>I now have in my possession
>three Fox 35's. Only
>one - a 40th edition
>has a muffler. The
>older ones have onlt the
>vertical bar in front of
>the exhaust - one is
>tapped -. How do
>I install a muffler on
>these engines.
DO NOT use the bar in the exhaust! The load of the muffler will distort the case. You need a "strap-on" muffler, where a strap goes around the entire case. The best one are the ones that use a hose clamp.
I'm also pretty dubious of the stock muffler, but its worth a try. Our hosts, SSW, RSM, and others sell a "chip" or "tongue" muffler, that doesn't muffle nearly as well as the "tube" muffler that comes with the engine, but provides less back pressure. The Fox doesn't particularly like mufflers, the best you can do is provide a minimal muffling capability that just knock the edge off the noise.
>Also, one is a little stiff
>- it won't pop when
>I flip the prop.
>Do I have to wait
>for my Fox fuel to
>arrive and soak the engine
>to clean the insides.
No, just fill it up with fuel, or better, "Air Tool" Oil that you get at the hardware store. This will loosen it up well.
>Several articles I have read say
>a new engine needs to
>be thoroughly cleaned, deburred, ect.
>before it is run.
>How do you do that?
> In the 'old days'
>we just broke them in.
You're probably OK just running it as is. I would probably at least remove the backplate and swish fuel around inside to rinse out any loose metal chips, etc. It's allegedly already been run at the factory, so any chips have already been run through it. I'm somewhat skeptical; some I've seen were not runnable as delivered. But they've gotten a lot better than they were in the 70's-80's.
>The new props look different than
>the Top Flight 10-6's I
>used to use. Are
>they different?
Yes. There is a tremendous variety of props, with a large range of characteristics. The ones closest to the old Top Flite Super-M (wide rounded-off blade) is probably the Master Airscrew wood prop. But there are Zingers, the odd-ball Top Flite "Power Point", sometimes the out-of-production Rev-Up, and BY&O in wood, and APC, Master Airscrew, and Tornado in glass-filled nylon, and Bolly in glass- or graphite- reinforced epoxy. Any of these work depending on the situation. Most Fox 35's I've seen lately use the Tornado Magnum 9-6 3-blade. This has the admirably property of being dirt cheap.
Another difference is that we are learning to measure and alter the prop pitch and pitch distribution to make them work better. This is still in it's infancy, but it makes a huge difference in how the airplane flies. I wouldn't necessarily recommend you run out and buy a pitch gauge and start carving, but you should be aware that there are people who do.
Which prop do you have?
