chevy43

I have been so happy with my .40 LA conversion running my "Baker Black Brew" mix. It hand starts and flys without missing a beat.

I decided I wanted another conversion so I got out my K&Bs again. I took a new K&B.65 out and broke it in on glo fuel. I then swaped heads and tryed to run it on my Black Brew mix. I was almost totally unsucessful.
I even tryed it on 3 or 4 times more either than my Black Brew - 18% - 24%. I finally got it to run rough but it wouldn't smooth out or run without my finger on the choke no matter how warm I got it. To be fair it was fairly cold outside but my .40 LA would have been running fine ( it too requires alot of choke till it warms up ) That is what I have found nessasary on 6% either fuel.

The K&B has an aluminum cylinder with no liner I think and it may dissapate heat too fast compared to the ABC or ABN of the .40 LA + the head has alot more aluminum surface area than the .40 LA. They both use 1/2" diameter contra pistons. The contra piston is reasonably insulated so it can get hot but all that area around it is a heat sink.

The K&B doesn't seem to hold compression as well as the LA .40 which doesn't seem to bother it at all running glow fuel.

The other thing could be the carburator just doesn't vaporize my Black Brew well. I could try a .40 LA carb on the .65 but I doubt it is worth the work. The K&B.65 runs so well on glo and swings big props and is so quiete that I think I'll just use it that way and look for another better conversion.

Maybe I should stick to the LA series since I have had such good diesel performance from them. I could go with an LA .65

I might like to try a ringed engine since I think it might have better compression since the piston fit doesn't depend on the temprature being just right.

Any .60 to .90 egine reccomendatins. I wan't a fairly reasonably priced engine. I don't really need ball bering since it won't see hi revs.

Treven Baker


My "Baker Black Brew" mix:

18% Dello 400 diesel crank case oil (Used)
2%cetane bosster
80% pump diesel.

This is worked OK above 60 deg F.

The most reliable hand startable mix: 4 parts Baker Black Brew with one part Davis fuel giving aprox 6% etther and in the future I may just use a can of JD ether per gallon and no Davis mix.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

The LA .65 converted will turn a 13x8 3 blade at 9,000, I'm not trying to be a bad guy, but that fuel you're trying to burn is more suitable for a Naval Destroyer built in 1933.

chevy43

Maybe your right but it works perfectly ( perfect is good enough ) in my .40 LA and not too bad in my .61 PAW so there is something different with the K&B. It has given me a huge amounts of trouble free fun flying time and everyone is intrested in it at the fields and comments how well it runs.

"Baker Black Brew Destroyer Fuel" I like that!

AMB

hOBBSY at least he is recyling the diesel drain oil that brew is only a step above bunker C but the engines do run on it. wonder what color comes out of the exhaust I know my hornet 061 which will be here in a day or two will not, Got Bobs new head to put on it
think it will be a lot less hassel than the norvels with their crazy break-in martin
and the TT 61 head is now a production issue from Davis

on a serious note with his sucess on other engines think the 65 may just have too low a compression, it just occured to me that
the fact that it did start and run (although not well) with the finger on the choke is the excess fuel may be adding to the compression seal I was messing with a traxx 12 glow engine conversion in an RC car engine about 2 years ago and did the same thing it would
not run above 5000 this by the way was on davis ABC mix. It never went past that since we had a rash of garage thefts here it it left along with my generator, compressor, and some power tools not really into RC car thing so I never replaced it, all my planes and engines are in the house so I was lucky, mY drone diesel back in the 50s an on about 75% ether 25% castor with no kero or # 2 fuel oil
hence not a lot of BTUs in the mix not a lot of power a regular glow would have done better

AMB

Chevy 43 if my road vanishes in front of my house I will know where it went you will have melted down the asphalt for fuel
martin (and you and yours have a great Christmas)

Stuntguy13

If you think it is running to cool maybe you could make a temporary heat shield from a strip of insulating tape that you could wrap around the cylinder and see if it helps. You may also want to try some std diesel mix (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) as a test and control fuel then if it works move to your Black Brew.

FrancisPerson

How does your Sportster .65 Diesel Conversion run with Davis fuel?

Francis

chevy43

I didn't perform so well on Davis fuel either. I had it on a plane and it did fly but it didn't run great like my .40 LA does on my "Baker Black Bunkeroil Brew" I'm starting to think it has to do with the carb being too big as well.

Hey Martin,

I have pleanty of used oil around here so your asphault is safe for now Merry Christmass to you too!

