.

100% synthetic fuel works great for most flyers. Especially the ones who know how to set a needle and do so when needed. It might let down a few flyers who are careless.

Castor/synthetic fuel works great for most flyers who use it. There is somewhat of a safety margin in it. It might let down a few flyers who are sloppy.

Two fuels, two correct answers. But neither works 100% for 100% of the modelers.

Hi downunder
Good comments. Thanks. Are you sure that Castor Oil does not burn till 850 F ? That seems mighty high. Back in the 60s and 70s I was involved in testing different lubricants for use in air compressors. The drip oil lubricants used on large air compressors could catch on fire at about 400 F. As I recall, the high temperature shutdowns were set at about 325 F. I don't know if we ever tested Castor oils, but we were looking for oils with high ignition points. Ah, the good old days. I'm glad they are over. Just about everything is better today. Bad manners, disrespect, and plain stupidity does seem to be up though. I am disappointed when I see it here at R/CUnivers.

There's 2 different figures for oils as far as temperature goes. The first one is flash point which is what is usually talked about. Flash point is where the surface of the oil starts to evaporate fast enough to sustain a flame for an instant leaving a liquid still there. From memory, synthetics do this at around 430F or so while castor does it at maybe 450F, not all that much difference. But then there's the fire point which is when the oil is hot enough to be boiling completely and giving off vapours so fast it burns continuously. When you have a very thin film of oil it all disappears extremely quickly. Synthetics have a fire point maybe 10 or 20F above the flash point but castor is at 850F so basically it's impossible for any engine to get hot enough to burn off all the castor.