hey i am about frustrated to the top of my head. i just got my vmax 7 to upgrade the v6 go to slap it on and i have everything put together and the damm engine will not lite. i notice i am having a lot of resistance at tdc, i pulled the sleve and piston out and the fit is so tight that it cant even move toward the last part of the cylider without binding any suggestion, besides returning the damm thing, i have been going thru heli withdrawls. aggghhh
thanks

yeah you GOT to pull off the head oil up the cylinder and break that thing in with your starter for a minute at a time several times NOW before you break the crankshaft...Rog

I agree with our bank yanking friend. The three norvel engines I have owned all came the same way, incredible tight with the piston at TDC. The instructions, which recommend a pretty specific break in period, comment on how the piston and cylinder are specifically chosen at the factory for a tight fit.

I would recommend well lubing the works with whatever fuel you are going to run, leave the head off and turn the works over with your starter for a minute or so. Give the starter a break for a few minutes and then go at it again. The engine should start to loosen up after a couple minutes of turning.

After that follow the break in instructions carefully. If the engine did not come with break in instructions, follow those in the LMH operator's guide under engine operation.

For what it is worth,
Jeff

I broke two piston connecting rods within three weeks and that was following the break in proceedure. Anyone else gone through broken piston connecting rods?

thanks everyone, its pretty incredible that someone can post a question and within a matter of minutes get an answer. anyway i ran the engine with the starter......ok no more bind at tdc. now i get the engine started but after about a min or so it just dies? ~2.5 turns and she revs, i thought it might just be lean so i went up a couple of clicks just more nitro shooting out the muff and still dies. anyone want to take a shot at this. i swear why cant this just be an easy install. thanks in advance.

I open mine up about five turns I get it started and as it is running(extremely rich) Istart to screw in the needle valve to lean it out. Screw it in to much and it will be hard for me to get it started again after the tank runs dry. Theres a fine line in there where it does work ok. Another thing Ive notice that after I have ran a tank and everything checkes out ok, WhenI go to fill it back up, It likes to leak Ive watched about a half tank of fuel leak out before it would stop. i guess you can chalk that up to gravity. Once you do get it running. The power is great. It even has plenty of power to spare that will even pull you out of your own rotor wash. The only thing Im wondering about is that connecting rod problem I hope I dont break another one anytime soon. My Engine should be back anyday now. Until then Im grounded. I still have my Vmax6 but dont feel like goofing with it.

Hi guys!

I'm just a bit inquisitive:

How much running time do you get on a tank of fuel?

How many ounces of fuel does the tank hold?

How much does the fuel cost?

How much does a V-Maxx engine cost?

Russ

V-MAX 7 ABOUT 6 min V-max 6 about 12 min

2oz I think

about .50 a tank $8 - $11 A quart

I have gone through 2 con rods myself. Both of these were on a Norvel Big Mig 0.61. I thought I might try swapping this out for vmax6 since it is the same weight and rpm range, but supposedly 0.31hp instead of the vmax6 0.13hp.

I ended up breaking the first rod during the first 10 seconds of break-in running. What luck that Sig, the US Norvel service center, is only about 1 hour away from me. I called them up then drove out. They replaced the engine on the spot and even broke in the new one with an electric starter for me. My buddy and I got a tour of the facilities to boot.

That engine gave me so-so performance in the LMH. At first I was getting more power and 10% higher max head speed (~2200 vs ~2000). But after some inconsistent running, I opened the engine and found the con rod had hogged out the big end bearing and was shot. I put that engine on the shelf and the Vmax6 back on the LMH.

Spiro

I get a solid 12 minutes flight time out of the Vmax6 engine on the stock 2oz tank running 30%nitro Heli mix from Hobbytown.

Hobbytown wants $12 a gallon for the fuel, which gives me some 64 flights at 2oz per. That comes out to 19 pennies per flight.

I might go through 2 gallons in a season, at 24$ total. I have bought some 10 gallons of fuel since I got the little LMH100+ back in 1996. At $120 for seven years of operating costs, this is about the only reason I haven’t converted over to electric. Well, besides the fact that the 120 wasn’t even a dream back in 1996.

Spiro

O.K.!

I was attempting to argue electric economy over fuel, but that won't work. You fuel guys are getting away with pretty cheap per-flight costs.

I've got $420.00 into 4 battery packs, a charger and a power supply. Even if I assume 750 charges per pack (they say 1,000) times 4 packs = 3000 ten minute flights it's $.14 per flight. But then we have to add the brushless motor & esc at $280.00 and now we're up to $.23 per flight.

It was just a thought.

I just can't help but feel bad when I read these posts about blown glow plugs, unglued carburators, vibration, things loosening up, fuel & castor oil all over the place, stinky smoke, etc.

I have a beautiful .60 size Schluter Champion in the workshop that's been collecting dust for 15
years for all the above reasons.

Well ... the bottom line for me is that I love my Corona! I can fly it inside in the lousey weather, and the noise doesn't bother anyone. In fact, you can actually hear the rotor beat slamming around the tailboom just like "real"! What a rush!!
I think the best part is that with the exception of a little lube and a daily inspection, there is NO maintenance.

Alright, alright ... enough!!

Happy flying

Russ

All of the Norvels have a very tight fit follow the soak down and spin break in carefully , and it takes a lot more than the instructions say, 500 turns by hand then use the starter for a few minutes and you have to keep adding oil while you are spining it, then run it very slightly rich if you run it to rich the motor runs cold and the cylinder does not expand fully and the engine runs tight and you have rod failer, also if you heat the cylinder up with a heat gun before you do any of this it will improve your chances of a proper breakin, and for the first 30 mins. of run time use atleast 5 head shims,and dont go past 1/3 throttle, this is for the average guy to do, I take mine apart and hand lap the piston to cylinder fit, then i soak it down and follow the rest of the procedure, and by the way the a/c eng. does not have the nessacary bronze bushing the heli eng. has in the nose to help with the side thrust placed on the crank end by the gear drive, and it will bind and where out very fast.

okay, i managed to get the engine to run for a few min. cont to die. unplugged the fuel line at the carb fuel dripping in. back flushed the carb okay. went to start running it again and plug died. no one in SD carries these plugs so now im on hold till i get more from the factory. this was why i have my .30 os bird in the first place. anyways im hoping that when the new plug comes in i can finally get some flights on the lmh. i really plan on using this to help someone learn to fly, but i do see some of the cool videos of guys having a blast with these things.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...915#post897482

If you have a old V MAX 6 PLUG read about adapter made by Darthdrk.
I may try this one too..