Bob Thank you for your valuable input! I will pass on. I had no idea Radio Control was legal now.

Martin

Bob is being very charitable above, which I appreciate. My performance doesn't meet my own standards, but I will keep muddling through.

   Brett

Hi Michael,

I do not know much about the kit, but if you have a specific question I can ask him.

But I can tell you in advance that the model is for having fun flying very fast and from what I have heard is not a good model for stunt.

Martin

Maybe getting a bit off-topic, as I still don't know if there's a "good" way to build varnish, but I'll say upfront that I don't intend to plate the piston.
It did cross my mind however, as I seemed to remember, rightly or wrongly, reading somewhere that someone (GMA?) plated some piston (McCoy?) for better performance.
And I can understand Chris' position of working with what you have as best you can.
I grew up in a "make do or do without" hobby environment and that approach influences me to this day.
Fact is, if I had to buy a $100 engine these days, it'd take a while.
So I greatly enjoy fiddling with the old engines I find, even if it's with bubble gum and bailing wire. 

Terry

The beauty of tenderly caressing the McCoy piston with a hammer is that at the very least all of us should already have a hammer, and a McCoy without a good piston is just a pile of junk parts.  It doesn't cost a thing, and after a little work you might end up with an engine that runs decent, and brings back a feeling of nostalgia, etc.  If it doesn't work, or you crack the piston, you've still got a pile of junk parts and the knowledge that at least you tried.  Or maybe I just enjoy striking precision machined ( ) McCoy parts with a hammer? 

Oh yes, we could chrome the sleeve, machine a new piston, put plastic pads on the ends of the wrist pin, bush the rod, commission a stronger steel precisely balanced crankshaft, with an actual mechanical link to the drive washer, and then a custom drive washer without raised pimples that damage props.  Ooh, we could hemi the head and stuffer the backplate, and drill - tap the top end for 6 full length grade 8 hardened head bolts.......  Or just start with a better engine and come out far ahead.

I've had to do a lot of gasket removals from aluminum. Permatex or CRC gasket removal products do a good job of softenning them up, then a non-metallic scraper will get the rest off without damaging aluminum sealing surfaces.

Scrapers are typically made from phenolic (just because we always have it around for making forming blocks) but plexiglass works well also. Even a piece of hardwood, sanded to a chisel point works well.

Thanks for the info Andrew, and I think I'll let my friend track down one of those if he wants it.
Sorting out this head thing has been fun.   

Terry

   He didn't seem very retired at last year's NATs, very competitive. He actually looked better physically than he had the last time I saw him a few years ago.

    Brett

  Perhaps - although I have seen so many messes created by people chroming things that I wouldn't rate the likelihood all that high.  But it does illustrate a problem I see all the time - the tendency to jump to massive modifications or perceived hop-up tricks, before even trying basic simple things like breaking it in fully.    We were beating on the piston with a big hammer a few posts ago.

This all on an engine that was once offered for $4 on a bubble pack card, and for all we can tell, is performing pretty much like it was intended +- the usual variation.
 
   Bear in mind I am just providing suggestions, as you are. They aren't commandments, anyone can do anything they want. But if you wanted something better than an original stock McCoy, I can think of A LOT better and more effective ways to spend your $100 or so.

   A far more effective method of improving the performance is our old pal, Vitamin N. It will blow in rather short order, but anything you do to get 33% more power will have the same result. Or we could have someone make a new crankshaft and conrod, too.

    Brett

I built one from Warren's plans and powered it with a T&L St G.51.  It came out at 53 oz RTF.  I have to say it was the best flying model I have had.  It cut through the turbulence at Huntersville with no problem.  I really need to build another since I sold mine at KOI one year.  Derek B has flown it and remarked very well about it.

While building mine I talked with Billy for hours.  I was going to build a piped version to give him an idea about the theory.  He went ahead and built one.

Bill