Fox .40 Stunt?

[Juan Valentin]

              I have acquired this engine but could not find information on it. what propeller should I use, Is it a Stunt or a rat race engine? All comments appreciated.
                                                                                                                                            Juan

[Dave_Trible]

Is it a .40?  Or is it a .36 combat special?  The coffin style backplate  and square venturi makes it either a .40 rat race engine or a combat engine of some vintage.  There is a stunt .40 but it doesn't look like this-it's more traditional in design.

Dave

I sort of think it's a rat race engine.   Most the combat engines have a slanted glow plug to deal with a battery around the wing leading edge of a combat airplane.

[Brad LaPointe]

That is a Fox .40 stunt “big case” with a single rear ball bearing and a plain bearing front . I had one with double ball bearings , it wasn’t the easiest engine to tame . Knowing now how to use more appropriate fuel and props it might be a good runner. My first LA .46 spoiled me .

I had a number of MK VI combat specials around the same time, the porting in them was more aggressive . Those engines were ABC construction, most of the stunt .40’s were iron piston engines. The cases were very similar.

Try 10/11/11 fuel and a 11x4 prop for flying. With the iron piston and plain front bearing generous breaking would be advised , maybe with a bit more oil and a smaller prop .

Good luck,
Brad

[afml]

Might check with John Paris. If memory serves, which many times it doesn't, he has a lot of experience with these motors.
Good luck & "Tight Lines!"
Wes

[John Paris]

Hi Juan,
Following up on Wes's comment about my experience with the Foxes.  I have had good luck in the past with the .36 version of this engine.  The only thing I did to it was add a number of head shims, seems like it was 4 or so and I would guess they were .010" thick.  The engine liked to run between 11,000 and 11,300 on the ground swinging an APC 10x4 prop.  This set up would set into a fast 4 stroke with 2 stroke power in a traditional 4-2-4 break, just a little higher in speed than what most might be used to.  I also used a tongue muffler with maybe 10 or 8 3/32" holes-it has been a while since I have run this set up. 

This set up was fairly tolerant to fuels but in reviewing my records, it appears I favored 10% nitro 25% all castor but have also used 5 or 10% nitro with 11-11 synthetic-castor mix.  Normally between 3.25 and 3.5 ounces would yield a 6 minute run.  Lots of power and well controlled.

This was mounted originally in a Banshee and then moved over to a Viking so it worked either side mounted or upright.

Hopefully you are able to get yours to run equally as well.

Good luck-Fly Fox!!!
John

[James Lee]

I had one of these that Lew Woolard 'fixed'...
Hauled my 650 in Classic Gee Bee like it was a Tigre 60!   Solid 4 cycle with a 11 1/2 x 6 Rev up.   10% nitro 25 % castor, 5 - 5 1/2 oz.
Even Lew said it was the best one he ever did!!
Jim

[Dan McEntee]

   If I am remembering correctly, Fox made an engine like this in the .40 displacement in 3 versions. One was a "sport" or economy version that was iron piston and liner. I think it was plain bearing front and ball bearing rear. Then there was a ringed version that was similar, and then the ABC Deluxe version that was full ball bearing with ABC piston and liner. I have a couple of Lew Woolard's reworks and some stock engines. They came with the square venturi as pictured or the R/C versions had a short intake and a carb retained by set screws. The carb could be replaced with a venturi, but the venturi needs to have a tapered square base where it inserts into the intake. These came along at a time when the OS FP.40 was pretty much taking over  because they were much more user friendly, but the Fox was considered to have much more power. The problem was no one could get used to adjusting the Fox carb. Fox came out with a new carb later but it was too late. I got introduced to the Lew Woolard rework when I say Stan Hogarth of Colorado, I think, fly his kit built Shark .45 at one of the first VSC contests that I attended, and it flew that airplane very well. The older .40 that George Aldrich had a hand in was , I think, a bigger, heavier engine, with a long round venturi that reportedly ran well but was not a powerhouse of and engine.
    Type at you later and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
        Dan McEntee

[Air Ministry .]

If its the .40 , the ' Silver fox ' atrical was in stunt News / P A M P A .

Lew hemi'd the head , dropped the sleeve & did a fancy dual cut top trans redo . Pictures & dimn.s provided there .

[C.T. Schaefer]

This is the small case .40. Same as the CS motors. I used a few in R/C planes for sport and limited Q-500 racing. Nice motor. Relatively light and there are a bunch of them around. My pal Al worked with one for stunt but could not get the 'perfect' run. The LA is better and easier for stunt but I would not hesitate to use that one with std. Fox muffler for good sport flying!  TS

[Andre Ming]

Those styles of Fox engines were after my tenure at Fox Mfg. Thus, I'm of no help to anyone on identifying or giving tips for better performance of those engines.

