Pearl_414

I have a Saito .65 with a pro-spark ignition system. The Saito manual say's the engine should never be mounted inverted. I have it mounted on a Hangar 9 Cessna .40 model and has to be mounted inverted to keep the scale apperance. What do you Saito guys recommend?

Thanks, Pearl

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

I see Saitos mounted inverted all the time. I've never read the bit about not mounting them inverted?

Engines start better being upright or on the side but they will run inverted.

Meesh

My Feedback: (135)

I've got over 30 Saitos. Not one of my manuals has anything about mounting them upside down. How would you keep all of the cylinders on the 5 cylinder radial from being upside down?

Bob

Pearl_414

Perhaps they gave me a mis-print, who knows, still the manual says in black and white, for best results do not mount inverted. When I try to set the idle with engine inverted, the best I can do is a high idle to keep engine running. With engine mounted upright, it purrs like a kitten, have to speed idle up cause it will idle to slow and wanna get hot, maybe I'll leave it upright.

Thanks,

Pearl

jessiej

Was the engine originaly manufactured as an ignition engine by Saito or was it converted from glow?

jess

gzkpez

Is this a 2 stroke or 4 stroke engine? If it is the old 2 stroke I am jelous.

Pearl_414

Jess, the Saito is a glow, converted with a Pro Spark Ignition, with a NGK true blue sparkplug. Gzkpez, unfortunately, it's a 4 stroke that I bought back in 1993, I put the ignition to avoid unpredictable glowplugs going out during flight and crashing my models.

Pearl

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

Do you still use glow fuel with the spark conversion, or gasoline? Your statement regarding the engine being from 1993 says it all regarding the advice not to mount it inverted; the .65 is one of the oldest Saito engines, I'll bet yours has an air-bleed low end screw adjuster. 4-strokes were fairly new 14 years ago, tuning was (still is) more involved than a 2 stroke, and the manual reflected the thinking on inverted mounting in general.

Glow plugs are better today, much experience and a lot of time has shown that inverted mounting ain't so much of a big deal. All my Saitos (8 of them) are either sideways or upside down, been in use for four years in a couple of cases with the original glow plug, not a single problem. One of them is a FA-.65 from 1998. Sat new in the box for 5 years until I bought it. There's something about the sound of the older Saitos, like the .65 and .80, that sounds better. Sort of like the difference between an old BSA Victor 441 and a Yamaha 500 single. I like the BSA better.

gzkpez

I have a "FA-65 ABC 4 stroke Cycle Engine" with instructions. It is at least as old as yours. Its instructions have a section for "Engine Fiting Posiion." I have attached it. They seem to be less than an ideal translation. The warning in my instructions about mounting invert seems only to deal with hydrolic lock. I thought that was less of a problem with 4 strokes then 2 strokes, but I do not know for sure. My FA-65 has an air bleed carb with a choke.

For what it is worh I think you will have an excellent flying model, The old Saitos really are nice on planes such as a Cessna, due to how they turn, throttle, and sound.

Pearl_414

Khodges, I use 30% heli nitro, 30 bucks a gallon, and runs great on it. It does have an air-bleed low end adjuster, with this new heli fuel, it now purrs like a kitten, with engine inverted. High quality fuel was all it needed!! gzkpez, thanks for the attatchment. I took the slide choke off. To choke engine, I put my finger over the muffler exhaust, as the engine spins over to choke it and works great, slider choke would give me probs as engine ran. Although the Saito is almost 15 years old, it only has about 5 hours of run time on it. This is the only Saito engine I ever had and ever seen run, so I wouldn't know the difference in sound, but I do know 1 thing, with ingition system, it has tons of power. I gotta tell ya, the difference between glow and Ignition, is night and day. I will never go back to glow. This Saito will make it's 1st flight in 5 and half more years, when it hits 20 years old.

Thanks all

Pearl