Back in the shop

[john e. holliday]

Well temporarily I am.  Went out to work on the Stunt Runt but couldn't find my jar of dope I had.  Unless it was the big glob of jelly that the thinner wouldn't touch.  So I grabbed the box of stuff I had won on Ebay and started looking at stuff again.  There are a few items I am not even going to mention.  There was an antique line reel all metal with lines and E-Z just hot rock handle.  4 way prop wrenches.  Then in the whipped cream cartons I found two Fox 35 stunts and an OK Cub 074.   So I spent the day taking the Fox's apart so they can hit the crock pot.  One I had to drill three of the head bolts as the phillips heads would not hold.  Who ever created phillip head bolts or screws, I hope he gets what he deserves.  Anyway between KU basket ball, the chefs(yes I said Chefs) football and the Tulsa Shootout for 6 classes of micro sprint car racing I didn't try to get in the shop.  still a little cool even with the heater going.  Will up date once I have the engines running.

[Dan McEntee]

   Glad you are getting around a bity doc!! You need a better selection of Phillips screw drivers. If you take 6 #2 Phillips screw divers and try each of them in something standard, you will feel a difference in each one I think. Much has been said about JIS screw drivers for Japanese engines, and that is very relevant. I have found that my #2 JIS screwdriver fits Fox Philips screws quite well. I was even able to find bits that fit my multi bit screw drivers. Sometimes they even work if the heads are already screwed up, but at least you know how to drill them out safely and effectively.
   Have fun!!
  Dan McEntee

[GallopingGhostler]

The engines back then used a softer steel screw. Engine sales were so competitive across brands, that reducing production costs were of great essence. It was sufficient to cinch down the head, back, and crankcase noses, etc. It also helped keep cost of the engines down to reasonable. However, modelers don't always select the right sized screw driver to turn the Philips and slot heads, which chew up the screws. Nowadays, of course we simply replace them with socket head screws of metallurgy that is slightly tougher.

Back then though, one could make a trip to the local hobby shop and buy a set of screws to replaced the chewed ones, for a reasonable price.

I've had to drill out the screw heads on a few used engines I bought through the Internet auctions. I have one Fox engine, a .15X, which the stud is buried low enough that I can't get a tool to remove it. I don't have the tools some machinists have to work miracles, and so it remains a parts engine. Sometimes, I have rescued engines that suffered odd fates. One was a K&B .35 Stallion that was water damaged, rusted by masked by exterior bead blasting and misrepresented by the seller as casting occlusions (bubbles in the molten metal while being poured into the mold). Thanks to all Castor fuel, it's interior wear surfaces where it counts suffered very little corrosion damage.

Other times it was a rescue attempt but the patient died on my shop table. Stuff happens sometimes, unfortunately.

[john e. holliday]

I do have both types of phillips screw drivers.  I wound up drilling the three head bolts.  The problem then was getting the head loose,  Finally I used a dull ex-acto carving knife to get the head to budge.  A little coaxing and I finally got the head off.   I don't tkink either engine was ever torn down to clean.  The compression on both felt real good.   Both cylinders took a little coaxing to get out.   Will see when I get them cleaned up to see how they run.  No muffler on either one.   But i'm deaf and the tach will tellme if they are worth the trouble.   

[kevin king]

Who ever created phillip head bolts or screws, I hope he gets what he deserves

Here he is Doc. Just look at the smug look on his face. Unreal. 😁

[Miotch]

I think back about the things I used as kid to disassemble engines and it is a wonder any of them ever ran again.  Vice grips, pliers and a bench vice were sometimes my version of "precision tools" for removing heads and cylinder liners. Wooden dowels wrapped with sandpaper worked as hones.  I once thought it would look cool to file off the cylinder-head fins and polish a smooth top on the head of a Fox .15.  And it did look cool.  But it would only run about a minute until it seized.  Let it cool down 30 minutes and I'd do it again.  I spent a lot of time thinking I had a  fuel-tank problem until it finally hit me that cylinder head fins served a very real purpose.  And of course, since I started with Cox .049s and never had anyone around to watch or teach me better, I thought the proper way to run an engine was to lean it out until it screamed.  I was in my late 20s until I actually got around any other control line fliers and learned differently.  Yes, I leaned out my Fox .35 to scream for years because I thought that is what I was supposed to do.  The one time I was around any other flyers as a teenager was when I watched an older friend fly a combat match with a Fox .36 using a balloon tank, so that didn't do anything but reinforce my misunderstanding on how to run an engine.

[Jim Kraft]

Best way I have found to remove heads if they have any compression and will turn over is to put a prop on and heat the head with a heat gun, and then flip the prop hard to let the compression pop the head lose. Works 99% of the time.