I do distinctly recall the long stroke semi-flow ported Fox 40 Stunt that Duke dropped on the market in 1971 or so. It was in development during my first employment at Fox Mfg in 1970. BUT, my exposure to it was limited. The 35 Stunts and the 36 series engines became my forte' while at Fox. The other engines I was involved in producing were simply products. The 35 Stunts and 36 engines were special to me.

Andre

[Chris Brainard]

I got introduced to the Lew Woolard rework when I say Stan Hogarth of Colorado, I think, fly his kit built Shark .45 at one of the first VSC contests that I attended, and it flew that airplane very well.
        Dan McEntee

Rusty Brown bought that engine from Stan. I think it was in 2005 or 2006. Rusty told me that Stan had flown it in his Shark .45 and I was somewhat in disbelief since I had a Lew Woolard Silver Fox .40 and seriously doubted mine could fly a Shark .45 with any authority. This was one of the two trips I took to VSC with Rusty. On our way home, just on the north side of Pueblo, Rusty hit slush/ice in the road and we went off the highway airborne, landing on the roof of his van. The air bags all blew, every window smashed out, and all our airplanes, field boxes, gallons of fuel, kits, rolls of monokote, tools, folding chairs, Easy Up, etc. were flying around inside the van. I crawled out through the window opening, but Rusty was wedged in (and Sugar Babe wouldn’t leave him) and they had to use big mechanical jaws to tear the door out on his side to get him out. Miraculously, neither of us was badly hurt. Both Rusty and I rode in the ambulance to the hospital.  I had a crushed right index finger and some bruises. Rusty had a cracked vertebrae. Not knowing how long Rusty would be in the hospital, I called my wife and she drove down from Denver to pick me up. In the crash, I had lost my glasses. The van was towed to a yard which was unsecured. Rusty asked me to go there and load what I could and take it back to Denver, which I did. What a mess. The most useful tool to empty his van out would have been a scoop shovel. For me the most valuable salvage item was finding my glasses, unbroken. Unfortunately, the Fox .40 that Rusty had bought from Stan was destroyed. The case was broken in half with the piston hanging out (you may have been wondering what the previous dissertation had to do with the engine). With all the stuff flying around inside the van I can’t believe we didn’t get hit and hurt by it. Rusty got out of the hospital the next day, rented a car, picked up Sugar Babe and drove himself home. I never got to see how powerful that Fox .40 was.

One humorous part of this trip was that a week before we were scheduled to leave for VSC I crashed the Fancy Pants I had built for the contest. When Rusty picked me up, it was about 90% rebuilt. I took it to Tucson, worked on it every spare minute I had and finished repairing it the day before Classic and managed to get in a few test flights. I was bragging that this was the first time I had attended VSC and would be leaving with my airplane in better shape than when I arrived. Naturally, it was totally destroyed in the crash.

On another note, Dan, I believe I met you at VSC and loaned you some wood props to try out since the change in elevation affected your plane. I don’t know if you used them or not, but I do remember you returning them to me when the contest was over.

[Juan Valentin]

         Thanks for all the comments. I searched thru other boxes of other fox engines that I acquired and found literature that mentions this engine as Pn.40014 Fox.40 CL sport. It has a price list from april 2001 that shows the engine at $109.95 at that time. The engine is a little stiff from being in storage. I heated it with my heat gun and it loosened up,it looks like it was tested on a bench but not used much. I would love to know in which year Issue of stunt news is the article by Lew Woolard that shows the mods to this engine as mentioned by Air Ministry in his reply as I would like to read about it.

                                                                                                                   Juan

[Dan McEntee]

         Thanks for all the comments. I searched thru other boxes of other fox engines that I acquired and found literature that mentions this engine as Pn.40014 Fox.40 CL sport. It has a price list from april 2001 that shows the engine at $109.95 at that time. The engine is a little stiff from being in storage. I heated it with my heat gun and it loosened up,it looks like it was tested on a bench but not used much. I would love to know in which year Issue of stunt news is the article by Lew Woolard that shows the mods to this engine as mentioned by Air Ministry in his reply as I would like to read about it.

