After paying $4.00 for a gallon of fuel for my 5B, I started thinking. Why do they not make smaller gasoline engines that would fit in my 8ight or any other nitro vehicle? Now, I am not mechanically inclined at all, actually I am very mechanically DE-clined, so is there a reason that the smallest gasoline engine I can find is 23cc?

Most likely due to all the extras needed for gas engines like spark plug, stator or alternator(not needed but better than pure battery) some sort or spark timing system and probably more. also in such small scale gas probably won't produce much power. If you take that 23 cc and make a nitto motor of the same size it would probally have more power but need much better cooling.
I'm not saying making a smaller gas engine isn't possible but it's just not practical.

Is there that much more going on in my baja engine compared to my 8ight?

yeah, there is

it's spark ignition vs compression ignition

Guys running ringed airplane engines convert to gas all the time. Its the ABC/ABN type engines that cannot be run on gasoline because gasoline burns much hotter than methanol does. If you could find a Ringed (which will turn about 1/2 the rpm an ABC car engine will) engine in the .28-.32 range, you could run it on gasoline using the glow carb with decent success however finding a ringed engine that small can be sometimes tricky in a 2-stroke. 4-strokes are more common but I havent seen many mechanically inclined folks taking Aero engines and converting them to gas AND car use. It can be done, but probably not worth it. It would be cheaper to convert an existing glow engine to run on FAI fuel if you want to run cheaper fuel. FAI fuel can be made for around $8 a gallon. I know its twice the price, however its probably the most effective way to run an ABC/ABN glow engine cheaply.

Tbh fair petrol rcs are cheap to run fuelwise $4 a gallon makes a couple of tanks =- 40mins a tank!!
much cheaper than nitro fuel.

6cc gasoline burning, spark ignition engine (right).

That's pretty cool. Where did you get that?

[link]http://www.mecoa.com/compagnucci/index.htm[/link]

That Italian car is epic, but I see two problems. One: the engine is bloody massive. It's nearly twice the displacement of a comparable glow engine, as a result it's a bit on the heavy side. Two: AM radio + Spark ignition = fail on a stick.

Yeah I immediately switched to 2.4 in my large scales due to interference

The engine actually isn't that big, its about as tall as a .21, and fatter. The pictures make it look a lot bigger than it really is, most of the thing is fins. They came with AM radios, the one shown has never been started, so I have no need to swap out the radio. I would run the other one I had with the stock AM radio and have no problems, they come stock with airtronics. These little engines run great, and have a ton of power... the ignition system just drains the stock 8 cell pack pretty quickly though. This was the first RTR car to break the 60mph mark, and they do it pretty easily.

Awsum little gas burner there. Gas is cheep when compaired to nitro, but have you ever transported a gas burning car? Stinks up the whole inside of your car or truck. Than there is the storage thing....do you gas burning guys drain your tank, clean your exaust pipe and than bring your car inside the house to store it or do you leave the stinking thing sit outside? My 1/5th scale truck lives inside a large lawn and leaf garbage bag so it does not stink everything up. (sucks) All my nitro and electric models live inside the house where they can be proudly displayed on my shelves. I also find that my clothes stink after I have been playing with my gas truck, if not like gas, like 2 smoke exaust. [&o]

The little compagnucci's aren't bad, they barely smell. My 5b on the other hand did... it smelled like an old, worn out, two stroke motorcycle. I was living in an apartment at the time and couldn't leave it outside, so I picked up a large rubbermade tub and put a few boxes of baking soda in there with it. No stink after that. It would also slide under my bed, and out of sight.

Good idea puttin it in a rubbermaid tub, I like the idea. I got a dog that kinda stinks also, hmmm..................

That's really cool. I wonder if I can buy just the engine.</p>

I have contacted mecoa about buying just the engine, and they never reply... so I would assume the answer is no. Its also has a really long crank and funny mounts. I imagine a crank wouldn't be too hard to find, it looks pretty standard (other than being long as hell).

How hard is it to find parts for it?

would probably say ONLY from them ONLY online.

Well, this one has never been run, so I have not needed parts. But I did own one about 4 years ago, before mecoa bought out all their stock, the parts were nearly impossible to find. I only broke a few parts, but it still took weeks of searching.

Another pic for scale, in case anyone was still interested.

Sounds like every other Italian car.

Magnum is making a .52 gasoline engine now. [link=http://www.hobbypeople.net/index.php/engines-motors/engine-accys-air-1/gas-airplane-engines-1/magnum-xls-52g-gasoline-ignition-rc-engine.html]Magnum .52[/link]

Well, I wouldn't be interested in the car because, as Proanti said, parts are hard to come by. But I am still interested in finding the engine and possibly fitting it to my 8ight 2.0.

Up untill 1947 all model engines were spark ignition and ran on a gasoline oil mix. Most ranged fron .19 to .60.The problem with these engines for most current day uses is that they have manual spark advance, and aren't easily throttled. They were/are used primarily in control line and free flight model aircraft and in tether cars.

Fox is now producing a throttled spark ignition .50, though I have never seen one.

jess

Has anyone tried the Magnum motor?