ESE's works engine tuner

[seattle smitty]

Alex, if you want to eliminate yet another component, add enough nitro and you very well might be able to turn off the ignition while the motor continues to run merrily along until the fuel runs out, LOL.


(More seriously, this auto-ignition possibility is why you should have some method of fuel cut-off if you are going to fool with nitro. Many an alky outboard racer, having "tipped the can" (added some percentage of nitro), has fired up his engine on the beach to warm it up before the race and experienced his engine whining along with the ignition switched off and the throttle closed (and we use full butterflys with no cut-outs, just so the engines WON'T idle).

[lohring]

We ran 40% nitro in this engine. It definitely stopped as soon as the plug burned off. The ground strap was a little hard on the piston on the way out the exhaust. On 15% nitro it ran fine.

Lohring Miller

[Lightbulb]

Alex, if you want to eliminate yet another component, add enough nitro and you very well might be able to turn off the ignition while the motor continues to run merrily along until the fuel runs out, LOL.


(More seriously, this auto-ignition possibility is why you should have some method of fuel cut-off if you are going to fool with nitro. Many an alky outboard racer, having "tipped the can" (added some percentage of nitro), has fired up his engine on the beach to warm it up before the race and experienced his engine whining along with the ignition switched off and the throttle closed (and we use full butterflys with no cut-outs, just so the engines WON'T idle).

Smithy, if the spark plug has a higher than 50% platinum alloy electrode, it will act like a glow plug in a model engine when running Methanol. Nitro is not required . Being able to cut the fuel is essential if platinum pugs are being used that have a high level of alloy content. Model engine glow plugs only have to glow to a very dull red in a dark room. This amount of glow can not be seen in daylight at all.
Neil

[Grumph]

Are surface gap plugs still available ? Lohring's plug certainly looks well on the way to being one...
If you've got enough spark energy available they could be an option - just make sure to remove any plating on the outer electrode as it will lift and give you nice little hot spots...

[adegnes]

When do you plan on running the engine and seeing what happens and if it is ride-able?
Neil

As soon as possible... But there's alot om my plate atm, two kids(one 5months old), full-time day job ++
There might be an opening coming sunday cause I probably have the house for my self at least early in the day. Only problem is I'm going to a wedding party Saturday...
Need to figure out a cheap way of soundproofing the garage.

Alex, if you want to eliminate yet another component, add enough nitro and you very well might be able to turn off the ignition while the motor continues to run merrily along until the fuel runs out, LOL.


(More seriously, this auto-ignition possibility is why you should have some method of fuel cut-off if you are going to fool with nitro. Many an alky outboard racer, having "tipped the can" (added some percentage of nitro), has fired up his engine on the beach to warm it up before the race and experienced his engine whining along with the ignition switched off and the throttle closed (and we use full butterflys with no cut-outs, just so the engines WON'T idle).

Thanks Smitty, I should install a valve just in case.

We ran 40% nitro in this engine. It definitely stopped as soon as the plug burned off. The ground strap was a little hard on the piston on the way out the exhaust. On 15% nitro it ran fine.

Lohring Miller

Looks very much like my plug after the lean run on the dyno.

[husaberg]

Are surface gap plugs still available ? Lohring's plug certainly looks well on the way to being one...
If you've got enough spark energy available they could be an option - just make sure to remove any plating on the outer electrode as it will lift and give you nice little hot spots...

Yip
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NGK-Spark-Pl...-/111332408193
Mazda rotaryies come factory with them (abeit a Semi surface discharge)

[Flettner]

Are surface gap plugs still available ? Lohring's plug certainly looks well on the way to being one...
If you've got enough spark energy available they could be an option - just make sure to remove any plating on the outer electrode as it will lift and give you nice little hot spots...

I use Mazda rotary spark plugs (surface fire) in the 350. You can get them in 11 heat range. They are expensive but.
Sorry Husaberg, I should have kept reading.

