A scrappy looking cox teedee 0.049 story

Thought I would share a motor restoration that was gosh 5yrs in the making. I traded some beer money to a nice gent for a zip lock bag full of cox 0.049 engines. The bag consisted of a couple qrz, some bits and one terrible looking teedee.

I started cleaning and disassembly in around 2016. It was oxidized up bad. I soaked in fuel, scrubbed, cleaned and eventual got it mostly appart. However I could not remove the piston from the cylinder. Based in the oxidation pattern it looked like it was stored with fuel in it and leaned on its side (one sized was very pitted). The plastic venturi based was cracked, there wasn't much left of the thrust washer, however, the crank and plain bearing were pretty good. I ordered a top end, plastic venturi base, and washer from cox international. Bolted it up oiled it good and put it in a plastic bag for storage.

Years later I wanted to run it and though hey you know what I'm going to have another crack at the piston that stuck in the cylinder. I heated it up to 230f and it released, maybe the 5yrs of atf help a smidge I don't know but it was free! So I re-set the ball joint, cleaned it up. Removed the new top and and put the original back on for a run test. Wow did I get suprised.

It's compression was fair / poor nothing special so I didn't have much hopes of a good run.

Well at 1km above sea level or 0.8 miles above sea level on 25% nitro sig 1/2a fuel, after some ritch testing, I started to lean er out. It hit 19500rpm on a 5x3 apc prop easily. I don't have much experience with teedees but boy am I excited.

Here's a little video I made. Can skip past the cleaning to 4mins for the run. I wish I took a before picture.