Jesse Open

Not unlike so many Furd pick up trucks eh!
My buddy at the local garage says his new boat came from money made on blown Furd gaskets.
Most car makers suffer that type problem with one or some models at times.
Never happens with Saitos or old Crosley car engines. Neither used head to cylinder gaskets.

Jesse Open

Yep, I never cared for the SCCA type either. Not that the type A personalities bother me. Interesting to watch that many in one place at the same time however. I just did the engine and fabrication work. Was doing a lot of cylinder head machine work at the time. SCCA racing with big lumpy American cars was like watching a parade.Never really got into caged, four wheel street cars on a race track anyhow.

Working on the Smith Miniplane I just picked up. The Saito 300 needed a fresh set of bearings. Will be flying it tomorrow. Hopefully a cold windy day. Get the field to myself

acdii

Knock them all you want, but I have NEVER had a engine issue with any of my Fords. My F150 will out tow any other 1/2 ton on the market, my F350 is a freaking beast with power too.

modeltronics

My Feedback: (27)

Gary sent me a nice Saito Fat Head 120. I had to open it and look inside. After putting it back together I got it out on the test stand. I was running my home brew 3% nitro fuel and a Master Airscrew 16X6. I was very interested in how it would compare to the Saito Dual Plug engine I just rebuilt and tested on the same fuel and prop. The Fat Head would run very happy at 8500 RPM and I pushed it once to 8600 RPM for a top speed. This is about 200 RPM shy of what I was getting with the Dual Plug 120 running the same fuel and prop. The Fat Head will run all day at 1800 RPM making that poit-poit sound. I did have it running at less than 1600 RPM but to me it just did not seem happy. Now it is just my guess but the Fat Head seems to feel like it was just a bit lower compression than the Saito Dual Plug and might benefit from a little more nitro than 3%. Setting the idle on the Fat Head with the air bleed screw was pretty simple once I got close to the sweet spot. The final adjustments on the air bleed screw seemed like less than 1/8 turn at a time and them waiting 30 seconds.

The next test will be to put it into my flying test stand. That would be my scaled up BUSA stick. I hope to get it in the air next week.

Thanks Gary!

The other Pete…or should I go by Pedro?

Glowgeek

Good job Pedro! Yeah, my 120 FH is no powerhouse either BUT, it will run at full throttle inside a cowl on a 100° day and never miss a beat. They can idle very low with that wonderful carb and sound great doing it. Congrats on your recent acquisition.

acdii

Finally got the Chipmunk finished. If I have time tomorrow I will get it on the run up stand and see how it runs while in the plane. Ran great as always on the engine stand. Just need to set the radio endpoints for the throttle, and it is ready to maiden.

Glowgeek

That Chippie should be a hoot, acdc, bruce or whatever your name is.

Jesse Open

Pedro !

A great name for sure. That FH looks great, and the idle s what I always appreciated most with the FH. I suspect the FH model cost a bit more to produce
. Those huge, deep fins often come with a higher scrap rate than shallow fins not to mention the likely heavier tooling costs . Very happy to see it putting along proudly at its new QTH, hopefully you will get many years of enjoyment from it. The Kent
IAMBIC paddle kit arrived today. Looks like it will turn into a nice piece of Morse Code equipment. May do a combination metal finish with satin and high polish and nikel plate all over. Ill try to make a video around Christmas sending greetings in CW.

ACDII, Not bashing, illustrating that everybody is capable of making engines that notoriously leak We made loads of money repairing Escort heads and have always thanked Ford for that Thankfully, pickups are no longer a part of our transportation picture here.. Hope we never need one again.

modeltronics

My Feedback: (27)

An interesting difference between the Fat Head and the Dual plug 120 engines. The DP has a washer with a right-angle tab next to each rocker on its pivot point shaft. The FH does not. I was not sure about this because I measured .015” slop side to side on the FH rockers. Then just today someone had a new FH for sale on RCG and there was one picture of it with the valve covers off and it did not have those washers either just like my FH.