[husaberg]

I use Mazda rotary spark plugs (surface fire) in the 350. You can get them in 11 heat range. They are expensive but.
Sorry Husaberg, I should have kept reading.

i should have spelled rotary right......

[ken seeber]

I thought surface gap spark plugs were heat rangeless........

[JanBros]

JanBros, thanks for reply...have you seen Agnes video... how is this possible? an excess of fuel already in the transfers? should he have purged the engine prior to trying to start? is the pull on the pipe sufficient to draw fuel up the transfers to start the engine... interesting.

when starting, the throttle valve is down and almost completly closes the crankcase. one could say that their is only a small "leak" : not enough to push everything that the piston moving down is pushed out through the carb and so some make it into the cylinder.

the realy interesting bit will be to see if the engine can be kept running opening the throttle without going into the powerband of the exhaust.

[adegnes]

when starting, the throttle valve is down and almost completly closes the crankcase. one could say that their is only a small "leak" : not enough to push everything that the piston moving down is pushed out through the carb and so some make it into the cylinder.

Plausible explanation.

the realy interesting bit will be to see if the engine can be kept running opening the throttle without going into the powerband of the exhaust.

I'll try my best to create this situation next time, though a bit hard with the centrifugal clutch.
First priority is getting in at least one proper power run to find out how it performs on the pipe.

[jonny quest]

Hang blankets down from the ceiling all the way around your dyno. Good soundproofing method.

[shnaggs]

@adegnes sound proof and cheep are not usually used in the same sentence. I am learning this the hard way currently cause I am building a recording studio in my basement. If you want to isolate your room, the best way is to build a room within a room. All that fancy foam you see hung on the walls does little for sound isolation, only absorbs the upper frequency range, and does nothing for the meet and potatoes.

[adegnes]

@adegnes sound proof and cheep are not usually used in the same sentence. I am learning this the hard way currently cause I am building a recording studio in my basement. If you want to isolate your room, the best way is to build a room within a room. All that fancy foam you see hung on the walls does little for sound isolation, only absorbs the upper frequency range, and does nothing for the meet and potatoes.

Hang blankets down from the ceiling all the way around your dyno. Good soundproofing method.

That's sort of a room inside a room isn't it?

[seattle smitty]

Smithy, if the spark plug has a higher than 50% platinum alloy electrode, it will act like a glow plug in a model engine when running Methanol. Nitro is not required . Being able to cut the fuel is essential if platinum pugs are being used that have a high level of alloy content. Model engine glow plugs only have to glow to a very dull red in a dark room. This amount of glow can not be seen in daylight at all.
Neil

I've read that about platinum plugs and methanol, Neil. As for nitro and a glowing spark plug ground strap, I've seen a cold engine go into auto ignition immediately after start-up, before anything had any chance to get hot; don't know how much nitro the owner had added, but I wouldn't think more than 20%. Yet I've seen engines running 40-45% run with none of this little drama. I have no explanation, but would add that that particular auto-igniting engine was probably more or less maximized for alcohol and thus had more compression built into it than I think is ideal for nitro.

Also I might add that the occasional engine that ran by itself with the ignition grounded was not making much power, since the closed butterfly was choking it off, and you could stop it by shoving a wooden paddle or whatever was handy against the side of the flywheel/rope-plate. So possibly my suggestion of adding a fuel cut-off to a motorcycle that's going to run nitro is superfluous; probably could just put it in gear and apply the brakes.
But since Alex is eliminating components (rotary valve and now ignition?), he could put 'er in gear and go for an auto-ignited, 24-7 ride!!

(For fuel experimenters, understand that my tiny knowledge of this stuff is way-old, from the open megaphone days of the Sixties. Expansion chambers add a whole new set of challenges when considering the use of nitro)(I think it can probably be done to good effect, but it would take a lot of experimenting to get it right, with a whole lot of variables and trade-offs. You might have to buy pistons by the case).