RCU Forums - My first engine cleaning experience

Hello all,

After observing a little preformance drop form my 40LA in trainer and seeing that needle valve is moving a little. I decided to open the engine and clean inside of it. I had more than 100 flights more than 7 gallons of fuel ran thorugh.

I opened the engine and it looked better than I expected.

I first tried antifreeze method but I did not boil it so it did not help removing it, I tried fuel and used paper towel it removed some deposit afterwards I tried hot water soap and steel wool as O.S. Engines recomended, couple of swaps of steel wool removed all the deposit. I tried not to use it much.

Inside of the engine is now like new, I cleaned the carb(not dissambled it though), during the assamble process I used lots of after run oil to keep it lubricated.

Then I put some fuel and tested the engine after a few touches of the staretr and the engine fired up, It was great to see it running again and this time I didn't say.

"Damn engineers they put more screws than needed" :)

I did not have any screws extra laying on the bench.

This hobby is great !