                                                                                                                   Juan

   Hello Juan;
      The Sport version was the iron piston/liner version, the Standard was the ringed version, and the Delux was the ABC version and it also came with a polished aluminum spinner and I think some kind of engine mount.  As to Lew's article on the Fox rework I think it was in a 1996 issue. You might even try searching on Stunthanger as it has been discussed several times before. I have one of the sport engines that I have repaired the crash damage that it had and I want to try my hand at it also, and right now I just need the square base venturi. If I can remember the issue I will let you know. I can take a cell phone picture of the article and email that to you. Just something I want to do for fun!!
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[Dan McEntee]

I got introduced to the Lew Woolard rework when I say Stan Hogarth of Colorado, I think, fly his kit built Shark .45 at one of the first VSC contests that I attended, and it flew that airplane very well.
        Dan McEntee

Rusty Brown bought that engine from Stan. I think it was in 2005 or 2006. Rusty told me that Stan had flown it in his Shark .45 and I was somewhat in disbelief since I had a Lew Woolard Silver Fox .40 and seriously doubted mine could fly a Shark .45 with any authority. This was one of the two trips I took to VSC with Rusty. On our way home, just on the north side of Pueblo, Rusty hit slush/ice in the road and we went off the highway airborne, landing on the roof of his van. The air bags all blew, every window smashed out, and all our airplanes, field boxes, gallons of fuel, kits, rolls of monokote, tools, folding chairs, Easy Up, etc. were flying around inside the van. I crawled out through the window opening, but Rusty was wedged in (and Sugar Babe wouldn’t leave him) and they had to use big mechanical jaws to tear the door out on his side to get him out. Miraculously, neither of us was badly hurt. Both Rusty and I rode in the ambulance to the hospital.  I had a crushed right index finger and some bruises. Rusty had a cracked vertebrae. Not knowing how long Rusty would be in the hospital, I called my wife and she drove down from Denver to pick me up. In the crash, I had lost my glasses. The van was towed to a yard which was unsecured. Rusty asked me to go there and load what I could and take it back to Denver, which I did. What a mess. The most useful tool to empty his van out would have been a scoop shovel. For me the most valuable salvage item was finding my glasses, unbroken. Unfortunately, the Fox .40 that Rusty had bought from Stan was destroyed. The case was broken in half with the piston hanging out (you may have been wondering what the previous dissertation had to do with the engine). With all the stuff flying around inside the van I can’t believe we didn’t get hit and hurt by it. Rusty got out of the hospital the next day, rented a car, picked up Sugar Babe and drove himself home. I never got to see how powerful that Fox .40 was.

One humorous part of this trip was that a week before we were scheduled to leave for VSC I crashed the Fancy Pants I had built for the contest. When Rusty picked me up, it was about 90% rebuilt. I took it to Tucson, worked on it every spare minute I had and finished repairing it the day before Classic and managed to get in a few test flights. I was bragging that this was the first time I had attended VSC and would be leaving with my airplane in better shape than when I arrived. Naturally, it was totally destroyed in the crash.

On another note, Dan, I believe I met you at VSC and loaned you some wood props to try out since the change in elevation affected your plane. I don’t know if you used them or not, but I do remember you returning them to me when the contest was over.

   Hi Chris;
     This all sounds kind of familiar. I knew we had met at VSC before. As to the props, I was probably flying a Nobler finished in a pre-WW-2 paint scheme??  I wish I had that airplane back and will build another some day. I'm glad I remembered to give you your props back!! At this point in time they would be very lost in the mix in my collection! I remember reading about the car crash in your way home also. You guys were VERY lucky!! It's both funny and tragic that the engine didn't survive!! Rusty was a very neat and cool guy. He came to St. Louis a time or two. It might have been that year or maybe earlier that he was awarded the "Keeper of the Flame Award" at VSC. A very worthy choice! We all need a guy like him living down the street to guide us and inspire us!! We miss you Rusty!!

   I was actually just out your way. My son Sean lives in Colorado Springs and we spent the Christmas holiday with him this year. he flies free flight also and stays busy with that. No one in that area flies Control Line. If you are still in Denver I may have him look you up this summer.

    Type at you later,
     Dan McEntee

[Chris Brainard]

Hi Dan,
I live in Arvada and am a member of the Arvada Associated Modelers. Most of the members fly R/C, but this club has welcomed and supported our control line group and we have a great relationship with them. We have a very nice flying circle with an open sided, covered sun shelter as well as a porti potty. Thermals come through on hot days, but we don’t have to worry about turbulence from trees, etc. (cause there aren’t any).

If you are up this way again and want to fly, just PM me.

Chris

[GERALD WIMMER]

My son Otto used the Fox 40 Deluxe on his Skyraider (semi scale stunt actually) that he flew in sports scale at the NZ Nats a week ago. He also used a Stalker 51 on a Sky Dancer borrowed to him by Kevin Barnes in Intermediate stunt and stated the Fox had way more power then the Stalker 51. My wife has a Fox 40 Sport (same a as pictured) on a Veco Chief which works very well. I have a 40 Deluxe on a combat wing and it goes better then any of my Magnum/Thunder Tiger 36's.

Regards Gerald