I bought a used YS 120 several years ago and now I'm ready to use it. I now realize that it has Ignition and a spark plug. Also the ignition instructions uses the word "gas", thus making me realize this engine was set up for gas and not nitro. I searched on the web to find out something about this setup, but I can't find anything. Is there a benefit or should I pull the ignition off, put in an OS 4c glow plug and move on? What's the scoop?
I'm assuming that maybe the gas is more powerful than Glow or something..... Any help is appreciated.

Are you sure it's not onboard glow?....ignition and gasoline in the YS...YIKES!

No YS engines were produced as Gasoline with ignition. Perhaps someone converted it. There is a real problem with this in that Gasoline will destroy all the silicone parts within the engine. This is not such big deal on the O-rings. As you can find a replacement o-ring that will hold up gasoline as opposed to the Silicone for Alky based fuels. The big problem especially with the old YS engines is the regulator has a silicone diaphragm, and plunger that can't be easily replaced so it would have to be specially made one of a kind part. And I don't even know what material you could make it out of to make it work properly.

There is a possibility that the engine was setup to run on Alcohol with ignition. This does work but I don't know any of the details on it. The early 90's TOC models ran engines that were like this...but they were not YS engines they were other brands like the Tartan's and so on.

There is no reason on an engine of this size to gain the benefits of an ignition system on Alcohol. I just don't see it working at all much less working well. However there are smarter people out there than me.

If you want to run it as a YS engine I would say this engine defiantly needs to go back to YS Parts and Service and will likely need many parts and pieces. I don't think you are going to be able to stick a OS #F in it and run it and have it work. Too many mods have occurred if it truly is on ignition with a spark plug and not a remote or on-board glow driver.

Sounds like someone experimented for some odd reason and then dumped the engine on you. It still amazes me some of the ideas people come up with in this sport. On a YS 120 there was not much to gain if this engine was really an attempt to convert to ignition on Alky or Gasoline.

Richard at YS can tell you if its worth your time to restore or not. I would say it will likely need some parts but unlikely its just a big paper weight. Richard has the parts and knows what needs to happen and what things look like. If things were modified then he can tell right away. For you to throw parts at it it will likely be very expensive.



Troy Newman
Team YS

Thank you Troy.
Do you have a number and/or email where I can contact Richard?
The motor's been sitting for years and I have to get it "freed up" anyway.
I was always thinking that it was onboard glow ignition, but with the magnetic pickup thing and the other opposing wheel with a mechanism to advance timing, I can't imagine that is for an onboard glow, but maybe it is??
It's a cool looking set-up, but Glow is fine by me and I don't want to chance putting gas to everything and destroying sensitive parts.

www.yspartsandservice.com

Has all the contact info

a phone call is the best and easiest. Richard doesn't spend a bunch of time on emails as it take time away from working on engines. And he is not as Internet exposed or capable as many of us are.

Troy

How about a picture?

I talked to Richard and then Bill from CNH and it's an ignition for glow set-up. It prevents detonation and provides a smooth idle. It is an actual ignition system but for Glow fuel.

Loan, thats what I was guessing it was- a C-H ignition or equivelent to use with glow. I have one like this setup on a saito 150, complete with sparkplug that runs on glow fuel. It makes starting my engine easier, lower idle rpms and increases your top rpms just a little. I wonder why someone would have installed this setup on a YS? They are such great engines to begin with. Oh well
Best of luck with yours.
John

Now I really want to see a picture.

Blessings