Cattledog

Bullfrog Performance
$35 for 5 gallon pail / if you shop the local speed shops you should be able to find it for $4 per gallon if you bring your own plastic container. Bullfrog is out of stock until early next week.
5037 Gall Blvd
Zephyrhills, FL 33542
(813) 862-1063

badangle

My Feedback: (1)

THANKS for all the replies to my request for methanol...it harder to find than I figured. I did find it at my last try at AMERICAN MOTORSPORTS in Orlando but Zephyrhills is much closer, thank you Cattledog for the tip !

cymaz

Amazon.com have methanol.....would you believe

badangle

My Feedback: (1)

I've seen it on-line but shipping it is costly as it a " hazardous material " also the base cost seemed high to me. nowhere close to 4 bucks a gallon. I've built a test stand, a battery pack and was hoping to start my 7-77
next week. my plan now is to start it with 18% oil, 15% nitro first time and get methanol for next time.
I want to "clean it out" as it was a bit stiff from sitting. I did re-set gap one more time and now the
push rods are staying in place. I was hoping Maxam would offer his opinion on my question on setting valve
gap as it would give me much peace of mind to know I've the gap at the correct lobe. After so many
years of working at aerospace co. it just don't feel right to.. "just keep checking gap...set it at tightest
stroke, that's bound to be the correct ". I would like to, and probably will, just to test my theory, set up my
gage, spin the prop and note gage..when it travels to the highest point i'll know that's where to set gap !

reyn3545

Well.. somebody has to say this... it ain't rocket science!

redball8

My Feedback: (128)

badangle, just go to post #36 - that's where Tom explains the procedure to set the valve lash. It's actually a lot easier than it sounds.

badangle

My Feedback: (1)

OK...some good news. Thanks to you guys I was able to start my 7-77 today !!!! ran like a top !
I set valve gap per Maxam, built battery pack and test stand.
had to hand start as my starter was not up to the job..
I used regular fuel but also thanks to this site I will be blending fuel in the future.
Keleo exhaust ring sitting on bench...probably mess with that next.

77chickenhawk

In my gas engines I use the Sunoco 110 octane leaded. The engines really like the added octane and another plus it is a added cooling feature with the lead being in the fuel. And it smells great

SWORDSN

My Feedback: (13)

Leaded is still available?

77chickenhawk

Yes absolutely. If I can get in California you should be able to get it anywhere. Any hot rod shop should have it and sometimes AutoZone will carry it. It's mostly sold in a 5 gallon drum. It runs about $10 a gallon but well worth it. It definitely wakes up the cam makes things really crisp sounding

reyn3545

I can tell I'm turning into a FOG... the whole "leaded vs unleaded" gas thing just irks me. Back before my time, all gasoline was leaded. It didn't have lead in it by nature, but it was added to the refining process to help with valve pinging. Then, somewhere around the 1950's, you saw "ethyl" show up at the pumps.. it was, essentially, unleaded gas. That process where they add lead was eliminated because engines were being made that didn't need the lead... and for some reason, removing that step resulted in a higher price for the product. Now, fast forward to today... unleaded gas is the only fuel widely available outside of racing specialty shops. So, rare, that folks are willing to pay more than double the cost of leaded fuel for it.

I know, it's all supply and demand, and creating any product in small quantities makes for a more expensive supply chain... buy us FOG's just like to complain about how simple things used to be!

Maxam

My Feedback: (62)

Yeah, like those fabulous radios they had back then with escapements and reed banks! He He Never a better time to be in the hobby like now! I can be FOGgy too...

reyn3545

OK.. maybe some things are better today than the use to be... maybe.

redball8

My Feedback: (128)

Um, that's not even close, reyn. "Ethyl" is short for tetra-ethyl lead, which was the anti-knock component added to gasoline to improve performance in the '20's by reducing detonation (pinging) and enable more aggressive timing and cheaper metallurgy (it also really helped lengthen the life of exhaust valves). It wasn't long after that pretty much all gasoline was leaded. Lead is poisonous (to people and catalytic converters), so it was phased out in the '70's. Here's a Wikipedia summary that provides a little more detail.

The term "ethyl" means a two-carbon alkyl group chemically, but there was a gasoline company called that, and the term was often used to indicate premium gasoline (with detergents, etc). But "ethyl" was always leaded.

Maybe you're thinking of "white gas", which had a high concentration of aromatics to achieve good octane? The stuff was used for Coleman stoves (and model airplane engines). I don't think that had lead in it.

Btw, I'm a FOG too ...

reyn3545

Well, you can't argue with Wikipedia!... but I'm still a FOG.

Pete Bergstrom

I received the following enquiry by PM and was asked to share my response.

Hello Pete

I am the owner of a Moki 250. I read this forum with interest because there may be an Evo 260 radial in my near future.
The largest concern with the Moki - IMO - is the availability of parts. Hope that Horizon can begin stock of a wider range of parts for the EVO Radial.

