what happend to my engine?
 

I have just bought a Hanger 9 alpha 40 and the first time flying it i wrecked it. The accident was due to the "taped" together wings coming apart in midair! But anyway after the accident I cannot get the evo' engine to run right. When i had that thing running before the accident it ran AWESOME now after it has been repaired it has not run correct since....Any suggestions

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Pull the engine apart and do a thorough cleaning. Make sure the carb and needle valve are clean. Check the cylinder,piston and bearings for score marks where dirt may have been injested. You may have bent the crankshaft also. If you aren't up to this, you can send it back in for repairs.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Hi (and welcome to RCuniverse.com)
You'll find plenty of helpful people heree, but you need to supply some more information about what''s wrong for people to help you.
What's the symptoms of the engine, start, idle, high speed, etc...

You say it doesn't "run correct", sorry, nobody can help you with that little information provided..

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

sorry im new at this it seems to be the idle and high speed

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Lee40,

Bummer!

Trash in the needle valve?
Crack in the needle valve assembly?
Plugged air bleed hole?

Could you give a few details on its present behavior and what was damaged?

Hay Doc, I dont feel good, what do? :D

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

mashed the firewall cause it hit the nose but other than that not much damage. the plane is hard to start but when it starts it runs good on the low end but when i rev it up it starts to sputter and then it quits.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Could be many things including just off tune. Make sure no pin holes in fuel line. Are there any bubbles in line going to the engine and I assume the pressure line is connected.

Is there any mechanical damage to the engine, was anything bent? Even if you think you straightened it out please list ANY damage found. Don't bother with the broken prop, that is assumed.

Sorry for the loss of the plane but I haven't seen one of these fail this way before and there have been several thru my field. Did an experienced flyer look over the build prior to flight or check it after the accident and see if more could be determined? Alpha's normally perform quite well.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Sputters and quits on advancing throttle...

Sounds too rich and or the idle air setting is too rich. The crankcase gets 'loaded' up with fuel while running slow and this is pulled into the cylinder as the air flow increases drowning the plug of just getting the mixture too rich to burn.

If it quits clean it could be too lean.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

nothing is bent or broken on the engine i took the carb off and cleaned it because dirt got in the carb but other than that its ok oh and we did manage to get the plane airworthey again.
no havent talked to any experts yet about it.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Yes you have!;)

You know, I had a similar problem this past weekend. Assuming everything is clean,straight and needled properly, it MAY be the glow plug. I pulled mine out and stuck it on the glow driver. The last couple coils at the end never heated up. Replaced the plug and flew. I still have a few problems, but it was at least flyable after that. Before, it acted like the low-end needle was off and couldn't be corrected.

BTW, how did you check the crank? If you went in on the nose with any speed, you could have bent the crank slightly and it's binding enough that high rpm aren't possible. It could heat up and bind pretty quick.

Check the manual for low-end needle use. It does sound like it's loading up.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

DO NOT fly that alpha again until you've epoxied the wing halves together. If you do, the same result will happen--sooner or later. next time it could be much worse!!
Did you clean the engine thoroughly after the crash? You may have trash in an intake port, or the needle valve, or carb somewhere.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

man thanks ptalmer that was the problem i replaced the glow plug and she runs like a top. You was right only half of the coil was burning. to think i did all that and it was the plug. But Ill take your advice 2slow2matter and epoxie the wing....again thanks you guys for gettin me back on track.....

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Good Stuff, Get that wing securly joined and go fly... We expect you to check back often and chat with us here at RCU :o)

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Glad it was that easy once found, and cheap too! :)

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

You know, I'd never had that problem before. A more experienced club member saved the day for me. Glad I could pass it on.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Ditto. When I bought my Alpha, I didn't know any better, so I just did as the instructions told me to do (use the tape). After several flights, the tape began to tear and peel off. That's when I epoxied the wing together. I consider myself lucky that I didn't lose the plane with only tape holding the wing together.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

are you guys saying that theres nothing in the instructions about glueing the wing halves together?.thats un beleivable[X(]you guys were lucky !! just goes to show what ive allways said ,dont just trust what the instructions say!!use your own judgement its your plane and your money so whatever you think is wrong with the build do something about it and ask others on here for advice.

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

You should also check the fuel clunk in the fuel tank. A lot of times a crash will cause the clunk to be thrown to the front of the tank and lodged there. When the tank is full the engine will usually run ok, but will quit after a short time when the fuel level drops a little because the clunk can't move to where the fuel is. A crash can also cause the tubing in the tank to get a tear in it where the tubing is connected to the metel tubes in the tank. This will cause bubbles in the fuel line.[8D]

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

its just dirt in the engin m8 ur lucky if u havent ruined the liner..

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

Your flying a plane with taped wings?

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

The Alpha 40 has a large wing tube and a small one on the RTF version as is designed to use tape to hold the two halves together in case of a need to replace a wing half if needed that is what I was told anyway because I have this plane and there is nothing in the instructions about gluing it also there is nothing in instruction about gluing the tail section because it is bolted together they made this plane like this because I also have the ARF replacement kit and it all has to be glued but not the RTF.

Chris

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

you learn something new every day:eek: it seems a very unreliable way to stop your wings colapsing?TAPE!!!.remind me not to buy one of those lol:D.i can think of any number of ways to hold them together but tape is not one of them!!.sometimes the old ways of building are the best it seems like a lot of things nowadays are built with the expectation that things are going to break !!.so the quality suffers as a result .give me a one peice wing any day ,you know glue actualy works!!.:D

RE: what happend to my engine?
 

The purpose of the tape is not to prevent collapsing of the wing. It is to keep the wing halves from sliding off of the joiner bars. There are many planes out there where the wings are held onto the joiner tubes with rubber bands and the like and most find nothing wrong with that. I have seen several "taped" Alpha's fly with no problems with the wing joining tape. I can not tell you if lee40 installed his tape correctly or not, or if he performed the balance of the assembly properly. Sure, I would prefer a better method but this one has been shown to work on this plane. If it wasn't reasonably reliable I think it is fairly obvious that a change in assembly method would have been made by the mfg. The rubber bands that hold the wing onto the fuselage should have been enough to keep the wing together, even if the tape was missing. Something more was going on here than what we have been told. IMHO The wing collapsed and all it did was "Mashed the firewall". That doesn't sound right either, did this happen on takeoff