Help!! Gummed up engine
 

I have an ASP 1.08 that was in a TF Corsair. I want to get this thing in the air this summer but the engine is stiff and gummed up from sitting around for years with oil residue still in it. I actually have a couple of engines that are like this......I obviously didn't use after run engine oil back then.
Anyway, what is the best way to work this engine loose?? I can turn it over O.K. but the carb is gummed up so much that I can't move the throttle arm. Also, when I turn the engine over, I can feel the bearings like they are gummed up as well. I'd hate to think the engine is ruined, it was never in the air and only run on the test bench years ago. Like I said, I have a couple more .40 size engines that are in this condition as well. One of them I can't even turn over. I no longer use fuel with Castor in it to save me from this hassle again and to eliminate the use of after run oil. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks,
Don

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

I've heard of people boiling their engines in antifreeze--to clean the outside, mainly. I don't know why it wouldn't also clean the inside, providing you remove the head. I would also take the carb off, and boil it off the engine--this would allow the solvent to reach all parts of the carb. Just a thought. That's what I'd do, anyway.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Not boil. Cook it in ethelyne glycol over night on low. Make sure you don't eat out of it again. (probably common sense ya never know) You'll have to pull any rubber seals and plastic parts like the throttle arm.

Order some new seals for it and give it a whirl. Bearings are no big deal either but they may free up once you get the varnish out.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Okay, I may try both but what's ethylene glycol and where can I get some???

Thanks,
Don

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Never mind, I found ethylene glycol.........(did a search).

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

ethylene glycol = scientific name for antifreeze. Also, do this outside--you don't want those vapors around. And, don't do it where animals (domestic, that is) can drink from the bowl. Ethylene glycol will kill them.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Why not just heat it up in the oven 80 -100 degrees and see if this will loosen it up a bit . Then disassemble and clean in soapy water.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

You may be able to use some glow fuel if you don't have a crock pot. I have taken a totally gummed up solid engine, heated it with heat gun to free it up, then add glow fuel, WD-40, or after-run oil (trans fluid) to get it freed up. After dismantling, clean with rubbing alcohol, oil with trans fluid, and reassembled. Cooking in crock pot with anti-freeze will probably clean it better, but if you don't want to wait, you could try these.

Pilgrim

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Why risk the healt when cooking antifreeze...?
Remove backcover and glowplug, then soak in clean glowfuel night over, it will loose up old castoroil.

Jens Eirik

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Hi!
Sorry Jens!
I have never in my 30 years in this hobby (I'm now 51) seen glowfuel loose up old (yellow orange and gummy or hard) castor oil. Never!
The only way to thoroughly clean a really gummed up, castor oil run glow engine, is to take it apart and change the bearings and clean the engine with acetone or something like it.
Cleaning an engine by placing it in a jar of anti freeze might work too but it seems a bit crude to me...never heard that method being used by any person being into racing engines.
Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Nothing are done before you has tried...

I has tried and works well, see at the side from factory: http://www.eifflaender.com/modeller.htm

Jens Eirik

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

With a badly gummed up engine there are two parts you have to be certain are free. One is that the conrod is free to turn on the wrist pin and not just turning in the piston bosses. The easy check for this is if you can slide the rod along the wrist pin which can be done just by taking off the backplate. The second thing is the bearings which really should be removed to check properly. If you've used castor then almost certainly they won't be rusted but can feel very gritty or even completely locked up. This is only gummed castor and will loosen up with some fuel or other solvent, even soapy water. I usually just scrub them with a toothbrush, turn them between my fingers while loading them in both directions and just keep doing this until all the grittiness is gone. I've never yet had to change any castor gummed bearings.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Hi!
Have you been into racing ...you should have:D
Regards!
Jan K

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

I take the glow plug out and back plate off put it full submerged in castor oil and bake it for an hour and a half at 450 degrees. Cleans all the brown deposits and all the gummed part out and will not harm any of the rubber o-ring or gaskets and there is no chance of fuel catching on fire. Your hobby shop shold have quarts of castor oil since so many people add a few ounces to their fuel

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

[Sorry Jens!
I have never in my 30 years in this hobby (I'm now 51) seen glowfuel loose up old (yellow orange and gummy or hard) castor oil. Never!]