Would you please list all updates or revisions that have been made to the Evo 260 since its release from Horizon 2 years ago???
Throttle plate stop - or any others???? Possibly post to the forum for all to see.

Thanks -


Dear ****,

Thanks for your note and enquiry. I apologize for the delay in my response. I have been traveling constantly since the Thanksgiving Day break and I'm now in India at the Evolution Radial factory! Cool things coming in the future.

As for the 7-260 engines it has been our most reliable and trouble free engine of the group and I appreciate your considering our engine for your next purchase. Because of the complexity of the engine we list only the 'user-serviceable' parts on our website, but rest assured we have a full complement of parts in our service center to completely rebuild these engines from front to back. We are going to expand this list of parts that are readily available for order by our users as we have gained some knowledge and confidence in the abilities of our customers with these engines.

We haven't yet made any revisions to the 260 over the past two years. We are discussing increasing the thickness of the mounting plate and changing the material of the plate and this will be effective in future production runs and available separately for those who wish to make this change. We have had a couple of customers with warped mounting plates when they used standoffs to mount the engines. (We warn against this in the manual but ...). The throttle plate stop applies only to the 7-160 engines, not the 7-260 engines.

Eulboyington

Hello Boys,

I'm actually testing a 2 rings per piston upgrade on my EVOLUTION 7-77, it works great !
Video avaiable on my Facebook page here : https://www.facebook.com/ModelismeMi...Service?ref=hl

Olivier ROGEAU

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

When you say it works great, how much better is it? More power, higher rims what?

slskn

My Feedback: (4)

Good news!
I just heard from Horizon on my 9-99 been there for 3 months +, I have been waiting for the rear bearing on back order and had 3 seized rings for some reason, anyway, they are just replacing the engine ( under warranty) I just hope it will last much longer with a little more care on the bearings, just nervous to run it again, hope it will perform as good as it did the first time I purchased the first one, it pulled My Corsair just fine, looking forward to ordering the 777 for my Stearman, sounds like they won`t be in til 2nd week of January now, they keep pushing the date back for 2 months now, Hope all is well with everybody have a Merry Christmas and Happy new Year and great new flying season-Steve

Maxam

My Feedback: (62)

Thank you Steve. Wishing you better luck with your new 999. Merry Christmas to you and all. -Tom

j lauria

For all of you, especially Maxam, who are fond of radial engines I am submitting a picture of my newly completed Stearman PT 17 with a UMS 9-99 up front. I appreciate your advice on this engine. It is a Ziroli 87 inch wingspan built from a National Balsa cut kit. It weighs 28 pounds 2 ounces but will require 15 ounces of ballast in the tail. I installed a MacDaniels on board ignition with a 5000 MAH battery and a 2300 LIFe for the RX. The paint job and painted markings aren't great but they will have to do. I haven't run the engine yet but it turns over very smoothly. I added after run oil and air tool oil to the crankcase shortly after receiving it several months ago.
My biggest problem right now is removing the residual adhesive left from the vinyl material I used to mask the markings. Instead of using vinyl markings I have the vinyl cut as masks. The model is covered with Solar tex and primed with BUSA miracle primer followed by Klas Cote two part epoxy. The epoxy remains adhered to the covering remarkably well despite very vigorous pulling on the various masking materials.
So far I have used 3M adhesive remover, Goof Off. Krud Cutter, WD 40 and lacquer thinner in attempts to remove the adhesive. I can get it softened but it must be painstakingly scraped a little at a time to remove it. Any advise??

Dad_Roman

Sorry to say, no. Unfortunantly I think too much time lapsed between masking and removal. I used to own a powdercoating shop and this was a common problem. We usually used WD40 but you reffered to that already. Now your reduced to softening and scraping it off with a creditcard or fingernail

redball8

My Feedback: (128)

Whenever I have pressure-sensitive adhesive to remove, I go through a series of solvents that are chemically different until I find one that works. Usually I start with water! If that doesn't work then I go through a series until I find a good solvent:
1) alcohol like denatured alcohol (ethanol) or rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol,
2) naphtha (C5-C6 alkanes),
3) an aromatic like toluol (toluene), (xylol) xylene or turpentine,
4) a ketone like acetone or MEK (methyl ethyl ketone).
Lacquer thinner is typically acetone, ethyl acetate, methanol and toluene. WD40 is a brew of whatever light petroleum distillate (alkanes) they can get their hands on; all it really has to do is repel water. The other proprietary products are also mixtures - sometimes a mixture of everything is less effective than the one right solvent. If the adhesive is still rubbery, the right solvent will swell it and it will come right off.

redball8

My Feedback: (128)

I've noticed a pushrod on my UMS Seidel 770 that has developed cracks in the aluminum tube ends, along the seam. Anyone else experience this? Would a bit of JB Weld stop the crack, or is that just wishful thinking and the rod should be replaced? Anyone know if the replacement rods for the 777 would fit the 770 (mine are 57.4 mm long)?

reyn3545

With all the fuel and oil flying around in that area, I wouldn't think the JB Weld would get a good grip, even after you cleaned it.