A little over a week ago I went to a flea market type business in my area where I bought an RC airplane that had a nitro engine on it. The plane is balsa and the engine is a OS Max .15 FP. I have been flying electric airplanes for close to two years now, but never one powered by an internal combustion engine. Glow engines are pretty much new to me so I’ve learned quite a bit since I’ve bought the engine. My plan is to start the engine in the next few days so the other day I cleaned the engine to get it ready for starting.
I don’t know the history of this engine, but after some research I’m pretty sure the engine was manufactured sometime in the late ’80s. Although the outside of the engine was pretty grimy and covered in old fuel, I don’t believe it has ever been run. The reason I believe this is because when I took off the back plate of the engine there were no signs of fuel. No gummed up Castor oil, no residue from any liquid, nothing. Also after talking with one of the owners of the local hobby shop, he also believes it had never been run because if it had it would not be easy to turn the prop over because it would be gummed up and whatnot. This was not the case, the prop turned over just fine. With this information I feel that I got a pretty great deal: $20 for a ready to fly (minus receiver) balsa airplane and a brand new engine!
Anyway, the way that I cleaned it was by using a toothbrush and Isopropyl alcohol. I took the advice of a few RCgroups members and plugged the fuel inlet port, the carburetor air intake valve, and both muffler exhaust ports so the alcohol wouldn’t get into the engine. I scrubbed the outside of the engine with the toothbrush and got in all of the nooks and crannies and eventually got all the crud off the engine. When I finished up cleaning the outside of the engine the engine looked awesome! The engine went from old and dirty looking to shiny and new in just a few minutes! After talking with some RCgroups members, we decided that it was unnecessary to completely dismantle the engine and do a full cleaning. My best bet, they said, is to just try and start it so that is just what I’ll do!
When I get the engine running I’ll take some video and will upload it to my Facebook page. So, if you want to make sure you see the video you may want to go ‘like’ my Facebook page *wink*
