Speaking of Glow Plugs: Preference?

rsv1cox wrote:OS?????  

My prejudice is showing.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Enya-3-glow-plugs-5-pack/282720883214?hash=item41d37a520e:g:mS4AAOSw4CFYtPj6

Sounds good to me!

Thanks Bob! Got some on the way !!!

Remember these...………….




I bought about 15 of them last year and ran a test on a few. No Idle bar but it did fine in a throttled engine. Worked Ok in C/L engines too. Then it burned out, and another. Cheap but I can't remember the price. They do look nice on my display engines though.

I never have had a problem with Enya 3's on any engine throttled or not.

I'm clueless when it comes to glowplugs. All I ever ran were cox .049s. Now I have OS and Enya engines . Long plugs,short plugs,idle bar plugs? How do you know what engine is supposed to use what plug?

OhBee wrote:I'm clueless when it comes to glowplugs. All I ever ran were cox .049s.  Now I have OS and Enya engines . Long plugs,short plugs,idle bar plugs? How do you know what engine is supposed to use what plug?

Need to have Bob the check in on this. My particular experience from "back in the day" was that the idle bar types "kept the fire burning" at low RPM's, but I noticed that O.S. engines had a near-electric motor idle without idle bar plugs. I've got a blend of them, along with a bunch of Fox plugs I got right before guys started saying they sucked!!!

As far as long or short lengths, I'd just check the manual, and there's that whole "heat range" thing too, but I'm a bit clueless there also.

As I look at this note, it seems fairly useless, but I already typed it so....

I have, on occasion, snipped the idle bar off of an R/C short plug and put it in some of my .049s with some fairly decent results. I don't remember the brands or their heat indexes though.

For the plug length I take the head off and put a plug in with a washer to see if it is flush with the combustion chamber. Then I scribe on the head OS, S (short) or L (long) It is really the only way to know for sure. OS used longs on the FSRs and earlier, but then went to their own length which is the same as Enya and a few more now. For longs I like K&B 1L. Longs are 7/32", shorts are 5/32" and the middle ones are 3/16" or probably 5mm. For the middle reach, Enya or OS are good at whatever heat you need. I have never seen a motor that took shorts, although I tried changing some heads to use them in the search for more power. I find they strip easily.

I use idle bar plugs in my engines with no ill effects, however, from what I recall idle bar plugs are well suited to older baffled piston engines to help keep the fuel splash off of the element to keep it burning hotter and not cooling down. SO on my older baffled piston engines, I do use idle bar plugs exclusively.

The engines I use shorts on are Wen-Macs, Cub Bs and Cs, Atwoods and Andersons. If you don't snip the idle bar with those engines you'll frequently collide with piston.

All Fox .15's also use shorts

aspeed wrote:.............For the plug length I take the head off and put a plug in with a washer to see if it is flush with the combustion chamber.  ................

NEW222 wrote: ...from what I recall idle bar plugs are well suited to older baffled piston engines to help keep the fuel splash off of the element to keep it burning hotter and not cooling down. SO on my older baffled piston engines, I do use idle bar plugs exclusively.  

Ditto for me on both counts above.  Idle bar plugs were pretty much the standard some 50 years ago with the un-muffled baffled piston engines. However, all the Enyas I had also used an exhaust baffle that rotated closed at idle speeds to help keep the heat up.

rsv1cox wrote:OS?????  

My prejudice is showing.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Enya-3-glow-plugs-5-pack/282720883214?hash=item41d37a520e:g:mS4AAOSw4CFYtPj6

These would certainly be my choice as well Bob, but at $152.80 AUD shipped for 5 I'll be delaying any purchase until the $$ stabilizes. (That's about $97 USD)

I'm down to just a few Rod, I hoard them like gold.

As far as selection, even the engine manufacturers hedge on glow plug recommendations.  Enya generally recommends "Testing your engine with various types of glow plugs to get the best conditions."  Testors and others just give the part number of their specific plug.  They are far more apt to recommend proper propeller sizes than glow plugs.  

