Between the two McCoy .35 Redheads with the shiny smooth case and the satin one with the lightning bolts, which one is better? Is there even a difference other than appearance? Which one is older/newer? I'd guess the smooth one is older.

  The lightening bolt case is definitely better! The sintered iron pistons were the real problem. However they were supplied by the same company that made the Johnson pistons. So the idea was good, as the Johnson pistons work very well. Must have been a poorer spec by Testors that gave the trouble. It is easy to regain compression by tapping the crown of the piston with a hammer! Then just lap it back into the cylinder. This has been covered in other posts.
  When they run well, with good compression, they give a super 4-2-4 break and they don't give anything away to other more modern engines. I bush my crankcases (a la Zambelli method) and usually make a new piston from good quality meehanite. It doesn't take a lot of work if you have the kit to do it and the result is extremely good, as Kenneth testifies. The Lightening bolt 40 is even better and GMA tried to buy the tooling to remake the 40. That tells me that I am in excellent company regarding the run quality of the McCoy redheads.

Regards,

Andrew.

 Thanks for the info guys.

 I just recieved a lightning bolt one today that I plucked off of Ebay. When I went after it, it was obvious that it had been cleaned up to sell. I rolled the dice and got it pretty cheap. It looks better than new externally. The only bummer is that the front mounting holes have been enlarged, couldn't tell that from the pictures. I hate it when people re-drill or modify the lug holes. I know it doesn't hurt anything, but to me it de-values an engine.
 I haven't run it yet, but seems like it's got very little compression. I'm not bashing the seller BTW. I've learned that some guys have made their own replacement pistons for these things, does anyone sell better replacements that will last?

 I also picked up a shiny case one recently that feels really good when you turn it over. I haven't had a chance to run it yet though. From what I'm hearing here and elsewhere, even if it is a good runner, I'm nervous about the compression going away in short order. I'm prepared to mix up some 10% nitro fuel with whatever castor amount would be safe. Right now I'm figuring to mix it to around 25-28% oil.

 Without having any previous McCoy experience, I'm just trying to gain some confidence here. I keep thinking I want to stick to my original plan and use a period engine in my Super Combat Streak project, which I plan to start on soon. It just seems to me like a Redhead would look perfect hanging on the nose.

 That kind of rings a bell John, but these look like someone drilled them.

John's right the lightning bolt cases had a slotted front hole as standard.

 They didn't do a very nice job of it then. Thanks for the info Dennis.


 I forgot, what glow plugs do you guys recommend using with the McCoys?

Thanks for the info guys.

 I just recieved a lightning bolt one today that I plucked off of Ebay. When I went after it, it was obvious that it had been cleaned up to sell. I rolled the dice and got it pretty cheap. It looks better than new externally. The only bummer is that the front mounting holes have been enlarged, couldn't tell that from the pictures. I hate it when people re-drill or modify the lug holes. I know it doesn't hurt anything, but to me it de-values an engine.
 I haven't run it yet, but seems like it's got very little compression. I'm not bashing the seller BTW. I've learned that some guys have made their own replacement pistons for these things, does anyone sell better replacements that will last?

 I also picked up a shiny case one recently that feels really good when you turn it over. I haven't had a chance to run it yet though. From what I'm hearing here and elsewhere, even if it is a good runner, I'm nervous about the compression going away in short order. I'm prepared to mix up some 10% nitro fuel with whatever castor amount would be safe. Right now I'm figuring to mix it to around 25-28% oil.

 Without having any previous McCoy experience, I'm just trying to gain some confidence here. I keep thinking I want to stick to my original plan and use a period engine in my Super Combat Streak project, which I plan to start on soon. It just seems to me like a Redhead would look perfect hanging on the nose.

Wayne,
I'm finishing up a Combat streak for old times sake and using a Red head. Probably the first one I've used in 40 years. Why, you ask, simply because I have a few and I want to hear the sound of a McCoy again.As to wearing out quickly, we all bought them as kids and got a summer out of all of them. Kids aren't friendly with stuff and we really gave those engines the acid test and by the end of the summer they were pretty rough. But they all would start and run. We all used Fox super fuel and didn't worry about 4/2/4 runs. When they got lose on compression we used a shot of 40 wt oil, a prime and hit it fast and it would run the flight out.
I'm sure that you can lose compression in one run but you would have to be using some low oil,synthetic blend and get a lean run to do it.
Dennis

P.s. They never got the meticulous break in that others swear thet you have to do or it will die. We simply ran them rich for about a dozen flights.