Randy at MECOA owns the rights to the McCoy series 21 engine now but has never done anything with them. No one knows what happened to the older McCoy molds/dies and prints.

I had two of the all silver McCoy Stunt's. One was 29 and the other a 36. I also had a half dozen of the Red Head 35 engines. I also had a blue head 40.

I never wore any of them out. Some had many gallons through them.

Worst ever happened was to break a needle valve landing upside down.

Enjoy,

Jim

I had one of those "nasty" Testors/McCoy Series 21 r/c engines years ago. Ran the crap out of it...it never broke. Being a school age kid at the time, and nary a penny to invest in much better, that motor was a pretty good deal.

Not up to snuff power wise by today's standards, but it got the job done.

You are one of the VERY FEW that actually had good luck with Testors engines. Like I said, if you go back and look at the results of all the National Model Airplane contests in old Model Airplane news magazine, you will never see any McCoy engines listed in the contestant write ups. Some of the Juniors used them but never won anything. An example: In the 1962 Nats in AMA combat, ALL 9 places in the three categories (junior, Senior, and open) were won by Johnson combat specials or Ball bearings and Fox took most of the stunt events. K&B and Veco were the winners in R/C. The only events won by ANY McCoy engine was class C control line speed and that was the old ball bearing 60. When the cheap 35 and 29 were selling for $5.95 and the 19 for $4.95, The 60 was going for $40.00. Does that say anything. Also think about this. The little Cox Babe Bee 049 was selling for $3.95 then and the TD049 was selling for $6.95, a buck more than the testors McCoy 35.

Even the engine designers and writers considered the Testors McCoys little more than junk.

I still have a box of them in my basement. They start easier with an electric starter but don't put out half of what a good Johnson, Fox or Super Tiger does.

Ahhh .... fond memories

I still have a couple of McCoy red head 35 stunt engines that I keep for the memories. Back then, I would just keep swapping them into whatever I was flying (and crashing)at the time. I don't know how much fuel was run through them. I didn't keep track of how much fuel and how many starter batteries (remember those?) I bought just to keep flying. They never gave me any problem or wore out. But they sure gave me a lot of fun - and are probably the reason I'm flying RC planes today.
In my book that made them good engines.

Ramon

I have heard that the innards of that engine was really a K&B .40 piston/ring and sleeve. Any comments?

Nope. I just went down and took both engines apart they are definitely different . Type twenty one McCoy don't have a K&B 40 piston and liner

Starter batteries? Man.....I carried an ignition dry cell around up until not too long ago just to buck the "NiStarter revolution". You just can't get the good carbon zinc jobs anymore like in the old days. Give me a good ol' Burgess or Ray-O-Vac anyday. Those would last a couple seasons easy., and there was never any worry about whether or not you remembered to charge it. Now, if you can even find one they're nothing more than a plastic outer shell with an Alkaline D cell inside. Nowhere near as good.

Mem-O-Rees.....

Lougbd
I will take that box of McCoy's off your hands!
Just let me know how much $ you want.[8D]
Hank

Will,

I had two McCoy's on my life. One, a control line engine in 1954-55. It ran like a champ and I finally sold it off to friend. It was the hottest engine at the field. In 1964, while in the Air Force, I got another one at the BX. I could never get it to run. Threw it away.

Got back into the sport in 2000 out in Tucson, first engine was Enya 54 4C, good engine. Had a couple of OS LAs that worked okay and so on. I do not think I would ever use anything McCoy again including the glow plugs though I probably have under other brand names).

The engines today are more powerful, lighter, and overall better made. Some cost more, some less, some better but absolutely none worse.

Cheers,

Chip

They were called Door Bell batteries because that's what powered doorbells back in the 30's and 40's. You must not have flown much because we went through them like a dose of salts. Usually used two in parallel so they would last longer and give more oomph. You can still buy carbon zinc batteries but they don't last anywhere as long as an alkaline cell. If they were so good you would see them in general use today but you don't. They also were prone to leaking and splitting open. As far as the NiStarter thing goes we used two volt Lead acid wet cells long before the ni starter and then 1.2 volt nicad wet cells. You can still see the ads for them in the old magazines. The Glow Bee fire plug was a big seller. I still have mine but seldom use it. It uses a 2 volt Gates Lead acid dry cell. And if that's not enough most, if not all, power panels have a connection for a glow plug driver. I use mine all the time if my Ni Starter is dead. BUT, 99.9% of the time I use a NiStarter. It's a lot easier to carry in your pocket than a 1 1/2 Volt Carbon Zinc door bell battery.

