Starting an engine

You need a fuel tank, fuel line, 1.5 VDC source with ample current capacity, a means of applying the 1.5 VDC to the proper connections on the glow plug, something to mount the engine to (do not hold in a vise or other clamping device), a propeller, fuel, fuel tank, fuel line, a means of transferring fuel to the fuel tank and the nut and washer to hold the propeller (tightly) to the engine, which should have came with the engine. Depending upon the type of mount you use, you may need machine screws to hold the engine in place. The more of this stuff you already have, the less you will have to buy or barter for.

Ed Cregger

So do I need something that spins the propeller to start it? As you probably know, they sell glow starters that heat the plug, but can you just use some sort of battery? If so, what voltage?

You probably got lost in Ed's extensive list, but he mentioned that you need 1.5 volts. You can flip the propeller with a screwdriver if you want. A lot of old timers and those of us too cheap to buy an electric starter have used our fingers, but this is like playing with snakes. Sooner or later they bite you. After I got tired of cutting my fingers I started using a screwdriver. I held onto the pointy end and used the handle to flip the prop. It worked very well. Later I graduated to an electric starter. It made me wonder why I would ever want to use anything else. All of the common starting gear is like that. They make a small variety of attachments to get the 1.5 volts to the glow plug. I've used a lot of weird setups to fire up a glowplug, and they all make me realize how nice it is to have the real thing.

Well, thanks a lot guys. I've been held up for a long time on this. I'm on my first project, so I didn't know to buy CA glue, and I wanted to buy anything else I needed in that order. I didn't know what else I needed, so it held me up a couple weeks. Thanks for the advice.

Assuming that you already have the engine properly mounted in an airplane that has all the plumbing, and that you have fuel in the fuel tank:

• You need a _big_ 1.5 volt dry cell battery and a glow plug adapter * If you're really cheap you can use alligator clips. * If you're really cheaper you can use a bunch of 'D' cells in parallel. * I highly recommend springing for a rechargeable nicad glow starter. This will set you back 2-3 times as much as the glow plug wiring + battery above but (a) you can find it and (b) you will have a more reliable source of watts to the plug.

• You need your hand (you didn't say "start safely"). * Folks who use their hands to start engines, but who are safety minded use leather gloves -- after a propeller strike this keeps all the bits together, which makes it easier on your flying field buddies and emergency room personnel. * You can use a "chicken stick", which is basically a dowel fit to a piece of rubber hose -- you put the chicken stick in the line of danger, and the worst that can happen is that _it_ gets smacked by the prop.

• You need patience. If your engine is set up correctly and your glow starter battery is well charged and your glow plug is working correctly and you correctly prime the engine _and_ Bill Brown's ghost is in heaven interceding on your behalf -- the engine will start right up.

You _can_ get the engine started this way, but it can take time. In particular there is no way of knowing whether you have set things up too rich or too lean -- I find that purposely setting it up a bit too lean then over-priming it will start me out with a flooded engine, but as I try to start it I'll go through the band where it'll run. If I'm lucky it'll run long enough for me to find a running needle valve setting, then I can go from there. There's lots of burps and bumps and belches that an experienced hand-starter of engines learns to recognize and respond to that you never have to bother with if you have an electric starter in your hand.

I have found that if you bring a nice airplane to the field, make sure that everyone knows you're a beginner, then struggle with it for a while someone will show up at your side with a fresh glow starter and an electric starter. This can be very handy getting an engine going the first time.

Glow starter and fuel And tough fingers. And patience.

used to be 1.5v, now its generally 1.2v from a Nicd cell. We used to use

2.2v lead acid in my day. They ALWAYS started...till the plugs burned out anyway.

You have been given lists of everything but the kitchen sink, but the best idea is to find a helpful local modeller. It all seems a nightmare at the start, but is like riding a bike after a little while.

Personally, I use a small 2 volt GellCell and a glo-clip, and a rubber finger guard, several folk used to make these, but they are hard to find nowadays. I get the occasional crack on the finger, but it hardly hurts. OTOH, without the guard, I'm sure I would bleed, esp with some of the very sharp-edged props.

I have never found the need for a starter and don't own one, except for a tiny home-made high-speed one for Cox .049 engines. But I don't use anything over a .90 size engine.

Barry Lennox

You can start the engine by flipping the propeller with your finger, but I don't recommend doing it that way. It is too easy to be struck with the propeller and injured. Some folks use a stick-like device called a "Chicken Stick" and use that the force the propeller around, instead of their finger.

A fancier way to start it is with an electric motor with a special cup on the end of the shaft that contains a rubber insert. This rubber insert in the end of the "starter" can be placed in the cup one of two ways. One way reveals a larger opening that is useful for starting engines with what is known as a spinner mounted over the propeller and on the end of the engine's crankshaft. Lacking a spinner and having just the engine's nut and bolt exposed, reversing the rubber insert in the starter's cup reveals a smaller hole that can be placed over the engine's crankshaft and against the propeller's face in order to acquire friction sufficient to start the engine. The electric starter will require a power source of some kind. Usually Nicad batteries or a single lead acid/calcium 12 volt battery.

