I was just drooling on a 1.20 AX at the LHS today! How does the stock muffler fit the excelleron?

Hi CGRetired,

Correct me if I'm wrong but the main cause of the center bolt breaking is the bolt is done up too tight. As the muffler expands with heat the bolt doesnt stretch at the same rate as the alloy around it, & the bolt snaps & the back shell goes overboard.

The 46 AX is well known for it if you leave the baffle in it & tighten the bolt right up. If the baffle is removed like we do for racing then it has the other problem, & has to be lockwired if you use the original bolt.

Tony.

Here's my Excelleron 90 with a OS 120 Surpass III w/pump.

Oh yes, Tony. I didnt intend to imply anything different. I changed the position of the exhaust port and tightened it. I even used some locktite on the nylock.. double whamy to keep it from un-winding itself. This all proved to be an issue after several flights. The problem, of course, is that the bolt is hardened steel where the muffler is cast aluminum, they stress differently. There was no room for expansion with the way I tightened it so it snapped.

I replaced the whole bolt with an 8-32 all-thread rod and two nylocks. So far so good. Oh, by the way, OS sent me a completely new muffler. I was duly impressed with their service.

DS.

Well, I retired the Excelleron after a year and a half of pattern competition and almost sold it
but decided to keep it as a backup and practice airplane and looks like now that was a good
decision. My YS 1.40 DZ in my OTOP crapped out right before the first contest of the season
this weekend so I'll be flying the old faithful Excelleron. It now has a Saito 1.25 in it instead of
the YS 1.10 so we'll see how that works out and I'll let you know. The Saito is almost a drop in
replacement for the YS, same mount and length, everything except the throttle arm which is on
the opposite side.

tommy s

Tommy
IS the OTOP Ok. Did you make it back to the runway.
Wish I could make it this weekend. My Explorer(PreExcelleron) has been retired . I hung it on the fence deadstick after waiting on the runway to clear. Shouldda been bossy and landed anyway but I thought I was OK.
Eddie

Hey Eddie,
Yes the OTOP is OK, it's just the engine that won't run anymore. Glen Watson said it might
be a bad disc valve in the rear of the crankcase but anyway it has to be sent in for repair.
I think Pennie and I are coming to Baton Rouge next month, hope you can come. Maybe the
1.40 will be back from YS by then.

tommy s

Hi Tommy, Have not talked in a while. Well, The Excelleron is finally finished and I ran the new 110 last week. The engine was fine right out of the box. This suprised me. I'm the not so proud owner of two 140 FZ-S motors. One , I had a valve seat drop after about 6 flights while flying one of my boxers. I am shipping it back to YS performance. The engine has less than 6 hours on it. I purchased a new one and it is now in the same boxer.. It has great power but I 've been having low idle problems It's not reliable. I spoke with Dave at YS tonight and the suggestion was to lean the regulator. The engine smokes alot at low idle and is rough on idle. It's not like the old 120s that seemed to run great with no difficulties. I have a few Saito engines and they run right down to a tick. I would like to just slow these 140s down so it doesn't look like a carrier landing. Anyway, good luck with the Saito. I'll take the excelleron out soon---soon as I get through this 140 problem. WHY DID Y.S. EVER STOP PRODUCTION of THE GREAT 120??????

Pete P.

Hey Mike,
That's why I put the Saito in the Excelleron, I wanted an engine that would be
trouble free. The YS has great power but it cost me more than a few points last
year, missed the whole contest in Houston when a con rod broke on takeoff. The
Excelleron is light so I don't think power with the Saito will be an issue. I hear the
1.25 makes very good power. I just got it so we'll find out soon.

tommy s

I've got an FZ 91 in mine, but I'm thinking of trying a 1.20 AX as backup- but I'm interested to hear how your Saito works

I'll let you know after this weekend, the weather should be good. This is my first Saito
but there are lots of them flying at the field where I practice and they're all like Timex
watches, they just keep ticking.

tommy s

Flew the Excelleron today with the new Saito 1.25 and all I can say about the Saito
is "what a sweet running engine". It started for the first time with no problem and idled
with the factory settings. The manual advised running it very rich at first so I flew four
flights with the needle out almost five turns as the directions stated. It was so rich it was
spitting fuel out the exhaust but even at that it has more than enough power for the Excelleron.
I flew one more flight and set the needle in almost one complete turn, still rich but turning the
15x8 prop at 8800 RPM, and the vertical performance was impressive. When this engine is broken
in it's going to be very good and it couldn't be any more user friendly. Just what I need for a
practice airplane, just fuel it up, start it, and fly.

tommy s

Can anyone coment on how this plane flies copared to the hangar 9 showtime and the synergy 90 3D?
cheers

I flew the Excelleron and Showtime, both are set up for pattern flying. I prefer the Excelleron for pattern flying for one reason.....in a 10-15mph crosswind the Showtime was bouncing all over the place and I had to make a lot of corrections. My Excelleron did not have this problem. 3D flying is a non-issue, Showtime all the way...