There is some information regarding glow plugs on the net, a little digging will reveal a lot.  But, still, what is out there is kind of shallow.  Seems with glow plug selections we are mostly on our own.  But common sense prevails in all cases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_plug_%28model_engine%29

A good one to bookmark.

http://www.scootworks.com/rdrcdave/gloplugs.html

A lot of money and frustration can be saved by knowing what plugs work. When buying plugs, you should buy a card of 12. Economically, this is the best option. A Thunderbolt r/c long with idle bar will work better than any other plug using  stunt fuels.
While I'm a fan of Enya plugs and use them frequently, they're not for every engine. The funny top also doesn't allow the use of standard igniters to fit. I've found them to work extremely well in OS FP.40's. Bob Hunt has made the Enya #3 recommendation several times over the years for stunt use.  A Thunderbolt is the most economical choice due to cost and it's hands down the hottest plug available today which is what stunt fuels and stunt runs require. A Sig  GP001 and a GP003 would be my next choice in terms of hot, however, I've had Sig plugs just clean shut off when they start acting up and this does that at the most opportune time which is at the top of the circle and this is not tank issues. They tend to lose their lower coils fairly quickly. If you want to drain your wallet quickly, Randy's K&B 1L plug offerings from Mecoa were in the past good hot plugs. I haven't used the newer offerings and at the given cost, I won't be using them anytime soon. He can keep  them  and someday offer them to the Smithsonian.

           My experiences on plugs are not run on a bench. When we have a stunt contest of 30 people or more, we don't have time for those with engine starting problem. You have 2 minutes to get your engine running, if it's not running and your not in the air by the two minute mark, your flight is terminated as you wouldn't have enough time to complete the maneuvers anyhow. If everyone isn't ready, fueled and their equipment properly working, you would never get through a contest so knowing what works is critical. Combat is different however, you still are on the clock.

           Fox plugs use the smallest filament out of any manufacture and it glows so bright it's almost white. The posts leak, rpm's drop when you remove the igniter,  the posts blow out, the coils come loose and can ruin a engine in a millisecond.  I have used them, I still use them on less expensive engines like Mccoy's. I give them to the cheapskates who come to the field when they ask do you have a plug. Fox plugs work great if your breaking in a engine and you can sometimes use it as a reference as to when it's ready for a plane as it will blow just prior.

           The Fireball plugs I've owned aside from the shorts have blown out every post and insulators. Horrid things they are.

             Os plugs work great in the OS engines but they're a medium length plug which may or may not work in other engines effectively. This can go the other way as well using the plugs I mentioned above in OS engines due to the standard long being of one length. OS plugs are between a long and a short in length which alters the timing.

Thanks Bob good info on plugs , Booked !

Yes! Who is a source for the Thunderbolt Plugs? I'm still doing a search for them...only one #115545 turned up on Ebay.

while there cruise around and book mark the site as a source

In general, the higher the the nitro percentage, the colder the plug should be. Conversely, the lower the nitro percentage, the hotter the plug should be.



https://www.mikegoesflying.com/shop/engine-accessories/thunderbolt-standard-long-plug-universal-control-line-and-r-c-plug/

fredvon4 wrote:while there cruise around and book mark the site as a source



https://www.mikegoesflying.com/shop/engine-accessories/thunderbolt-standard-long-plug-universal-control-line-and-r-c-plug/

Good source for motors too. Notice the .15 glow, and Gas .37 motor he carries. Just a note though, he does not ship out of the U.S. I can drive to Detroit, but can not cross the border presently. There are post office boxes available for that purpose, but not now. Europe and overseas would be SOL too. (I have had it bookmarked for over a year, he carried the old XLS .15s for a short time till Sanye went bankrupt.)

THANK YOU FRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU FRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do McCoy four stroke r/c plugs have any applications other than the label?

Mike Goes Flying is the only source for Thunderbolt plugs. Mike took the line over a short while ago. Prior to that, the plugs were distributed by Global Industries which was essentially Hobby People.He's currently out of Thunderbolt R/c Longs with idle bars. When they come back in stock, act fast because they're out in a short period of time.

Ken Cook wrote:Mike Goes Flying is the only source for Thunderbolt plugs. Mike took the line over a short while ago. Prior to that, the plugs were distributed by Global Industries which was essentially Hobby People.He's currently out of Thunderbolt R/c Longs with idle bars. When they come back in stock, act fast because they're out in a short period of time.

Yeah...I got some anyway...hopefully be just fine for my Fence-Post-Jumpinng Toys...

Thank You Again for the Direction!

Glow Plug Poor Kim