I have. Many times, but then I have been around a bit longer;)

Sometimes it helps to warm the engine a bit before soaking. As Downunder noted, if castor has been used rusted bearings are very unlikely, and the bearings are easily cleaned.

As an afterthought, Jaka, if the method has not worked for you you may have had inferior quality castor. I recall you having posted previously about problems with castor.

jess

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Every time this subject comes up it makes me laugh. You all talk like placing a few aluminum and steel engine parts in warm anti-freeze for several hours requires haz-mat suits and isolation booths.
busarider29,
All you need to do is get a single serving crock pot from Wal-mart for around $12.00. Buy some regular cheap green anti-freeze while you are their also. Disasemble the engine as much as you can and place the parts with enough anti freeze to cover them in the pot and set it on low for for several hours or overnight for stuff that is really gummed up. (a toothbrush will pursued really stubborn castor) Remove the parts when clean and flush with clean warm water. I air dry the parts with compressed air and then drop them into a container of synthetic ATF fluid. The engine can then be reassembled.
I have done many, many engines this way with excellent results. Just this week a friend brought me a Veco .19 that had been in storage since 1967. It had been sitting in Castor oil and wrapped in an oily rag for 38 years and was frozen solid as a rock! We removed the head, backplate and thrust washer and placed the everything into the anti-freeze for about 12 hours. When we went to remove the engine, the parts freely came apart. The engine was cleaned and reassembled in the manner I described above and 1 hour later it was on the test stand singing right along just as it did many years ago.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Here is the engine I was describing. This was taken just after it was reassembled.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

[You all talk like placing a few aluminum and steel engine parts in warm anti-freeze for several hours requires haz-mat suits and isolation booths.]

Certainly nothing like those precautions are needed. It is well to remember however that anti- freeze is quite toxic , and unlike most of the chemicals we comonly use, due to it's scent and taste it is attractive to pets and small children. There have been numerous fatalities, cases of blindness etc. I find this fact in no way laughable.

Haz-mat suits are unnecessary. Common sense is highly recommended.


jess

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Now with this I agree!:D

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Hi!
Come on guys! Do you really think those old gummed up ballbearings are worth saving?! Old ballberaing, 2 year or more are just no good. They may turn ..but how well do they turn???
But I might be too influenced from pylonracing perhaps;). Many sport fliers (I'm one of them too) doesn't seem to understand that it is much more easy to take an engine apart and examine it thoroughly changing ballbearings etc , than to do a crude thing as cooking the entire engine in a pot for hours...thinking that would solve their engine problems.
The only thing that has to be fixed in a glow engine that has been sitting for years ...is the ballbearings that has to be replaced by new ones...and some cleaning with aceton on the interior parts....that's it!...takes only half an hour to an hour to do.
Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

jaka
Well I'm not so sure about that. Not long ago I cleaned my old Enya 45 that's probably done a couple of hundred hours and then sat for maybe 15 years. The bearings were totally frozen up with old castor. After a bit of cleaning they started to turn but felt gritty. More cleaning and they spun beautifully and were completely smooth with axial loads in both directions. That's good enough for me in a sports engine. It took me maybe 10 minutes, I didn't need to go find a shop that had them and it was free :D

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

[Come on guys! Do you really think those old gummed up ballbearings are worth saving?!]

Why not? Easy to do, costs virtualy nothing, don't have to go to the trouble of finding replacements. Seems a no-brainer.

jess

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Forget the crock pot and use Demon Clean. A lot faster and it will not turn your engine dark gray if it's cooked too long or if the anti freeze is dirty.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

If your engine is turning dark then you're getting the antifreeze too hot. I don't think "dirty" antifreeze has anything to do with it since I use my nearly indefinitely. I've never changed the antifreeze in my crock pot and have cleaned lots of engines in it. Keep it on the LOW setting and you'll get great results. Look at the picture posted by CCRC1 for expected results. They look new when done this way. I've never had one turn dark either.

RE: Help!! Gummed up engine
 

Wow thata a nice old engine !