Engine CLinic
ENGINE CARE
I’m a longtime subscriber to Model Airplane News and have read many of your articles. I have recently retired and am trying to get back into RC airplanes. I have a lot of older equipment, including several engines that I have tried to take care of but probably have not done a very good job of doing. I was wondering if you could point me to articles or web information that would detail the disassembly, cleaning, and general refurbishing of older glow engines, say, on the order of .60 size (if I recall correctly—I don’t have one of my engines in front of me). I’m a mechanical engineer and have worked on car engines off and on all my life, so I’m not afraid of taking one of these engines apart. I would like some good information, however, on the how-tos of doing this, what type of cleaning procedures and cleaning agents to use, and how to properly lube them and store them till I can get fully back into the hobby. Also, my family, over the years, has given me a ton of gift certificates to Tower Hobbies, all of which are still good. I plan to buy a good engine test stand to fire up the engines once I’ve cleaned and refurbished them. I hope this sounds like a good plan to you. Any help or direction you can offer would be much appreciated.—Steve, via email
Answer: Steve, the topics that you inquire about have been covered many times in different model magazines and in the four RC engine books that I’ve written (but are now out of print, even though one can occasionally be found on the Internet). However, there is one book in particular that pretty well covers what you are looking for and that is Harry Higley’s All About Engines (harryhigley.com), which contains specific chapters on the disassembly of a
Saito and on Enya four-stroke engines. Other chapters cover internal cleaning and overhauling.
That wraps up another one gang. As I have said in the past, keep the letters and ideas coming as that is what keeps the column going.