Ed Cregger

| used to be 1.5v, now its generally 1.2v from a Nicd cell.

Of course, that NiCd cell could be anywhere from 1.4 volts to 1.0 volts or so. (And that 1.5 volt battery starts at 1.5 volts and goes downhill from there.)

| We used to use 2.2v lead acid in my day. They ALWAYS started...till | the plugs burned out anyway.

I'm not so sure that having glow plug burning extra hot would make the engine that much easier to start. The hard part is getting the right amount of fuel and air into the carb -- once that's done, as long as the glow plug is working properly, the engine will start.

(Of course, getting that part done isn't that easy.)

In any event, I agree with the others -- an electric starter is well worth it. A properly tuned and primed engine will start just fine with a chicken stick, but getting it to that point is hard, and a starter will make things a lot easier.

If money is an issue, scan your local craiglist, local *.forsale group, even the local club bulliten board -- people sell used starters quite often, sometimes even giving them away. Often you can find a whole box of almost new plane accessories and a smashed up trainer for next to nothing :)

If you can't get a starter, at least get a stick or something -- don't use your hand unless you use a thick glove, and even that's a bit risky. Even a little 0.061 can cut you up nicely.

I'd suggest not using a screwdriver -- if the engine backfires or you accidently put it back into the prop, it can become a projectile and could take out an eye. A dowel or a broom handle cut off will work fine and isn't quite so sharp.

As for the glow ignitor, get something that holds on good to the glow plug -- anything less will just aggrivate you. The ones with the meters are well worth it too -- they'll tell you if the battery is dead or the glow plug has been burned out. (Note that there's two parts to a glow plug -- the coils, and the catalyst coating. If the coating fouls, then the engine will start as long as the glow plug has power, but will die when it's removed. Just because a glow plug lights up, that doesn't mean it's good!)

I have always hand started all my engines I always use a finger stool (if that's the right word) and until recently I never owned a electric starter I have owned glow engines from a cox 049 to a ASP 80FS and several diesels including DC darts PAW's and all I can hand start them all so you don't "need" a electric starter the bare minimum you need is

1, chicken finger or a chicken stick (which just need to be a short length of dowel with a piece of hose pipe on one end) 2, a c sized battery and glow clip 3, a means of get the fuel in the tank could be a hand pump or a washing up liquid bottle

but I would recommend getting a proper glow starter as in the following link >

but a 12v starter is nice to have but then you need a 12v battery and charger and then you have to carry it ?

I am.

Engines would run on the clip, but not off it, if e.g. very rich.

Indeed. You weren't brought up on Diesels obviously. Glo engines were childs play after hand flicked Diesels.

It won't cut the fingers off though.

I've found with .40 and larger 2-strokes that once the engine is run in, you can hand start them by gripping just the nosecone (so no fingers in the prop) and flicking the prop backwards, bouncing it back off the compression. It takes a little practice and technique, and you have to have a reliable priming routine, but it makes for a very quick and safe way to start a motor. Of course, if the needle valve is out of whack, or it's flooded, all bets are off :(

Somebody wrote "Grip the nose cone...". Come on now, gentlemen. Nose cones are on rockets and SPINNERS are attached to the propellor..... Let's call it what it is....and this instance is almost as bad as the people who call their R/C Transmitter a "Controller". My gosh, it is a transmitter, and to be specific, the operator is the "controller".... This ought to get things started.......... Frank Schwartz

Yeah, I'll bite. So does the P-38 have a nose cone? Does my glider? :) mk

Well, if my information is correct, a spinner has ALWAYS referred to the rounded or pointed fitting on the propellor. As for nose cones, I, again, without historical backup, have to rely on the information at hand and that is, that a nose cone is the front end of a rocket. As for the front end of the P-38 and your glider...I suggest that it is called simply, "the nose"....but never a nose cone... Actually, I dont think the word "nose cone" came into being until rockets... Frank Frank

Ah, you must be speaking in "old school".

Today's models are powered by nitroglycerine burning engines and are equipped with nose cones.

Ed Cregger

I started out with control liners hand starting diesel engines many years ago. When i moved to R/C electric starters were quite expensive so i used to start my OS25 with a chicken stick. Recently i have bought an irvine 53 now made by OS. OS have made a small change to the irvine design which means that if you hand start it it will almost certainly at some time result in minor engine damage curtailing a days flying. The change consists of replacing the tapered crankshaft and prop driver with a D type crankshaft and prop driver. If the engine is slightly over primed it can kick, on my old OS this just caused the prop to come undone, on the irvine it broke the D in the prop driver. The instructions with most modern 2 stroke engines advise using an electric starter, i would advise you follow those instructions.