Treven.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Francis and Trev, how much play does your crankshaft have at the back end, I traded an OS carb for a K&B .61 which turned out to be a .65. It has some serious movement at the back end of the crank, no bushing. I can only assume that this one is a trade in engine.

Francis, I badly burned my throat, bronchial tubes and lungs last Friday and have been confibned to bed since with very pneumonia like symptoms. Much Benedryl and Amoxicillan later I can almost talk.

chevy43

Radial play or end play? I have about 4 K&B .65 sporsters so I can check for you.

Treven.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Radial. when I put the crankpin at about 90 degrees and gently move the prop driver the crankshaft moves up and down considerably.

FrancisPerson

Dave, How do you burn your throat? and --- Sence a K&B Sportster likes 13" props on glow what prop on Diesel???

Francis

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Frasncis, I burned it making two 6' long laminations on my 12' Telemaster, that is a lot of CA. I don't have a Diesel head for the .65 but if I did I'd run a 12x8 three blade or 13x8 three blade.

dennis

My Feedback: (90)

I ran a 65 Sportster for a few seasons and it was routine to use 17 or 18 inch props on the plane that it was in. I never ran it as a glow and was always an easy starter and a consistant runner. No motor that is over the hill compresion wise or has mechanical problems is going to be very good no matter what form of ignition you use on it.
I did have one 65 dieselized Sportster that had an untimely end though. I used some of the new Dubro shock mounted motor mounts on a plane. You know the ones that look like the old Sig aluminum T mounts except that they hace a nice rubber mounting system for them.
To the point then. I didn't have more then a dozen runs on it when one day it stopped dead in the air. Upon landing the crankcase was found to be split on the bottom. Lesson relearned was never use mounts that are not interconnected and never use shock mounted T mounts. I got a new case and rebuilt the motor and eventually sold it and the plane it was on. To the best of my knowledge it's still flying,
Dennis

gkamysz

My Feedback: (19)

I'll have to keep that in mind about the mounts. I have a Dubro set that came with an OS FS-52 I bought at a swap. I was going to use it with the engine after I converted it to diesel to reduce the amount of vibration transmitted to the airframe. That would be an expensive failure. I could see how a mount like that would stress the crankcase. I might make up some bracing to connect the beams.

mylamo

My Feedback: (1)

Those mounts are bad news. Not much you can do
short of welding them to a piece of 1/4 aluminum.

FrancisPerson

Dave,

Build yourself a shop fan like this one.

Francis

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

In my old shop in Alexandria, I had a 9" vent fan right in front of me exhausting straight through the wall. Never had a problem there. I'll use Super Tite Bond for the rest.

AMB

Hobbsy I choked pretty good CA fumes working om the fus of the SE5 and it was only a small amount. I have used Gorillla glue to join wing halves I also lightly moistened the wood and the stuff penatrates the wood fibers and the oozing fills any gaps after setting up overnight super strong just as good as epoxy maybe better in some applications what you do not wipe off sands off easy-- martin
small point but it appears lighter in weight too Hope to bench the 061 hornet soon with the diesel head plan is to use it in the Stuka

Lets see how it compares with Trevens as I said if it turns the 7x4 at 10K in the Stuka it goes and as Treven states its light
and Treven I have no diesel drain oil alas it remained all 13 or 15 qts at the dodge dealer last week when i had the oil changed in ny dodge cummins turodiesel

chevy43

Dennis, I forget were you using the stock carb on your K&B .65 diesel? I might give it another go but if it still doesn't work I'm going to see if someone might trade me another head for mine.

Martin,

Please post on your results with your Wasp .061. I really couldn't get it to run well with the RJL head - it did run but not well. It sure runs nicely on glow.

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

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All of my K&B Sportsters (1-.65 and 2 .28's) took a long time to break-in for really good glow fuel use. Tons (well, it looked like it) of metal was expelled through the exhaust port for six or seven runs before it started to clean up. Even after that the compression was low and the power wasn't there. After thirty or forty flights the engines began to "come in" and the compression improved substantially on all three engines. Frankly, I was about to can them, but something told me to keep on running them. I'm glad that I did.

During break-in anything presenting more load to the .28's than a MAS 9x4 would cause the engines to overheat and quit. Now I can finally run 10x5 props on the .28's, although I prefer running a 9x4 or 10x4. The .65 wasn't as finicky as the .28's were, but it still took quite a while to run properly.

Like the others, I'd find a way to run some Davis fuel through them after you finish breaking them in on glow. I doubt that Bob Davis would have made a head for the .65 if it wasn't capable of running well.


Ed Cregger