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Engine basics => Engine set up tips => Topic started by: frank mccune on April 02, 2020, 08:30:38 AM

Title: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: frank mccune on April 02, 2020, 08:30:38 AM
          Hi All:

          Are fins on the cylinder head necessary? I have engines with none, with only half of the head covered with fins and heads with no fins. I was informed that a Stunt engine must have fins to run well.  This seems counter intuitive as the Stunt engine may run the coolest of all engines.

          Thoughts/comments?

                                                                                 Be safe and be well,

                                                                                  Frank McCune
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: Istvan Travnik on April 02, 2020, 03:11:36 PM
Engines with cast iron piston can be happy with fins eventually.
All engines with aluminum pistons do not need fins at cylinderhead at all.
With healthy parameters (12-15° free  outlet before scavenging begins), most engines are over-cooled.
To keep them warm, comes the free outlet down to 7-8° and super tight silencer, etc.
This is good to get from a .76 - .80 engine same power (same torque) like a .51 :)
I never forget our first experience 30 years before, when we tied a canvas ribbon around a commercial ex-RC engine's head, it looked like a samurai, and ran like a Fox-35... :)
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: RandySmith on April 02, 2020, 06:12:42 PM
YES the fins  are  NEEDED  and  are a  good thing, many engines  ruined by people milling the fins off, It is  easy to make them hotter, HARD to cool down without  fins, You can also make more stable power with fins

Randy
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: Brett Buck on April 02, 2020, 09:52:10 PM
YES the fins  are  NEEDED  and  are a  good thing, many engines  ruined by people milling the fins off,

  But they saved a gram and a half, so still better.  No?

    Brett
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: John Leidle on April 03, 2020, 09:46:20 AM
   Does anyone have an idea why the HP  .40 Silverstar has no fins? 
      Always wondered , John L.
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: RandySmith on April 03, 2020, 02:04:09 PM
   Does anyone have an idea why the HP  .40 Silverstar has no fins? 
      Always wondered , John L.

That is  one  of the  several engine  I ran test on, I cut fins into the  stock head, and use an old head  with fins, and the  no fin head, The engine behaved much better with fins, It showed  runaway and  slow, too slow  cycling with the no fin head, So many of them were  RC versions, and  those ran 2 cycle, so not a problem with RC application.
Other engines I tested showed the  same, cycling was much quicker  with the  fin head engine, especially the  ST 46 and  60

Randy
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: Istvan Travnik on April 03, 2020, 06:34:08 PM
   Does anyone have an idea why the HP  .40 Silverstar has no fins? 
      Always wondered , John L.
Dear John, Mr. Paul Bugl was one of the really most talented engine designers. (Sorrowfully he passed 'round his early fifties. ) He really did know, what he was doing. 
Well, I used HP 40's from 1983 up till 1999,  and one model of mine still exist with HP.
As HP forties was made originally for R/C, I made some mods, as follows:
-sleeve lower by 0.8 ÷ 1.0 mm
-inlet closed from 190-200°s to 170° (only by Gold Cup: Silver Star was not so extremely open)
-we used the black plain cylinderhead, or machined off the fins of GC head's fins...
-and I collected the original nozzle-type carburettor from the oldschool friends, who stubbornly bound theirself to the spraybar-version.
Our engines were absolutely in contest with the ST-46. We used 12x4 Tornado or 12x6 Modela (wide wood) props mostly.
Istvan
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: John Leidle on April 04, 2020, 09:01:17 AM
  I've been told to drop the liner ...
  Thanks.
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: BillP on April 04, 2020, 09:54:57 AM
The HP Gold Cup 40 had fins. Didn't they come out before the Silver series?
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: Brian Hampton on April 04, 2020, 04:53:59 PM
The original Enya 61CX (ringed with head button) has fins but the later ABN (red head and no button) has no fins.
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: RandySmith on April 05, 2020, 06:30:12 PM
A billet aluminum head is quite adequate to absorb and dissipate heat. Cooling fins just make it look more like an engine. Look at the Fox 35, do you think those little nubs on top really do much?


Motorman 8)

NOT in stunt, where  people want to cycle  quickly, R/C  or  racing  where your running a constant 2 cycle, is quite different than Stunt runs, I made deep fin heads for the FOX 35 back in the  1970s, They works much better, and the FOX 35 would cycle faster , you could get more power out of it, and slow returns from LEAN was improved, When I designed the Smith Fox hemi head, that is the reason it has more fins  and  deeper fins, Most of them also had extra cooling fins around the circumference , These work better, a lot better.  AS I wrote earlier, I also test much the same on many other engines, More area to dispel heat, IS  almost 99 % of the time  better.  Shaving  the fins  off  is  mostly 99% worse !

Randy
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: RandySmith on April 06, 2020, 07:59:45 PM
Just one detail does not make it right🙃. L

Oh hell NO !  WAY TOO MANY FINS , you get right back on those machines and  trim  all the fins  off that motor !!! mw~ mw~ LL~ LL~ LL~ ~> n1 ~> ~> ~> ~> ~>
Title: Re: Cylinder head fins, needed or not?
Post by: Brett Buck on April 07, 2020, 12:04:26 AM
Oh hell NO !  WAY TOO MANY FINS , you get right back on those machines and  trim  all the fins  off that motor !!! mw~ mw~ LL~ LL~ LL~ ~> n1 ~> ~> ~> ~> ~>

    I have a file right here, let me take care of that for you...

    Brett