Jesse Open

Yes, they are.

Saito thought out the basic layout wel very early on. Proven to be a very versatile, building block system

Glowgeek

My first attempt at reconditioning worn tappets. No lathe or mill used. Free hand on a belt sander for fast material removal, a block of hardwood with a .158 hole drilled through, a piece of adhesive backed sandpaper on a flat surface and finished with a buffing wheel. Took about 4 minutes each.

the Wasp

My Feedback: (1)

edited. because I posted before I read the last few posts.

I pulled out the used 100 cam I have and it does look to have 48pitched teeth. Saito should tighten up the lash some. because when I relocated the breather on my brand new 100 that cam must have had a good 2 degrees of lash.

Jim

1200SportsterRider

They look good.

Glowgeek

Jim, you can tighten the lash yourself by reducing the thickness of the cam cover gasket. I experimented with that once on an engine where all the machining tolerances went the wrong way. It was very loosey goosey with the factory .008" thick gasket, and that was with a new Camear and Camgear pin. Iirc, I reduced the gasket thickness by .002".

Anyway, the engine didn't run any quieter or any better with tighter gear clearances.

Important note: Saito camgear pitch diameters are not perfectly concentric with the camgear pin hole, verified by my previous measurements. If you reduce the gasket thickness too much the gears will bind every 720° of crank rotation. I wouldn't set it up for that slight bind at room temp either, even though I know the lash loosens a bit as the engine heats up. And then oil film thickness plays a role as well.

All things I'm sure that Saito has considered when selecting the thickness of the camgear cover gasket.

Monty Python

Glossy playboy magazine covers make good gasket material for our saito engines.

1200SportsterRider

Well, my first flying day in a couple years lasted 11.5 minutes, I had the RCM about 12" from touch down when the Saito 62 suddenly quit. It did a 4" bounce then settled down perfectly. When I was carrying the plane back fuel was leaking out of the fuselage all over my left hand. I found the culprit. There is a .375" split at the bottom of the fuel tank plug hole. The fuel has soaked from the firewall back to the even with the leading edge. The RCM 40 is history The wood is already flexible. The 62 is already on the black and white LT 40. More later.

Glowgeek

Awwww, that's a bummer Dave.

The ol' "crack in the bung hole" failure.

1200SportsterRider

Thanks Lonnie, I paid $99.00 for that plane in the year 2,000ish. I was thinking of the many places that I have flown that plane. Pax Aero at the Pax River Naval base, Md., Summersville, W. Va., Tazewell, Va. 400 miles southwest of here, Ft. Belvoir, Va. It has been around.
PS, also flew it at a private field where a local guy has two home built aircraft.
I am upgrading the servos in my black and white LT 40, for example placing JR DS 811 digital servos in the wing and JR 531's in the fuse. All will handle 6 volts.

acdii

Pull the engine, stick some lead to balance, cheap nearly dead servos and a battery on it's last legs, then find someone to give it a tow to altitude and let it have one last flight. See how fast it can reach terminal velocity.

On the Saito valve covers, what are they made from and can they be anodized? If I could black chrome them, that would look freaking cool.

Jesse Open

I have stripped the chrome from several Saito covers and polished them. They polish out very well.
The Saito covers are cast, looks like aluminum. Most aluminum cast alloys do not anodize well.


Before: Badly weathered Saito valve covers.

Same covers, after stripping chrome and polishing the aluminum.

acdii

They can be plated though, first a copper plate then the black chrome, but it would be too expensive. $150 for a gallon of solution.

Jesse Open

Yes, of course they can be plated. Not many platers would even bother with the job.

I like to just strip them and brush finish. You can then use a tinted clear coat for accent.

acdii

Yeah, I would plate it myself, but not worth the cost of the solution for a couple rockers.

Jesse Open

$150/gallon!
Yikes, that $150 could buy 60 gallons of methanol

Besides, there are only a few people who appreciate nicely thought out details and well finshed mechanical devices.

Glowgeek

Have the rocker covers thrown in with a batch of other parts at the platers? I did that a couple of times back when I lived in the big city. Very affordable that way, at least it was for anodizing.

BTW, there was a guy on eBay that sold machined aluminum Saito rocker covers anodized in various colors. May still be there.

Glowgeek

Count me in as one of the few!

Jesse Open

Anodizing is pretty much a bathe and dip sequence,easy to toss a couple of parts in the basket. Materials fairly safe and inexpensive.
Again, cast parts do not often anodize well either.
The machined version should be fine, if the alloy is well chosen.
Plating is a lot more detail and labor intensive operation. More handling of the individual parts, plating current settings, anode size, shape and placement etc.
Besides, the materials used are very costly to purchase, often cost even more to dispose of.

thefastfred

I have a used super sterman 90” wingspan and 5.10oz full of full amd smoke oil. I was wondering if the Saito 125 it came with swinging a 16x6 prop will have enough power to fly the bird My first Saito and 1st four stroke nitro. Any sterman flyers out there with experience of thrust knowelesfe of this engine ?

thanks

thefastfred

Following up on above post… is there any ins[ection, re-build, clean-up maintains i should do before test running the motor? Have 20% heli fuel.

the Wasp

My Feedback: (1)

"Chroming"
years ago, we had a Chroming/Plating shop here in my hometown. yeaa. I remember going there and asking the guy to chrome a set of handlebars for my dirt bike. I figured it would be a lot cheaper than buying new bars, but what does a 16y.o. kid know. $80 Bucks the guy told me. then he said "we won't do them anyway". well, I go home. told my older brother (5 years older). he said that shop would not chrome them because it was a money laundering place for the Mafia. he said they owned the Bowling Aly too. my brother also said "you know the guy that lives in the little trailer behind the Bowling Aly, he's the guy that always sets at the Bowling Aly's door all day". a few years later the city forced both to close.
just a tidbit of Vermont life history for you non Vermonters that may be interested LOL

Jim

1200SportsterRider

Welcome Fred, the 125 should fly it just fine. Personally I would at least pull the back plate and see for yourself what the rear bearing looks like. If it turns smoothly just run it and see if it's still as smooth after a 30 minute run. For a quicky inspection just pull the two carb retaining bolts and swing the carb out to either side.

Glowgeek

90" wingspan makes that plane almost 1/4 scale (23%). Did you mean the plane weighs 5.10 kg? 11.25 pounds is VERY light for a 90" wingspan bipe. A Saito 125 may not get it off the ground. If it does get off the ground the engine would have to run at near full throttle to keep it in the air.

Can you weigh the plane with no fuel or smoke oil?

thefastfred

Corrected - sorry about that.
72” upper and 69” lower. Was thinking of the smoothie as it looks bigger then that!

Weight dry - 6.8kg - 15lbs
weight fulled - 7.2 kg - 15lb-14oz
fulled with smoke oil - 7.6 - 16lb-11.7 oz

125 with:
-16x6 makes 12.1 lbs of thrust. So thrust to weight is .75. 12/16=.75. Fully fulled & smoked 12/16.73= .71
-15x8 makes 10.9 lbs of thrust. So thrust to weight is .71. 10.9/16 = .68

Have a RCS turbo muffler which should add some RPM….

.71 runs in the sport plane arena. Not high powered but seams like it should be fine. It was flown by others without the smoke.. calls for a 1.20 to 1.40 four stroke

Glowgeek

Being the more aerobatic version of the PT-17 I would power it with a Saito FA180 or FA220. At minimum an FA150.

How well does it CG with the 125? If it has nose weight added I would definitely up the engine size.