What Fuel is used today

Hello,
I am curious what is the fuel of choice these day in U/C. Years ago we used Duke's Fuel which I believe was straight castor but I am not sure. The engines I would be looking to run in the near future are
Johnson 33 SS, Fox 35 and a Torpedo 29S. I just came across the Torepd 29s in the bottom of a box yesterday, it looks like it might be new like the Johnson. Are Fireball glow plugs still around and are Perfect Fuel tanks still good> I have a bunch of them I never did use.

Thanks again for putting up with all of my questions.

Hi David!

There is a seach function available here (look for the Search button).

If you type in 'fuel castor' and hit the and button you'll find much on the subject of how to get hold of 29% castor fuel.

http://www.clstunt.com/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID1/11184.html

Similarly 'fireball plugs' and 'perfect tanks' and the and button again.

http://www.clstunt.com/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID1/10712.html

http://www.clstunt.com/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID1/11244.html

Perfect brand tanks (as well as Taffinder) are now made by Brodak.

The 'fave rave' plug at the moment seem to be 'Thunderbolt'.

As a newbie here you may not be aware of 'the best links page in the (c/l) world' run by Garf:

http://home.att.net/~philbrown36641s5/clhomepage3.html

Welcome back, questions are encouraged and welcome here.

Early iron/steel engines like that need more castor than the new engines. I suggest using something with 5-10% nitro and 20-25% castor oil.

At some point Fireball had a bad run of plugs where the seal will melt out in one flight. I stay away from them. I would go with a K&B, Glow devil or other modern plug.

The perfect tanks I've seen were all made for suction type systems and would benefit from being plumbed for uniflow. It's a good idea to pop the end off and check for rust in those old tanks anyway.

>Hello,
> I am curious what is the fuel of choice these day in
>U/C. Years ago we used Duke's Fuel which I believe was
>straight castor but I am not sure. The engines I would be
>looking to run in the near future are
>Johnson 33 SS, Fox 35 and a Torpedo 29S. I just came across
>the Torepd 29s in the bottom of a box yesterday, it looks
>like it might be new like the Johnson. Are Fireball glow
>plugs still around and are Perfect Fuel tanks still good> I
>have a bunch of them I never did use.
>
>
>Thanks again for putting up with all of my questions.
>
>
>David

With most of these engines you should use all castor (or minimum of 50% castor) and fuel in the 25%-29% range, with a lean towards the upper end.

As to the engines, unless you *really* have a need to run that Johnson or Torpedo, I would not do so. These are far more valuable as collector items, and especially so if they have never been run. Matter of fact, you can probably get two new ,good running, modern engines that have mufflers and can be adapated to lighter bolt on mufflers for that Johnson alone.

Sometimes the older stuff is best kept in a display case, although some people may want to run a period engine in a period plane and for that reason alone I would run it, but certainly not for just plain sport flying.

Choice of fuel sometimes reflects what is available in a given area, too. In Minnesota, we use a lot of Sig fuel because it is readily available and high quality. I run 50/50 syn/castor in OS engines and 25% castor with an extra dollop of oil in Foxes and Enyas. Most guys use Fox glow plugs and have few issues.

PowerMaster GMA fuel...10% nitro 22% oil (50/50) works great and readily available....

>PowerMaster GMA fuel...10% nitro 22% oil (50/50) works great
>and readily available....

Powermaster also makes "GMA 5/29" and "GMA 10/29" fuels. The first number is the nitro percentage, the second is the oil percentage, and the oil is pure castor. These were George Aldrich's specified formulations for old style iron piston engines such as Fox 35s. I'm running the 5/29 in my old McCoys (definitely *not* collectors items ) and it works well. An absolutely safe brew for old iron engines.

I've taken some ribbing about having to clean all that sloppy castor oil off my model. Truth to tell, with a tongue muffler, most of it goes into the air and I get just a thin stripe of oil on the wing. The fuselage and tail stay clean. So don't spare the castor oil!

FWIW,

Not only are you wiping off castor from your model, you are giving it the attention it needs as to cracks, rips or tears that seem to occur when we are not looking, and a little rub down after a hard flight is appreciated by any flying machine.

Hello,
Thank you again guys, you have been great. It is funny to hear that engines we but 35-40 year ago for $10 or so are now "collector items" I guess I will take your advice and just leave them as it.
Now, what are good engines to get to use in the 19-40 range? I am not going to compete with them, just looking for some good reliable engines.

Thanks again.
David

Hi Dave,
Welcome back to C/L Stunt.

OS LA 40, and Brodak 40 are good and light engines with mufflers, which nowadays is the norm (and they are designed to run with them). They are less than a hunded bucks, which corrected for inflation, you will see we get much more for your dollar than we did with the old engines.

If old stuff, including designs is your thing, there are some events that are low key competition that might be up your alley. Classic Stunt, is a design built or published before the end of 1969, using the modern pattern and Old Time Stunt, which uses the old 50's pattern, for designs from before the end of 1952.

Some guys use the models, engines, tanks wheels and everything else used in the period to build representative models, but it isn't required. Building and displaying these older designs is a good way to show off your nice old engines though.

There is a lot of good equipment available, and plans and kits abound in C/L stunt these days. For a returning flyer, the ARF models are a good bet, easy to get flying fast and so far most are designs you will recognize from the past!

Have fun,
Chris...

>Hello,
> Thank you again guys, you have been great. It is funny
>to hear that engines we but 35-40 year ago for $10 or so are
>now "collector items" I guess I will take your advice and
>just leave them as it.
> Now, what are good engines to get to use in the 19-40
>range? I am not going to compete with them, just looking for
>some good reliable engines.
>

David,

Don't be afraid to really *use* old stuff. I have a half dozen McCoy 35s that cost anywhere from $10-$30 and they run/fly great. $30 was for a brand new, never been run example. For inexpensive, reliable sport power plants they are hard to beat, particularly since Leonard sells excellent tongue mufflers for them. The typical number people cite for the production of these engines is 100,000. So they are as common as dirt at swap meets, and can be bought cheap. The only time to think twice about flying a good, old engine is if it is very rare, or new in the box. My good McCoy "runners" are fixer-uppers: cleaned in the crock pot, repainted heads, and new bolts. Not collectors items, but good looking, good running engines. Why pound anything better into the ground while learning?

JMHO,