Hello everyone!

This is my startoff in this forum here, so here is brief presentation of myself:I am Fred from Germany, 19 years young. I am travelling in New Zealand right now and this is where I found a little model engine in a second-hand store. I purchased it for 20nzd.. I have no idea about RC at all, I was just fascinated about the fact that such a small engine could possibly even work! So here I have now some pictures and what I have found out so far:
It is a Davis Charlton engine, similar to the Dart f.ex.
One nut is missing, to fix that brass tube wich I believe is for the mix of fuel and air
I don't have tank

Those are my questions:

What is the voltage for the glow plug?
what fuel should I use?
How could I build a fuel reservoir? Which size?
Which model is it, anyway?
Are there any other parts missing?
Is there any lubrication needed or should I use a mixed fuel?


I think, that's it for now... I would be really happy if you could help me with this, as I set myself the target just to get this thing running!

Cheers, Fred

Fred,

Welcome to RCU and also welcome to NZ! I hope your visit is going well.

Post some pictures up and we'll do our best to identify the engine. I own one DC engine - a 1.5cc diesel.

Somehow I thougt having posted pictures before... Anyway, here we go again!

The glow plug is 1.5 v

DC Wasp?

Looks just like my DC Spitfire, but with a glow head.

Could also be the Wasp, as Fiery said, both shared crankcases, if I'm not mistaken (Spitfire 1cc; Wasp 1.5cc)

Thanks a lot for the replies! I haven't found any pictures for the DC wasp...
Is there any general How-to guide for that kind of engine?

My brother has a DC Wasp (0.80cc) but it has a slightly different venturi. On his engine, the venturi does not have that highly forward raked inlet, more upright but still slightly facing forward - if you understand what I mean

Are you able to re-photograph the little beastie against a matchbox for size comparison?

Anyway, it's a great find & a steal for $20NZD. I'm sure a lot of us here are very envious [>:]

Here's a photo of a DC Wasp that I just now nicked from the auction site - this one is identical to the one my brother owns, apart from the integral tank & the circular exhaust collector ring. You can see the difference in the venturi inlet. Perhaps Fred's example is an earlier model of the Wasp or different DC engine

Yes, it's me again

Am sure we can find the answer here : http://www.modelenginespares.co.uk/dcengines.htm

The original enquirers engine is a DC Bantam.

Yep, definitely a Bantam and there's a couple of engine tests on them at http://sceptreflight.net/Model%20Eng...sts/Index.html which may help the OP with some answers. Note that it needs a short reach plug. There are some bits missing like the spring starter and the rear integral fuel tank but that's not a problem. When fitting the spray bar through the venturi, there's a tiny hole in the middle which is where the fuel sprays through and the spray bar should be tightened so that the hole is just barely out of sight when you look down into the venturi.

Absolutely a DC Bantam 0.75 cc-in production from late 1959 until 1970. The reason it appears similar to the Dart diesel is that it uses the same crankcase casting as the Dart-machined slightly differently, and has the same stroke (the top end however is quite different, to allow for the increased displacement of 0.75 cc versus the 0.55 cc of the Dart.) Reasonably common still on Ebay, they were quite gutless-but started and ran well.....which is what I suppose is important in a beginners' engine. The DC Wasp-which replaced the Bantam in 1971-was a much better engine. Run it on about a 15% nitro fuel-and as pointed out it should have a short reach plug. The only point to be careful with is the head gasket-which is a very narrow and thin fibre one-and easily damaged. Don't unscrew the cylinder fins from the cylinder liner if you can help it. When new, they came with an integral tank attached to the backplate-this was cylindrical (not rounded like the Dart one), from spun aluminium, and had filler, vent and feed nipples riveted on. It was of adequate capacity for a FF model, but of little use for any other type of usage so often removed.
What to use it in? seeing as the original poster is German, he might like to put it in Graupner 'Topsy'-which would be a very good match for it, size wise.
.....a couple of afterthoughts-it runs best on 6x3 down to 5-1/4x3 props-and there is (or rather was) a radial tank mount accessory for it which also interchanges with the Dart-this screws into the crankcase in the place of the normal backplate, and has the same mounting bolt layout as a tanked Cox reed valve engine.

ChrisM
'ffkiwi'

My DC Wasp. Lovely little engine. Ear-splitting when on song, more than a match for a Cox .049 in the noise department.

As I said-the Wasp is a much better engine than the Bantam. I must run one of mine up and put the noise meter on it-I never thought of it as particularly noisy-but you could be right.......!

ChrisM
'ffkiwi'

I think I am too used to the throaty purrrr of a diesel Chris. This little thing is positively raucous in comparison. I like it though. A nice cheeky little glow engine. Steel cylinder with ball joint small end rod. The DC people must have had a very good look at the US made .049 when drawing this one up.

Was it the last completely new design from DC? I suspect it was.

Fiery-Yes-technically I suppose it was-if you count the Frog Venom and the DC Bee as being simply derivatives of the Wasp (which they are)-and the 1973 Mk2 Rapier as a reintroduction of the 1957 one. The only question mark would be the very very few 1980s era Bambis that were made-there's a photo of one in the Clanford book-was a redesign done? The appearance is different enough to suggest that it might have been-but in any case these didn't go into production (more's the pity!)....
Returning to my earlier comments on the noise aspect-I suppose the sensible experiment would be to run a Bantam and a Wasp and measure the noise levels-some engines ARE intrinsically noisy by dint of their physical design-but whether that applies in this case we'll have to see-the Wasp has generous exhaust port area, the Bantam far less so............

ChrisM
'ffkiwi'