Ran a two stroke today, the first time in about 4 years. It was a 46FX that I received all apart in a paper sack in a trade. There was a broken crankcase with bad bearings. The other parts were luckily all there except the muffler. I had a Macs One Piece and a couple new Tower mufflers that fit it. For it to be bashed up and dirty, the cylinder/piston had a good pinch at the top. The needle valve was not broken from the back plate either. I bought a new crank case from Tower and new bearings from RC-Bearings. That was a hunk of change for a 46 two stroke but it turned out nice and looks like a new engine now.

I used some 20% Rich's Brew and a APC 11-6. Started right up and didn't even have to adjust the needle valves. AMAZING! It transitioned pretty good for a two stroke but not as well as a four stroke after a prolonged idle.

I have worked on several two strokes for other people in recent years but I never ran them.

It was JUST LIKE OLD TIMES to run one again.

I also ran a half dozen horse trade four strokes that I had put bearings in during July and August. I wanted to make sure the cam timing was OK and that the bearings felt and sounded good. I was Lucky, they ran great.

Drowned them with Dexron while still hot as I finished running them.

I had fun today.

Jim

w8ye: Putting new life back into a engine is always fun!!!! best Regards Capt,n

Is that the one with cracks in the crankcase?

That's the one. Fired right up like new.

With that much nitro in the fuel, how could it do otherwise? [X(]

Good job James, that Carl Goldberg 120 Tiger ARF I told you about has not been much fun so far. None of the hinge slots were deep enough, the flap hinge slits were 1/16 inch too low making the flaps sit above the wing, in order to use the provided pushrod tube for the nose gear steering the pull-pull wires for the rudder had to be crossed over each other so the rudder would go the right direction. If they were not criss-crossed then the nose gear pushrod would have to cross the fuse at nearly a 45 degree angle and then enter the pushrod tube. Only half enough countersunk plastic washers were provided for the control horns. But, I'm gonna win.

PS, Jim, have you put any ceramics in a fourstroke yet?

All the bearings I've used in the last three years have been the "El Cheepo" brand. They seem to hold up as well as the NTN and MRC regular bearings I was using before.

I've never used a ceramic or a stainless bearing either.

Dave,


I have supplied ceramic bearings from [link=http://rc-bearings.com]Paul McIntosh[/link] to one of my customers that has two Saito 1.00 and one Saito 1.25 engines.
I have heard no complaints yet, but he has very low time on them.

He heard from another customer, who put ceramic bearings from the same source on his OS1.40RX and has already over 150 flights on them... Still, not any wrong signs.

With ordinary bearings, he had to replace them every ~100 flights.

Can anybody have a comparison or experience,on bearings life, of castor oil or synthetic oil using.

I have a friend that has always used Cool Power (all synthetic) and he looses more bearings than anyone I know.

But I'm not so sure it has that much to do with the fuel. I've never seen him use ARO and he keeps them in a dampish storage area.

I hope your liner don't peel like others have. That seems like a lot to put into a used engine and risk the liner peeling. ($50-$60???) For about $20 more you could have been running a new engine. I know, it is fun to fix up the old one. I have done it myself, but it isn't practical especially with the high prices OS charges for parts.

I use all castor but I can't really say what the life of a bearing is because I've never had one fail. Then again I've never bothered keeping track of how much running any of my engines have had except my ST G51 which has had ~350 flights (30 hours to be more precise). An old Enya 45 of mine did somewhere in the hundreds of hours (and wore out one set of rings) but the bearings were still perfect.

Oh, and I've just got my very first brand new ABN engine, an OS 46VF , so soon I'll be starting the break in. My way....

I'm not a good judge of bearing life for I have too many engines to use any one much. The bearings I have replaced were in engines that had bad or marginal bearings when I got them or the engines belonged to others.

I generally use Omega fuel that has a little castor.

I did have an engine to jell up on me from castor oil when I had to move away and it sat for three years with no after run oil. I replaced the bearings.

Thanks gentlemen,I think castor is the best after run oil unless left untouched for years.Sure bearing life depends firstly: quality ,second environment (dirt, sand,grass etc.).

Jim, that is the .46FX that crashed in the pond. The muffler that is missing from that engine was loaned to a friend of ours and it was damaged in a crash at WOT. He had it on his good 50 SX.

I have always kept a log of flights and it is interesting to go back and read. I have a Saito .72 with 189 flights, and a Saito .56 with 166. No bearing problems. I think I've only run Omega 15% in those. That's what I know about some of mine. The others have 100+ flights without problems and they ran some Coolpower, but only Omega now.

MY club has a lot of big and small pattern flyers now . Cool Power 15% is pushed and most have fallen too peer pressure. I now notice quite a bit of bearing failures in different brands and sizes of engines. I have said it is the Cool Power and I get ( no it just has a lot of hours or it was my previous fuels ) Many have only seen Cool Power.