I may be just a little biased, the Excelleron is mine, the Showtime is a friend. His setup is different. He has reduced the throws to almost nothing (I think he said 8 degrees) and they are still too sensitive for my taste. Still, there are a lot of things I like about the Showtime, and I believe he will have his issues corrected before the local contest next month.

At this very moment, if I crash my Excelleron, the Showtime will be its replacement.

wildnloose,

The Tojeiro 90 might be one to consider also. Aerobob has flown his 1.40 version and
seems to like it very much, and the price is right too.

tommy s

Hello all.

I'm about to start my Excelleron 90 with an OS 120AX. Got lots of great info from this thread, and am going to use the Dubro 257 Giant Scale plastic hinges instead of the stock metal hinges, and the control horn arms from the Dubro 867s on the elevator pull-pull to get the pivot point directly over the hinge line (as suggested by Dean Pappas in his 9/2005 review in Model Aviation). Also love the idea about the blue tinted canopy Testor 1257.

I am concerned about the strength of the landing gear plate. I fly off of a paved runway, but am an intermediate pilot and sometimes land a little hard. Is it recommended/necessary to glass the plate up along the fuse sides? I've got 2 oz and 5 oz. Which is best? I've never fiberglassed before but it seems pretty straight forward. Anything I need to know here? Do I just tape over the blind nuts and glass directly over that? Seems like all I'd have to do then, is just drill up through the blind nuts to clear for the LG bolts.

Is it adviseable to replace the existing LG blind nuts with a couple 1/4-20's and use plastic bolts that will shear rather then yank the plate out in a hard landing? I've done this on a couple of planes, but not on one where the engine is mounted inverted.

What is the best prop to fly with this engine on this plane (with the standard landing gear)?

This is my first pattern type plane. Closest thing I've flown is a Golden Skies R/C Crossfire 320EII (60 size/64" WS with YS110FZ).

Thanks in advance for the help.

Steve

Having flown both the Showtime (with and without the wing fences) with OS 120 AX and the Excelleron with YS 110, I much prefer the Excelleron as a much more neutral and positive airframe. I have a very minor rudder to elevator p-mix in the Excelleron to hold knife edge and no rudder to ail mix at all. The Showtime required both and the ail mix was pretty substantial (11%) at max deflection.
I suspect you could turn the Showtime into a moderately successful pattern model with time and effort but the Excelleron is darn good right out of the box. Now, that said, I used the canopy and LG off an Icepoint for more side area (and better profile) with the canopy and more ground clearance for a 16-10 prop with the LG. I mounted the fuel tank midships (thanks YS) and the CG stays put througfh the whole tank.
Gordie

GM1 -- Can the stock wheels, axles & wheel pants be used with the Icepoint LG?

Yes, I used the stock axles, wheels, and wheel pants.
G

CG Retired - Was there sufficient clearance with the OS 120AX and the 16x8 prop with the stock LG?

I've got the plane on the bench now.

Can't wait.

Any other modification recommendations?

Thanks

Picked mine up at the LHS yesterday. I must have gotten lucky because it has the best covering job I've seen on an ARF. The cowl is a bit rough but I can live with that. Overall it looks great so far.

I'm considering replacing the pull cables on the elevator with dual 3421s and carbon pushrods. Any thoughts on this ?

My personal opinion is it's not worth the trouble. As strange as the stock set up looks
it actually works very good and is easy to set up with the tubes already installed and
the pull-pull is probably lighter also.

tommy s

I did that myself. It's better that way, I don't understand why they made it that way in the first place.

I am also of the opinion that the stock set up works perfectly. I've been using it without a problem for close to a year now.
Maybe if I did it again, the only thing I would replace would be the tail horns; I haven't had any problems, but a friend has broken the horns twice (they do look a bit weaker than mine).

After I don't know how many flights, I need to replace the wing dowels, they are worn down and allow rocking movement of the wing.

Gabe

Thanks guys. Seems like a tough call, but I have plenty of time to decide I guess. I'm a slooooow builder.