Dan Vincent

I was wondering how many different colors SS did on their 1.5cc diesels. I had gold and plum colors plus a CS with natural aluminum finish. The CS appears to be the same engine but it could be a copy.

There have been some in red, green, blue and probably a lot more.

fiery

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I still have two. Cooling jackets are dark blue and "violet purple" anodise. The anodising is very good. Even, deep colour, and blotch free.

Neither engine is serviceable. Each developed a soft piston/cylinder fit within a couple of hours running.

A pity. They are an attractive little engine.

123Cat

The CS lasts longer than the Silver Swallow ?

Dan Vincent

I heard that CS took over production of the Silver Swallow and improved it but I have no actual proof to back it up. Perhaps someone knows for sure.

fiery

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For my sins I am about to acquire another 1.47. Not sure if it is a CS or Silver Swallow. It is coming with a couple of red case UK build Irvine's with DDD heads as a 'free' sweetener. Or probably because no one else is man (or masochistic) enough to buy it.

With a little mix'n'matching of working parts between it and my current examples, I may end up with a serviceable unit. Or, I may get 3rd time lucky and it could be good straight out of the box. Will report on it later.

AMB

Fiery good luck on the 1.47 regardless I know you will get it right if "adjustments" needed----On the Red Irvine 53s Davis heads nice they are the mainstay of my 50s have a bunch regards martin

paw080

Dan, Under no circumstances did CS improve the Silver Swallow 2.49cc or the 1.47cc diesel engines. As far as I'm concerned, CS totally screwed up

the original Yin Yan products. Hearsay reveals, that there were several Chinese firms that produced the Silver Swallow engines; before C.S. produced SS's.

Again, C.S.'s quality issues were caused by the complete lack of quality control of their engines. Although I know that Mr Gau tried, but to no avail...

Tony

fiery

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The original "Yin Yan" and early Silver Swallow engines were made in Shanghai by the "Teh Ming Sporting Goods" Company.

Here is my purple jacket Silver Swallow 1.47 c.c. Or is it a1.49 c.c.? The box and instruction sheet contradict each other.

Nice looking, but no compression at all. I can turn it over easily twisting the shaft extension by hand.

paw080

Hi Fiery, yes, the purple(magenta?) jacket SS you are holding is a 1.47CC displacement engine.

Tony

ffkiwi

time for my 50c worth-I've had about a dozen of these engine through my hands over the years-and still have 6- 4 of the 2.47 and 2 of the 1.47. All bar one were purchased new, mail order from Hong Kong-in the early 80s through to the early 90s.[which predates CS-so all were definitely Silver Swallow rather than the subsequent models. A range of head colours has been seen-including green, gold and natural aluminium [I suspect that that was one that sneaked through assembly rather than being a colour option]- I can say-=based on a sample size of around a dozen personally-and a few more by observation over the tears-that sky blue seems to be the most common colour for the 2.47, and red for the 1.47. The engines were rdiculously cheap being about NZ $20 for the 1.47 and $30 for the 2.47 (ex HK prices)-which is why I ended up buying so many on behalf of other club members.
I can also state-based on first hand experience with at least a dozen-that NONE were easy starters from new-several required the use of the 'electric finger' for that first run-but once fired up ran extremely well-and starting continued to improve as the engines got more running in time on them. I also found the 2.47 to be a lot easier starting than the 1.47-but this may be simply scale effect at play-or may indicate that the 2.47 was better made and fitted than the 1.47
During the late 80s and early 90s, Midge Speed was popular in NZ [to the uninitiated 'Midge speed' is a 'one design' C/L speed event using the Mercury Models 'Midge' 1.5cc speed model design-a rather crude thing dating back to about 1950, and limited to plain bearing 1.5cc diesels-flown pretty much only in the UK, NZ and Australia. Interest in the class has waned over the past two decades...!] At the time, the choice was using an elderly Frog, Elfin AM or DC 1.5cc (and no one wanted to use a DC...!) or a modern-but heavy-PAW. [OK a few clever bugger tried the Cipolla 1.5-but these had a habit of breaking shafts...] -someone in NZ latched onto the 1.47 Silver Swallows as a possible candidate-cheap, available new, reasonably well made, and at 105g a lot lighter than the PAW......certainly worth investigating further-which they did-finding as other had, that they're tricky to start from cold-and damn near impossible when hot! The late Alan Barnes-who was one of NZ's top C/L speed and T/R engine men stepped in to see what could be done. His investigations indicated that there was nothing much wrong with the design or porting-the main problem was too much taper on the P/L-great on an ABC glow-problematic on a ferrous diesel. He reworked a number by honing the liners and making new pistons-and in a few people's hands these started putting up very creditable performances in Midge Speed .

Now looking at the photos below-the 2.47 box is in the same style as fiery's orange one-and this is what I refer to as 'mid 80s packaging'-quite a large box with a moulded EP insert taking the engine, spanner, spare venturi and mounting bolts-all the engine I obtained from 'Winning Model and Hobby Supplies' in the mid to late 80s were in this style packaging-and as fiery has noted-the instructions were the same for the 1.47 as for the 2.47. BUT earlier-my first Yin Yan came from Radar Co in HK, the engine came in a flimsy carboard carton about 3" square-lavender in colour, with a picture of the engine on the lid-it still had all the accessories-spare venturi, mounting bolts and spanner. I refer to this as '70s packaging' as I would have purchased the engine new in 1980. The Ron Chernich site has details of a still earlier box-about the same size-which might be considered '60's packaging' -as the engines first appeared around 1963.

As a final point-the Yin Yan 2.47 in the photos with the prop on is a rare beast-an easy starting good running example-and more to the point, its an EARLY one-as indicated by the turned alloy compression screw locking bar-as opposed to the later ones which are stamped steel. This indicates that it dates to the 60s or 70s-rather than later, based on available information-and this is the version shown in Peter Chinn's LEN column in Aeromodeller April 68.



ChrisM
'ffkiwi'

paw080

Hi Dan, I guess I forgot to mention it, since I only have one 1.47cc SS;

it has a very common blue cylinder jacket.

Tony

dennis

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a 'free' sweetener.

definitely, How else can Australia get flooded with the little buggers. LOL

Dennis