I've been having a problem with Fireball glow plugs. I bought some from ebay because they had an idle bar and I was curious to see if that would work better than the Tower and OS plugs without an idle bar. There wasn't any noticeable difference in performance but the Fireballs burned out within 5 flights! I used 4 of them on 2 different engines and I keep getting the same problem. I have replaced them with the Tower plugs that I had in there previously and those have lasted all season. The engines have been running fine for two years. I'm running Wildcat 2/4 stroke with 15% nitro and 18% oil. I always have a nice trail of smoke coming out of the muffler so the engines don't run lean. Anbody have any experience with this brand of glow plug or any suggestions? I still have a bunch if the Fireball plugs left.

Scrap the Fireballs and get a good plug, non-idle bar. Idle bars are only for people who can't tune their engine. I've used McCoy RC 9 or 59 for many years, and VERY seldom have a plug failure.

I heavy trail of smoke (rish) is just as harmful to the engine as running it too lean. Believe it or not, if you've always run a trail of smoke, your engine may not be fully broken in yet. If it's an ABC, it HAS to get up to optimal temperature to completely break in.

Dr.1

I think I'm going to scrap the Fireball plugs. I m sure that the engine is not running too rich either.
I usually tune it to just above the 2-4 stroke range which is a good indicator of a properly tuned ABC engine. I would be interested to find out people's opinion of their favorite glow plug. Also, I didn't even know that there was a McCoy brand plug. Where do you get them?

My faves are Fox plugs, the idle bar is a non issue in engines that don't need them and a good thing in engines that do. Another excellent plug is Enya. The Hangar 9 SuperPlugs are great too. Lots of choices. The McCoys that came in Saitos were not too good when compared to the Fox Miracle Plug, the OS-f and the H9 SuperPlug.

[b]Dave:

Aren't the Hangar 9 plugs repackaged McCoys?

Bill.

Not anymore, my 2.20 came with a very OS-f looking plug and the new YS plugs are rebadged OS-fs.

[b]Dave:

I've gotten a couple of the "Saito" plugs from Horizon to test, you're right. Side by side with the "F" plug the only difference I see is only one has an "F" on it.

I was really asking about the ordinary two stroke plugs like the McC 9 and 59 plugs.

Bill.

Any good LHS should be able to order the McCoys.

Dr.1

I've used the "FireBall" brand of plugs for almost 20 years,and have been very happy with them.I used to run their "Super Cool" plug in my RC racing boats,and NEVER burned one.However,the last batch of plugs I bought (off E-bay) have been burning out almost every flight.I don't know if the maker has changed the plugs,or if it's just a bad batch.I think I'm going to get another order,and if they burn out I'll change to another brand.
"Your results may vary!"

Yeah, I only recently purchased the fireball plugs off of E-Bay. It's my only expreince with them and it seems they just burn out prematurely. I'll try the McCoy plugs next.

I bought some from Lone Star Balsa at a good price and have used a few without any problems. If I remember right they were at a better price than the buy now price on Ebay at the time I bought them.

Pete

Do you know if the Lonestar batch was new or old stock?