I'm newcCoy or Cox

Fuel is not a problem...even if you have to mix it yourself. PARTS are the problem....simply because if you are interested in typical 50's or 60s eng ines.... then most of what you will find for sale will be second hand and well used. New in box examples will be few and far between-and premium priced.

Affordable engines will normally have both cosmetic wear-faded paint, chipped fins, scratches, burred prop nuts, etc and also real internal wear. Cosmetic wear/damage can often be cleaned up....some of us here get a buzz out of restoration of 'basket cases'...but if you want to run your engines-or use them in models, then the internal state becomes a consideration. Conrods and wristpins are two areas where wear becomes quite apparent, along with bearing and cylinder [and I've stated these in approximate order of occurence]....now ballbearings can be replaced...a worn plain bearing is another story....yes it can be done-by skilled machinists...or in the case of a worn unbushed crankcase, a bush can be fitted-again by a skilled machinist. Likewise rebores-but in both cases, there are few people capable or willing to do such work-and they charge appropriately.

Moving to the mundane-you cannot fully assess wear without dismantling the engine-in doing so you will almost certain damage the gaskets-and in the unlikely event you don't it is still good practice to replace the gaskets on reassembly. So now you need gaskets-for engines made 50 or 60 years ago-only a bit of thick paper-but usually vital to operation. Fortunately there are a couple of people who specialise in gaskets for long out of production engines-check out  'RC Gasket Company' on Ebay-and also 'the-old-engine' also on Ebay.

Conrods are another issue-they are prone to wear at both top and bottom (hardly surprising!) and replacements are VERY thin on the ground...you can make a conrod with simple tools with care-it may look a bit agricultural compared to a machined one...but it will do the job. The alloys now are a lot better so your hand made replacement may give better service than the original.....providing it is accurately made. The elephant in the room of course-is ideally you'd need an OEM rod to measure from to get the centre to centre distance for the bog end and little end bores.

Then there are the things that happen in a normal working life-models get crashed-if you're unlucky the shaft gets bent-and THAT is a tricky thing to deal with, if you are a bit luckier you break or bend a needle valve assembly....which is why these are often the most common spare part you find in a shop....and equally-why it is nigh impossible to find an original spare from the 50's 60's and 70's....they've long since been purchased by people fixing THEIR damaged ones...  
....so you have two choices-MAKE a replacement....tedious-but not impossible-and requires a lathe at the very minimum......or fit a needle valve assembly from another make.

  So yes-go ahead -it quickly becomes an absorbing interest-but there is quite a lot of work involved-depending on where you want to go with it...some people are happy to collect for sentimental reasons "I had these when I was a kid"  "my father had these when I was a kid"; others are attracted to a particular make-for whatever reason-in my case as a junior, I acquired an ED Hornet from a schoolmate, not much later-a few months at most- another-an ED Bee Mk1...and all the time you're reading Aeromodeller or MAN or whatever the magazine was in the library...and you see the ED (insert the brand of interest of your choice) advert and think "wow-imagine having all of them'....and years later, you realise that 'hey I do'-i've acquired them here and there...and I do. Now I have a collection of over 900 engines-not all rare and exotic-many quite mundane.

  There are people out there who collect only Fox engines...and have spent a lot of time tracking down and acquiring very single size and submodel-of Fox engine...you could do the same with Super Tigre, or McCoy or OS or Enya....or..TA DA..Cox engines....

The take home message-engine collecting is enjoyable-and can become a lifelong obsession-but it requires patience, an ability to ferret out things in unlikely places, goodwill-without swapping, trading and favours owed and received you won't make much progress, good dexterity, and over time an increasing set of skills...to end up with a collection others will admire and perhaps envy.


 ChrisM