Check out this web site: http://www.modelenginenews.org

When you open the site, look on the left column.  Click on "Engines" then "projects", then peruse the "Beginners" section.  The Owens Mate is highly recommended, if you're not afraid of turning threads (c'mon, it'll be good for you).  Also check out the write up on the "Humbug" in the March issue (and then April, and then June...).  If you don't mind buying a back issue of the magazine that'd be a good place to start.

It has pointers to everything you need.  The Motor Boys plan book is great fun to drool over, even if you never actually build anything.

If you know USENET you may be interested in checking out rec.crafts.metalworking.  If you know USENET you'll know that many groups are just chock full of political posts, angry hermits, etc., etc. -- and rcm will not disappoint!  Think of it as a lazy newsgroup about machining at home that's been merged with a transcript of the conversations that happen right after closing time on the sidewalk just after closing time at The Liberal Bar and The Conservative Bar.  Sorting is up to you...

.......sideport design. OK not much good for stunt, ......

Gig Eifflaender once said to me "Of course we all know how to obtain a 4/2 characteristic from an engine, just make it sideport"   .....
I've never investigated or checked on this, but it's always been at the back of my mind for investigation one day....

I have tried an E.D. Comp. Spcl. for stunt about 50 years ago, but of course that's a diesel.

Hello Jeffery,
  If I were you, I would be looking at a sideport design. OK not much good for stunt, but it does have the virtue of simplicity. The shaft is simple turning without the complication of rotary intake, everything else is relatively simple, providing you have a case casting. I have not yet made an engine from scratch, but I have made pistons cylinders con rods and heads as repair jobs. Shafts have always been a problem psychologically, but I needed one to restore an Alag X3 diesel and was helped a great deal by David Owen of Motor Boys fame. Hardening parts is my next project and was considering making a carburising (spelling?) furnace as a project!
  You will probably find that you get carried away making fixtures and fittings to the detriment of engine making. My lathe is away for overhaul right now, so I can't get diverted from building. Perhaps a good thing!

Best of luck,

Andrew.

It would not surprise me one bit if Dave Owens 2.8 side port diesel ran a stunt model quite well.

His chioce of metals, hand crafted fits and tweaks on old themes will blow many myths right out the window.

And if I were building an engine he would definitely be my first port of call also.

Cheers.

The late Wayne Trivin did some very good documentation on the engines he produced. Worth the read. -Todd

http://www.nclra.org/WayneTrivin/Actualindex.html

Here you go. Try this one. It is quite complete.

  http://www.machineconcepts.co.uk/aeromodelling/brians_engine/stunt_engine_1.htm

But not an engine for a beginner, by any means.  Gotta walk before you run...

Here you go. Try this one. It is quite complete.

  http://www.machineconcepts.co.uk/aeromodelling/brians_engine/stunt_engine_1.htm

  "Billy G"   

This year Brian is campaigning his engines fitted with own make pipes and own make C/F props.

Tim,  You could do a lot worse than building the Owen Mate.  I did that for my first engine and found his excellent instructions easy to follow.  I also built a Stouffs Blue Pants for it and it pulled it around well enough for the OT stunt pattern.  It is only 2cc though.  I will see if I can attach a photo here.

Now where would one get the extrusion for the case from since Mr Owen has long since run out of it?

But I agree, nice engine design and I believe that Dave said it could only be bettered by hardening the parts.

Apparently folks are still building them, just with the extra step of machining the case from solid.  It shouldn't be too too bad to do, particularly if you do most of it by filing rather than trying to mill it all over.

The latest word from the Model Engine News site is that they last forever with unhardened parts as long as you don't crash them too hard or run them dirty.

The big gasoline engines that the RC giant scale folks fly are almost universally side port engines.  This probably has more to do with the fact that they are the descendants of weed-wacker and chain-saw engines than anything else, but if there were an overwhelming advantage to crank-timed engines (or reed-valve, like the itty bitty Cox engines and great big motorcycle 2-strokes) then I think you'd see more of them in the high-end engines in that displacement class.

So yea, maybe a side port would work OK.

     Part of the issue is that they can control the ignition so it can only run forward!  And it was my understanding that many of the large R/C (and weedwacker and chainsaw engines) do indeed have side ports, but also reed valves.

     Brett