Frankenstein .049

[tudordewolf]

Getting into smaller and smaller engines now, its inevitable I find myself messing around with a classic .049 Surestart. I wasn't expecting to enjoy these as much as the biggest engines in my collection like the sophisticated 4-strokes, but there's an irresistible charm to how simple and therefore "hackable" these engines are. I've added to mine:

Turbo plug adapter
Throttle
Muffler
Additional mod to the muffler: a pressure tap and diverter pipes, though everything gets oily anyway.

It's a little powerhouse, spinning an APC 6x2 at 16,000 RPM maxed out, though I richen it down to 15.5k for longevity.

The carb can only bring it down to about 10k before it stalls, but that's cutting more than half the thrust and that's good enough for RC flying purposes.

 

[Lukedavis]

Getting into smaller and smaller engines now, its inevitable I find myself messing around with a classic .049 Surestart. I wasn't expecting to enjoy these as much as the biggest engines in my collection like the sophisticated 4-strokes, but there's an irresistible charm to how simple and therefore "hackable" these engines are. I've added to mine:

Turbo plug adapter
Throttle
Muffler
Additional mod to the muffler: a pressure tap and diverter pipes, though everything gets oily anyway.

View attachment 234032

It's a little powerhouse, spinning an APC 6x2 at 16,000 RPM maxed out, though I richen it down to 15.5k for longevity.

The carb can only bring it down to about 10k before it stalls, but that's cutting more than half the thrust and that's good enough for RC flying purposes.

Any chance you can give me some links to where you got those parts? I have an old Cox .049 engine I want to get running and put into a plane, and you did all the same mods I want to do.

 

[tudordewolf]

Any chance you can give me some links to where you got those parts? I have an old Cox .049 engine I want to get running and put into a plane, and you did all the same mods I want to do.

The turbo head can be found on eBay or directly from kamtechnik , whom you may also want to get a nice 1-piece spinner from, and maybe even the APC prop adapter - I used a bit of fuel tubing to center mine and it came out ok.

Exmodelengines has the muffler, the barbs I used are m3 / 1/8" barb & carefully drilled out to 2mm, had a few break in the process. Someone in this thread helpfully suggests the du-bro fuel cap fitting as a good exhaust "stinger"

And Cox themselves sells the throttle.

Sorry for the goose chase, 'tis the nature of the hobby.

 

[Lukedavis]

The turbo head can be found on eBay or directly from kamtechnik , whom you may also want to get a nice 1-piece spinner from, and maybe even the APC prop adapter - I used a bit of fuel tubing to center mine and it came out ok.

Exmodelengines has the muffler, the barbs I used are m3 / 1/8" barb & carefully drilled out to 2mm, had a few break in the process. Someone in this thread helpfully suggests the du-bro fuel cap fitting as a good exhaust "stinger"

And Cox themselves sells the throttle.

Sorry for the goose chase, 'tis the nature of the hobby.

Thank you! My engine is a production engine from their pre-built planes or kits, I don't remember, but it's from the 50s. It had a version one mesh screen around the exhaust ports.

 

[BustedAw11]

These 049's bring back so many memories of flying control line with my dad when I was a weeee little guy. I've still got a few engines of different sorts but I'm not sure where.
I always referred to them as finger choppers. 1 slip and those little props would get ya
Good times.

 

[Littlemotor]

These 049's bring back so many memories of flying control line with my dad when I was a weeee little guy. I've still got a few engines of different sorts but I'm not sure where.
I always referred to them as finger choppers. 1 slip and those little props would get ya
Good times.

Same here! I’m still wanting to locate some plans for an old Lil’ Satan that I wanna say was available through Goldberg.. Mine was an absolute blast when I was 7-8yrs old with pops..