Engine basics > Engine set up tips
Fox .35 Plasma Piston and Liner Set Information
Dan McEntee:
In my collection of stuff over the years I have come across a Fox piston and liner set that I think I got from a member here on Stunthanger. It got tucked away for "one of these days" and now that time has come! The kit comes with a piston, cylinder liner, a custom machined head (not a hemi head) and there was a standard Fox factory gasket and screw set in the package with it.
There was no rod or wrist pin, so I will use a stock one of each. In looking at the piston, I can not see any grooves for wrist pin retainers, at least I don't think I see any !! The bore of the liner is supposed to be applied with a ceramic material and supposed to be very hard, if I remember what I have read about these , so maybe retaining the wrist pin is not an issue?
The package has the name of Tony Cincolta or Cincotta as the sender from Australia and this rings a bell, so I'm going to search this out. There was no instruction sheet of any kind with it either. Does anyone out there have any experience with this and can provide any other information? I think Brian Gardner may know something about it but he is out of the country on holiday and I don't think he will be back for a while yet, but I will send him an email about it in a week or two. Any information will be helpful. In the mean time I'm just going to start assembling the engine like I have others I have worked on and just fit the new parts, and come back to the wrist pin issue later.
Thanks a lot in advance!!
Dan McEntee
Dallas Hanna:
--- Quote from: Dan McEntee on January 04, 2022, 04:44:11 PM --- In my collection of stuff over the years I have come across a Fox piston and liner set that I think I got from a member here on Stunthanger. It got tucked away for "one of these days" and now that time has come! The kit comes with a piston, cylinder liner, a custom machined head (not a hemi head) and there was a standard Fox factory gasket and screw set in the package with it.
There was no rod or wrist pin, so I will use a stock one of each. In looking at the piston, I can not see any grooves for wrist pin retainers, at least I don't think I see any !! The bore of the liner is supposed to be applied with a ceramic material and supposed to be very hard, if I remember what I have read about these , so maybe retaining the wrist pin is not an issue?
The package has the name of Tony Cincolta or Cincotta as the sender from Australia and this rings a bell, so I'm going to search this out. There was no instruction sheet of any kind with it either. Does anyone out there have any experience with this and can provide any other information? I think Brian Gardner may know something about it but he is out of the country on holiday and I don't think he will be back for a while yet, but I will send him an email about it in a week or two. Any information will be helpful. In the mean time I'm just going to start assembling the engine like I have others I have worked on and just fit the new parts, and come back to the wrist pin issue later.
Thanks a lot in advance!!
Dan McEntee
--- End quote ---
Dan, you are right about the plasma p/l and Tony Cincotta. Tony had a model shop in Melbourne, Australia. Sadly, Tony passed away 2013. I have a flying buddy who (I think) has a new unused one so it may have some instructions in the package. There was also a plasma set for ST 46 at the same time. I'll check in on him later in the week and see what he has for you.
H
Dan McEntee:
Thanks for the reply Dallas. The mystery just got a bit deeper! I couldn't go to bed with out trying a wrist pin in the piston, so polished one up and pushed it in, and the stock wrist pin was protruding a bit from each side! I held the skirt of the aluminum piston up to the skirt of the iron piston and it's smaller in OD!! I tried the liner in the engine case and it's a perfect fit! It's too late to start measuring things, but my guess is I have a P&L set for a Fox .29?? Might be the only one in the world! I have some other feelers and emails out so we'll see what the consensus is. Joe Gilbert says he has a factory set from Fox that he's going to check, but t hey may not be the same. I took a sharp pin and tried to see if it could catch a groove that I couldn't see and the pin bore is smooth all the way across. I'm still guessing that I'm supposed to round off and polish the ends of the wrist pin, and I can do that, so I'll make it work one way or the other!!
Thanks again and I'll look forward to hearing back from you.
Thanks again,
Dan McEntee
aj bagg:
The thought of running that steel wrist pin "rounded and polished", free to get up against the bore must be a tough one. Is there room to spin a couple of teflon buttons and press them in? If the wrist pin has a lightening hole, the button could have a diameter spun on the end and could be pressed into it. Or if no hole just a short section of full pin diameter pressed in over the wrist pin. Of course the wrist pin would need to be shortened enough to accommodate the buttons.
Brett Buck:
--- Quote from: Dan McEntee on January 04, 2022, 11:44:20 PM --- Thanks for the reply Dallas. The mystery just got a bit deeper! I couldn't go to bed with out trying a wrist pin in the piston, so polished one up and pushed it in, and the stock wrist pin was protruding a bit from each side! I held the skirt of the aluminum piston up to the skirt of the iron piston and it's smaller in OD!! I tried the liner in the engine case and it's a perfect fit! It's too late to start measuring things, but my guess is I have a P&L set for a Fox .29?? Might be the only one in the world! I have some other feelers and emails out so we'll see what the consensus is. Joe Gilbert says he has a factory set from Fox that he's going to check, but t hey may not be the same. I took a sharp pin and tried to see if it could catch a groove that I couldn't see and the pin bore is smooth all the way across. I'm still guessing that I'm supposed to round off and polish the ends of the wrist pin, and I can do that, so I'll make it work one way or the other!!
Thanks again and I'll look forward to hearing back from you.
Thanks again,
Dan McEntee
--- End quote ---
I vaguely recall that they thought the stock Fox liner was too thin to reliably replicate in aluminum (instead of the original iron) so they reduce the bore in order to thicken it up. This makes it a 30 or 31 instead of a 35. This was a while back so its possible I have the displacement wrong.
Brett
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