Hi there,

The other day I had a flame out with my DA 50. The engine still breaks in. It has about 3 litres of super unleaded fuel mixed with Bel Ray 2 stroke non-synthetic fuel. The engine seems to work ok on the ground, the idle up has been adjusted at about 2000 rpm, after the transition from high rpm to idle, rpm drops at about 1700-1800 rpm and then goes up to 2000. Is that an indication of rich or lean Low needle setting? I believe it is rich, but what is your opinion really?

The flame out occured during an inverted harrier at about 1/4 throttle but I am not sure whether is related to the previous fact. During high speed inverted passes there was no problem, but at 1/4 the engine died for some reason. Can someone provide any possible explanations?

Thanks in advance,

Nikos

Why are you using Super??

Mine did the same exact thing. 6 dead sticks and some were near wrecks. I did many things including buying a new carb, and a draft block on the diaphragm vent. Nothing fixed it. I sold it and bought a ZDZ 50 NG. Those problems are all gone. Same exact air frame, different engine and the problems all disappeared. The only thing I miss about the DA was the easy starting. The ZDZ took some learning but now it starts on the first flip after priming.

DA recomends regular fuel,
my friend DA 50 was doing the same thing inverted
at 1/4 throtle then after talking to DA we found
that the low neddle was lean so we open the neddle
and problem solve

Thanks,

Regular unleaded?

Do you guys think that I should use a carbon plate on carburator?

How much did you open the needle? If you open the needle too much it does not run very smoothly in the mid range.

You folks measure octane different from the way we do. The super won't hurt anything. The issue is in the needle settings. To use, or not use, a carb plate depends on how the engine acts in various flight attitudes. If it performs the same upright, knife edge, and inverted don't bother with a plate. Go to Pe Reivers' website or the RC Showcase website for some specific instructions about setting needles and tuning an engine. Saves my fingers a lot of work

Some things never change

If you flipped the carb make sure you don't flip the reed block. You can get the above symptoms if
the reed block nipple is on the wrong side facing away from the cylinder.. I know.. happen to me..

What does that mean??? Capt,n

Means this is a very common issue with the Da 50's...I had 2 of them and they both suffered from it.. And yes I spent time to tune them, balsa box it, carb plate etc...Mine never quit but came pretty close. Pat can testify to the time I spent turning the needles. Other than that, the engine ran fine.

You can try the carbon plate. Doesn't hurt. You can make the same thing with a coke can.

Exactly, you can try to fix the problem with the needles but then is runs like crap and gobbles gas.

Pat, I'm not saying that you were responding to me but I do know how to tune a gas engine (and I'm not mad ). It still doesn't fix it. It ain't the tuning (I tuned my ZDZ 50 and it runs awesome).

Just like others (Josey), one day I will tire of disputing this issue. I worked with this engine until the Nth degree and finally had to sell it. It wasn't worth crashing a plane over. I hope others have better luck, honest.

Joe,

I thought I'd provide the standard answer that doesn't **** off all the DA 50 owners out there. We have to give the guy and the engine a chance at the best possible tuning before anything else. Nothing directed your way.

You know, Josey knows, a lot of other previous owners know, and I know, about everything else that could be the issue, but let's wait a little before making that trip. We don't need another pro/con DA discussion to fire up since it won't benefit Nickolas.

You must be gettin' old! You're just no fun at all anymore!!

DA sucks!! The reason they don't run worth a poop is because the switzlefart valve is too close to the flimflammer. The piston dome too crankshaft clearence is over .025", and the bearings on the rod are made out of goat livers.

There............. [sm=lol.gif] Thats right, I said it!! [>:]

(got my fire extinguisher handy--bring it on!!)

Now thats funny right there!

ditto on same type flame-out on my present DA-50. Cost me two 30%'ers! Sent engine back to DA and they replaces lots of stuff for free..Works great now! Also have a zdz-50ng and it has NEVER died on me, except when I ran out of gas!

bobzilla

I've recently managed to single handedly get three of four threads locked because I said something about a manufacturer, a quality of product, a manufacturing location, or profit level, so I figured I'd try to avoid that from the beginning with this one. You see, I'm not at all P.C. and believe in telling the truth without a sugar coating. If I even begin to start doing things the way I usually do it, the poor guy will have his thread locked up without an answer.

I'll just let you guys tell him he has a 50-50 chance of ever making it run the way he thinks it should.

AMEN PAT

Pat, I'll send you e mail

Larry

Man I second that. I busted out laughing so hard I had to think if my kid was in bed sleeping (luckily he was at his mom's).

PS: One thing I love on these forums is that now and then you will hear people come right out and say it like it is....and save me and countless others lots of trouble and money. If that that ever goes away completely, I'll get bored real fast (seeee ya).

Hi,

I personally believe tha DA is a good engine, I fly competition aerobatics and always select the best equipment available. For glow F3A models I use YS, for gas DA etc.

I think that engine needs more break in. In order to see the potential of it should be run with synthetic oil with lower percentage and reletivelly lean. Currently the engine can not reveal its full potential with 32/1 ratio of oil and rather rich.

Regarding the flame out it is a bit strange and cost me time, effort and money to rebuild my QQ YAK. Now I need spare parts such as cowl, landing gear plus a new JTEC muffler.

Anyway I will try the carbon plate at this stage and I will be a bit conservatite with flying. At mid/full throttle the engine has no issues at all even in knife edge and inverted and can pull out of outdide loops without any hesitation.

The question is: When from high rpm back to idle there is an instant drop of rpm 200-300 and then engine comes back to normal idle, is that a sign of rich or lean Low Needle setting?

Thanks in advance,
Nikos

Nickolas,
My Da 50 never died on me but if would drop a few RPM when throttling from full to idle. A friend of mine has a DA 50 and he had his engine die numorus times and sent the engine in and had the carb line into the fuse and all kinds of stuff which didn't help. He wrapped tape around the standoffs to remove the turbulance around the carb and that seamed to slove the problem. Doing this isolated the carb diaphram and the carb air inlet. Also last fall I was doing outside loops with my Brillelli 60 and my engine pulled though just fine. When I tried doing outside loops the DA the engine faded and was going to die. I richened the low screw just slightly and it was fine after that. When I told my friend what had happened to me he tried the outside loop and his tried to die also. He richened his low needle just slightly and it went away. There seams to be a lot of experiments with the DA 50's. Some work - some don't. Lots of Luck..... Bill

You forgot about the gookumpucky too!!

See why I didn't get into the real reasons? They already edited my second post I swear they're doing the 1984-big brother thing with me. Watching, examining, everything, everywhere...................

Just think of it like you have a lot of secret admirer's--

This is what I did...what do you think?