Now my 2 cents on Ford. My wife drives a 06 Focus wagon to work every day. The car has well over 100K miles on it. Changing the alternator is a pain because it is not up high like most cars. It’s way down below. The biggest pain with that car is the drivers side door handle, that gets used the most. There is a little cast aluminum part that breaks inside the door. I have the parts now on order ($23) and will do it myself because the dealer wants over $500 to do it. It will take a couple of hours and a lot of bad words to fix. This will be the third set of door handle parts for that car.

Pedro 😊

Glowgeek

My take on Ford trucks, the full-size trucks have served me well since I was 15, nuf sed.

Pedro, if you get a chance post a pic or two of that crimped brass tool that comes with some Saitos. Maybe someone here will know what it is for.

Jesse Open

"Crimped brass tool"?? Interesting. Would also like to see a pic.

I agree, every vehicle aI have owned since 1964 has served me well. That is how anecdotes work.

modeltronics

My Feedback: (27)

What is this?

It cam with a FA-120 MK1
Lonnie,

Here is a picture of the tool that came with my Saito 120 MK1. I have no idea what it is for but the Fat Head that was for sale on RCG included this part also. If anyone on here knows what it is please let me know.

On a different subject. You asked me to check how much extra travel before bottoming the valve springs I had on the Saito 45 that I converted to a 45S. My rough guess after trying to bottom the springs after the rocker depressed the valve is it took about .050” more to totally compress the spring. This 45 has the cam, cam housing, tappets, pushrods and pushrod tubes from a FA50 in it. With my 3% nitro fuel and a 12X5 prop it gave me an extra 300 RPM. I've run many gallons through this engine set up this way.

Pedro 😊

Glowgeek

Thanks Pedro. .050", that's very interesting. Leaves me scratching my head though. Hmmmm

Jesse Open

BTW Pedro,

That pipe is from a Saito :450 radial.The sound of a Saito on a straight pipe is hard to beat.

modeltronics

My Feedback: (27)

Gary, I agree with you 100%. It had a nice sound to it but it wasn't too loud.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Pedro, I now have about 3 of the 120-s Saitos, I have a couple of those 16 x 6 MA with the white tips, my fuel is 10% Wildcat with 18% full synthetic. These all have the intake pipe that slides into the head with two O-rings. If we don't have more monsoon, I'll give one a whirl after Church. Sorry, the top picture is a DP. The bottom picture is correct.

Hyjinx

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cKTracr7Ebmw5GP88 Yesterdays maiden
Please excuse the nameplate on the bell cover.
And and any hot mic dialogue LOL
Its similar to a Saito....

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

You guys are having a lot more fun than I am having this weekend. At the follow up Friday the doctor gave me a choice of him calling an ambulance or the wife driving me to the hospital 3 blocks away. So far everything is looking good, no talk about Ole Yellar and going out back . I get a stress test tomorrow. My son brought up my laptop on one of his ambulance runs to keep me occupied but the WiFi speed here sucks.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

We wish you the best, if a stent will fix you up, you'll be back here tomorrow. I have three and haven't needed any more since 2007.

Glowgeek

Yes, we're with you Mike. My family should be named the Stint's instead of the Smith's. May the Lord bless your Doctor's hands!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Thanks guys! The wife got 4 stents back in 2018 and she is doing fine. What I don't like is all the medicine you have to take afterwards. Beats a dirt nap though I'm pissed I want to cover the Pink N Poke this weekend.

Glowgeek

True, the post operation anti-blood clotting meds can be problematic for some. I probably don't need to tell you how important it is to keep your appointments for blood work. Some of those meds can get out of control right quick.

Hyjinx

Probably like this one more. (At least at this site)
We had a nindty one old visitor at the field to observe.
From the sound of things here lately, her copd is not such a thing....
The hospice nurse wasn't amused with the road trip.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sZwMBnkEd3oe7ZWu7

Glowgeek

Sweeeet

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Nice video!