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Diesels available in U.S.

I am looking for purpose-built diesel engines in the .40 to .70 size range. I am trying to avoid conversions, and would prefer to avoid PAW's (don't like their silencer arrangement or prop attachment arrangement).

I have a couple of Davis conversions. They fly quite well, but took a good bit of fiddling to get them working right. The head conversion was no problem, but both required finding replacement carbs with smaller throat diameters than came with the stock engines. With some engines, it's almost impossible to find carbs with smaller throats that properly mate to the carb mount.

I realize that diesels are easier to find in the UK. MVVS seems to make several, although I don't know if they use modified carbs (but I haven't been able to find MVVS in the US lately). The J'EN brand from Just Engines is a conversion, and they brag about sending both diesel and glow heads for their diesels, so I'm fairly certain they are just using the regular glow carb. The smaller carbs I used drastically improved throttle response, as well as making the needle adjustments much less critical. I assume this is due mainly to improved vacuum. When I tried using exhaust pressure on the fuel tank using the regular carb, it made fine-tuning almost imossible.

Thus my search for purpose-built diesels (preferably available in the US). I don't know why diesels are so unpopular here. Although they may be a little weak on the RPM side, they more than make up for this in terms of torque. One of my conversions (.46 sized) is flying an older pattern ship that was designed for a .61, and it has more authority than the .61 it replaced (with a considerably larger prop). I guess one of the main complaints may be the increased messiness of diesels, but I've found them much more tolerant of back-pressure, and my solution is to just route the exhaust to the rear of the model using largish silicone tubing. They run quieter and cooler, turn larger props, and use considerably less fuel than their glow counterparts. Other than their messiness, I can't really find anything not to like. Also, since they don't require a glow plug, you won't have one die when the glow catallyst fouls.

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated.

Bob

Reply to
Bob
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Hi, Bob. It sounds as though you have been around the Diesel Block several times.

Off the top of my head, Eric Clutton is the only USA resident source of made for Diesel operation engines. And PAW is probably his main line of throttleable engines for sale. But don't trust my memory. Contact him personally. I'll bet you already have several times.

With Irvine out of the Diesel business, IIRC, Enya is the remaining manufacturer of purpose-built Diesel engines.

The Enya's can be purchased from England, or, if you want less expensive prices, from

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. I wouldn't assume that all of Modelflight's prices are lower than Just Engines or the Servo Shop in England. Certainly shipping plays a significant role in the total price.

I just bought a couple of glow engines (ASP) from

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in New Zealand with great success. I don't know if they carry any Diesel engines or not. Sure wouldn't hurt to look or ask.

Wanting to get going with an R/C Diesel engine again, I bought used versions of the old Magnum copy of the OS.40FP and a pristine NIB Tower .40 engine a while back. I just ordered the RJL/Mecoa conversion head for it (they share the same head). I probably won't use the Tower engine as a Diesel, unless the Magnum breaks a crank or connecting rod.

I've owned a Davis Diesel Development conversion head and ran it on my OS.32F-H engine for a while. While not as straight forward operating as a conventional made-for Diesel, it worked very well. I'll probably buy another Davis head or two in the near future.

I picked up an MVVS .61 (3090) NIB a while back at a fantastic price. I am now having Pe Reivers in the Netherlands (MVVS dealer/distributor (?)) look for the parts from MVVS to convert mine to a Diesel.

Dang, I wonder if this is the Diesel equivalent of Shingles that I am having in my old(er) age?

Ed Cregger

Reply to
Ed Cregger

I suspect that port timing is a lot of the problem with converting a glow engine. Made on purpose diesels of the sport variety have pretty mild timing, so a big carb is a waste of time. Silly as it may sound, you might have good luck with a Davis Diesel conversion head on a good old Fox .74. The stock carb is the same one used on their .45, so it ain't too big, and it's conservatively timed, producing lots of torque for a glow engine. You can often find one cheap on RCU or Ebay if you can avoid the idiots who get into bidding wars.

If you've got access to a machine shop, you can buy castings and build one. Check out Model Engine Builder magazine for information.

Reply to
Geoff Sanders

Ooops, almost forgot! Here's another source for diesels from all over the world. He's in Arizona:

Reply to
Geoff Sanders

I goofed. While I have and do deal with Pe Reivers in the Nederlands occasionally, this time I contacted Dar Zeelon in Israel. I even called him Pe in my correspondence to him earlier today. Wow. This is getting serious!

Ed Cregger

Reply to
Ed Cregger

At the time, it seemed more like a merry-go-round. One with few fellow riders. Part of the problem is that I live in the god-forsaken middle of nowhere. Nearest LHS is about 100 miles away. No clubs any closer RC is very much DIY here, with emphasis on the "Y".

I have spoken to Eric several times, but not lately. My memory is also a bit hazy, but I think it was Eric that "suggested" I needed to use a smaller carb back when I was having problems with my Davis conversions.

Whatever happened to Enya in the US? I inherited an old scale Piper Cherokee built by my father in the 60's. I remember him buying all his equipment while we were in Houston on a trip. The engine he got was an Enya. Still runs well. He built his radio equipment (kit from Heathkit) -- servos have linear rather than rotary arms. Still works, although I personally wouldn't trust 27 mhz with a plane around here.

Thanks for the link to Peak Models. Didn't see any diesels there, but saw some good prices on nice-looking ARF's. Also some good prices on glow engines IIRC.

Sounds like that should work. I just hope you don't have the carb problems I did. Who actually makes the Tower engine? Looks very familiar. I initially though GMS, but I don't think the head is quite right for that.

Speaking about conversions, do you know if the Perry carbs will hold up to diesel? Seems like that might be a reasonable way to go if you needed to change carb throat size. Perry has a pretty big selection of carbs that share the throat outer diameter, with differing inner diameters. I've asked several people if they knew if the plastic-appearing carb body would handle diesel (including one person at Perry), but no one I've spoken with seems to know for certain.

MVVS makes a few diesels, and their "long stroke" .61 comes as either glow or diesel (from what I've read). Although I suspect that the MVVS diesel is just an in-house head conversion, it's supposed to run very well. IIRC, Morris used to carry mainly MVVS, but it seems they only carry some MVVS parts now, and have switched over to Rossi.

Don't know, but it may be contagious, since I appear to have it too. In my younger days, I wouldn't have even considered diesel, but since I've been flying a couple now for awhile I've become more and more interested. I was never worth a darn on hand-starting glow engines, but I can hand-start these diesels (now that they're properly set-up) with just one or two flips. I've even had them fire up when my plan was only a priming stroke. You just gotta' remember these things are always live.

Bob

Reply to
Bob

I've got a couple of the MVVS diesels and I love them. Lamp oil, John Deere starter fluid and medical castor is all I've ever run and I've never had a bit of problem.

Bob wrote:

Reply to
AV8R

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