Gas engine that fit into nitros. Why did they fail?

[coldvod]

I figured this was the best section to place it in. I was looking around on the sh website and noticed that they used to sell the .31 gas engine. I've done a few 30 minutes of research and I've only found one article named The end of nitro engines. It was a fun read and the comments were optimistic to say the least. I personally would rather these gas engines to take off. Granted a lot of stuff that is innovative dont take off. For the people that were in the hobby during this time I would like to know why they didnt take off .
Heres the article below if you're curious https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2151296-The-end-of-nitro-engines

 

[tudordewolf]

Thanks for sharing that article, I didn't know some of those engines even existed.

SH recently released the GF-6 and GF-9 gasoline engines for airplane use, but they each have very similar mounting patterns to a small block & big block nitro engine, so I'm wondering if they could be jury-rigged in.

The RPM's are lower that a nitro engine by about half so they'd need to be geared differently.

They need their own glow plugs, but that's not a huge obstacle. Different fuel lines, too.

OS also developed glow plugs intended to replace spark plugs in small engines - the CM-6, and the G-5. They even developed one meant to work with Ethanol instead of methanol, the BE-3. There's lots of cool technology in the field.

 

[Chubaka]

I never owned one but always wanted one. Hpi also has an octane motor. I can't remember the original owner but @Greywolf ended up with the savvy so maybe he can list his first hand experience.

I know another guy within the last year was making hard to aquire spark plugs for these motors. He kept trying to find testers and kept turning up dry.

 

[Greywolf74]

I figured this was the best section to place it in. I was looking around on the sh website and noticed that they used to sell the .31 gas engine. I've done a few 30 minutes of research and I've only found one article named The end of nitro engines. It was a fun read and the comments were optimistic to say the least. I personally would rather these gas engines to take off. Granted a lot of stuff that is innovative dont take off. For the people that were in the hobby during this time I would like to know why they didnt take off .
Heres the article below if you're curious https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2151296-The-end-of-nitro-engines

I never bought one back then because they were getting such crappy reviews. The Savage Octane that I have now was given to me as a roller and I plan to do a brushless conversion on it eventually so I have no first hand experience with them. I know some of the big complaints back then about them were things like the ignition system was very problematic. That wasn't just with the Sav Octane either, I know the Losi XXL2 had the similiar issues. I remember some folks would start having issues with the CDI system very soon after getting a new kit and the plug insulation boot would be allowing spark to arch to the surrounding metal. I believe the Octane manual used to say that if the DCI system was doing this that it needed to be replaced. So people would replace the CDI only to turn around and either still have the same issue right out of the gate or very soon again after.

I know another complaint about the 1/8 scale gas engines was that they didnt have the same power as the nitro engines. The performance seemed to be very lackluster compared to nitro when they did run right.

@WVNed Actually owned the Octane roller that I have now and the whole reason he gave it to me was because he had so many problems with it that he ditched the whole engine/ignition system oput of the thing and was still so disgusted with the kit that he was going to throw the roller in the trash. Thats how plagued with problems they were. People that bought them quickly got fed up with them and the whole concept got a bad rap. I'm pretty sure the backlash was so bad that these kits came on the scene and left again within just a year or maybe 2 at the most.

Thats what I remember anyway. I quickly realized from all of the complaints on the internet that I didnt want one and after that I kinda stopped paying a whole lot of attention to them.

 

[coldvod]

I never bought one back then because they were getting such crappy reviews. The Savage Octane that I have now was given to me as a roller and I plan to do a brushless conversion on it eventually so I have no first hand experience with them. I know some of the big complaints back then about them were things like the ignition system was very problematic. That wasn't just with the Sav Octane either, I know the Losi XXL2 had the similiar issues. I remember some folks would start having issues with the CDI system very soon after getting a new kit and the plug insulation boot would be allowing spark to arch to the surrounding metal. I believe the Octane manual used to say that if the DCI system was doing this that it needed to be replaced. So people would replace the CDI only to turn around and either still have the same issue right out of the gate or very soon again after.

I know another complaint about the 1/8 scale gas engines was that they didnt have the same power as the nitro engines. The performance seemed to be very lackluster compared to nitro when they did run right.

@WVNed Actually owned the Octane roller that I have now and the whole reason he gave it to me was because he had so many problems with it that he ditched the whole engine/ignition system oput of the thing and was still so disgusted with the kit that he was going to throw the roller in the trash. Thats how plagued with problems they were. People that bought them quickly got fed up with them and the whole concept got a bad rap. I'm pretty sure the backlash was so bad that these kits came on the scene and left again within just a year or maybe 2 at the most.

Thats what I remember anyway. I quickly realized from all of the complaints on the internet that I didnt want one and after that I kinda stopped paying a whole lot of attention to them.

Interresting. I know the dynamite reviews mentionned the bad con rod but i assumed they wouldve refine it instead of give up. It was probably cheaper just to phase them out

 

[Greywolf74]

Interresting. I know the dynamite reviews mentionned the bad con rod but i assumed they wouldve refine it instead of give up. It was probably cheaper just to phase them out

They were so plagued with various problems that I believe the general public become pretty anti- 1/8 Scale 2 stroke fairly quickly. With the confidence of the general public lost, I think the idea was just scrapped instead of trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak.

 

[WVNed]

They failed due to poor engineering.
The savage octane used a method to retain the piston pin that failed. Then a hardened clip went through the engine scoring the sleeve and piston.
The Dynamite that came in the Losi made so much radio noise the car would lose control and go off and do it's own thing until it hit something.

I had the pleasure of trying to make both work. A complete waste of time.

At least the Losi 8ight-T could be converted back to nitro.

 

[gandalfnz]

They failed due to poor engineering.
The savage octane used a method to retain the piston pin that failed. Then a hardened clip went through the engine scoring the sleeve and piston.
The Dynamite that came in the Losi made so much radio noise the car would lose control and go off and do it's own thing until it hit something.

I had the pleasure of trying to make both work. A complete waste of time.

At least the Losi 8ight-T could be converted back to nitro.

I would love to own an octane, even it it just sits on a shelve, by the sound of it, that's what it does best!
I see so many of them on youtube running right...