Chip:

The McCoy plugs are still very good. Hord to beat for sport flying.

Bill.

Has anyone reading this attended a Foxacoy event?

jess

Hi again Ed,

I just disassembled a K&B 4011 40 and a McCoy Type 21 40. They aren't even close. The K&B piston is a lot bigger and has two gas passage holes in it. The REAL giveaway that they are different is the fact the K&B uses a drop in liner and the MCCoy uses a one piece cylinder with cooling fins like the old K&B Green heads and the McCoy redhaeds.

Gotta go to the parts department.

http://www.mecoa.com/vintage/mccoy/mccoy-parts.htm

David, below is your message in response to my (deleted) post about the Foxacoy event.

I can only assume that you are unaware of the Foxacoy event, an event for old-timer models which is restricted to either Fox .35 or McCoy Redhead35 engines. As a moderator I would have assumed that you would have been aware of the event. I would also have assumed that as a moderator you would not have leapt to an erroneous conclusion and acted without checking your facts.

jess

"The message you posted in Glow Engines (http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/tt.asp?forumid=114),
titled: " RE: McCoy engines" has been deleted.
Reason:Is this a cheap shot at Fox and McCoy."

Now I know and message restored, no one would have known about the post except you and I if you had not spilled the beans in the last post. I did not leap to a conclusion, that's the reason I asked, to make sure.

Sorry about being so testy, Dave. I must be having one of my cranky old guy days. I apologize.

In any case, as soon as I get a chance, and enough of my body parts working at the same time, I will do a comparison of a couple of Redheads and Foxes. From what I read by the SAM (Society of Antique Modelers) folk the two engines produce about the same power, but most feel the McCoy has limited longevity compared to the Fox which seems to last forever. As the engine run for Foxacoy is 35 seconds engine life should be a moot point.

My personal experience with the 50's-60's McCoys is limited as I ran mostly Fox, K&B and Johnson in C/L (stunt, combat, rat race) and a little free flight.

I doubt I will ever compete in Foxacoy, but I may build a a Playboy or Bomber for the event just to use some of my old CL engines.

jess

Sorry I mis-understood Jess, I still have a McCoy .36 I got for Christmas in 1956 when I was 14 and a .35 I bought myself about a year later. The .36 was on a profile F-86, the .35 was never on a plane. I also have some new parts for some engines, I know there is a new green cylinder head in my shop for something.

Since when is it a r/cuniverse violation to take a shot at a lousy engine, cheap or otherwise?

The old GHQ made a better paper weight than a model airplane engine. It was a total waste of metal and effort. Likewise the Thor and Bullet.

Edited by moderator to remove some content.....

The Fox 35 Stunt has been in continuous production since 1948. That's 58 years. The McCoy red head stunt was in production 11 years (57 to 68) Now which do you think was he better engine?? The Fox also won 100's of stunt contests, the McCoy just a few and that was because Ed Southwick used them and he was paid to advertise them.

A green head could only be from a K&B Torpedo

loughbd:

The Fox stunt 35 in production for 58 years? I beg to differ. There has indeed been a Fox stunt 35 available for 58 years, but the current engine looks almost nothing like the original. Many engineering and production changes since the first one came along.

Just about the first change was going to six screws in the head - this removed the biggest weak spot in the early engines - the ones with the four screw head often blew their head gaskets, the chenge to six screws elinminated the problem.

Bill.

I guess I should post a picture of some of those parts, there are some new crankcase fronts ends in the mix too.

Ole Duke did about everything he could to the 35 and still be able to call it the Fox 35.

Two bolt and three bolt back plates.

Hemi head

Silver

Gold

Fillets in the fins for longer head bolts.

Different style muffler attachment ears

etc

Was at the C/L field the other day and a OS 40 LA has a lot more power than a Fox 35. For what its worth.

I would agree that the Fox was the better stunt engine of the period. I would not, however base the choice on period of production. Many fine engines did not stay around for long. Johnson for example.

I also seem to recall that the late George Aldrich said that the McCoy was actually a better design than the Fox but was hampered by quality control matters.

BTW, I think the Redhead was made until '71. Those
from 1966 onward had lightning bolts on the case. The "Lightning Bolt" models are not legal for Foxacoy, though I don't think there are any internal diferences.

jess