Gas engine on glow plug

[sleepy gomez]

Fox has an .50 size engine that has some sort of an electronic ignition and runs on gas.  Am I the only one who has run a 2 cycle engine with a glow plug on gasoline.  I would like to hear about your experiences. SLEEPY   863-899-0656

[George]

I'm guessing that you need to keep the booster attached since it is a catalytic reaction between the methanol and the platinum in the glow element that sustains the glow.

Tell us more. Very interesting. I've heard of running sparkies on glow fuel but never the other way around.

George

[keith varley]

In the early days of glow plug , (maybe just before 1950,) some of us used to run gas and oil on glow plug but we had to add a small amount of Nitro Propane, to make it work.It was just so much cheaper than glow fuel .The power wasn't as good as with methanol but it allowed a lot of cheap practice flying , and didn't destroy the nitrate dope finish that we all used before the glow plug revolution . In those days , hobby shops sold "Hot" Fuel proofer" that we could coat our planes with ,to supposedly allow us to use glow fuel.It didnt take long before everybody started using butyrate  dope instead of nitrate dope for general model construction. (Many free flighters that fly rubber powered models still only use nitrate.) Keith Varley

[W.D. Roland]

Sleepy
I can tell you what I think I know but it is not that much.

From what I understand the glow driver is not let on and is remover after starting same as normal glow engine.

Several years ago I checked into this idea but never got enough info to feel ready to try it.
For me it was for weight reduction on 1/4 scale Gee Bee R2.

The info I did find was on gasoline engines like weed eater or similar.
The ignition system( the weight) is removed and a glow adapter(commercially available) inserted in spark plug hole.
The engine is then run on mix of gas,oil,methanol.

Never could get a straight answer on the mix ratio so put project on hold, Who needs a flame out on final approach with a HIGH wing loading.

Methanol has about 1/2 the BTUs of Gasoline so around 2x more meth is needed.
This increase in fuel used has great cooling effect and is why some race cars use it when developed to the point of the stock cooling system not keeping up.

So an engine designed for Gas has a larger cooling or heat dissipation system.
A meth burner need less heat dissipation.

Would running gas/meth overheat a glow design engine?
Chances are high for that but I just don't know!

One day I hope to get back to the project but for now the Stunt bug has bit and all my time is tied up in trying to teach airplanes manners like 'do not chase the pilot' and 'do not plant engine 6inches into hard stuff'.
They are learning, slowly

David

[W.D. Roland]

found it
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1267448/tm.htm