Brodak 049

Well, it is made in China!

WingingIt74 wrote:That looks interesting. Looks like it shares a few parts.

That's the CS aka Brodak MkI engine, they are possible the lowest quality engines ever made....

There are a few threads on these engines on RCU, I have posted som of my findings here; CS, I give up...

Here are a few pictures of what you get;

IIRC, one of the CS crankcases posted in RCU was so porous that the hole extended all the way thru the side and the case would not hold pressure. The MK II engine is manufactured in eastern Europe and is of better quality, but the construction is not very standard and modifications are more difficult.

I certainly agree with Kris --- the MK I is possibly the poorest engine ever produced.

I would re-phrase that and say that the company operates poor quality control and bad engines slip through the net.

I know quite a few who operate these with no issues other than a perception of the engine being under powered.

You get what you pay for and these are cheap with the attendant risk. Quite a few castings (of all makes!) are flawed but that is the first porous one that I have seen described.

As for being the worst engine - the Gotham DEEZIL takes some beating. I have one and I am determined to get the thing to run even if I have to remake it!

Brodak .049's were "built to a price" in China and parts for them are difficult to obtain. IIRC, Brodak no longer has them available having sold them of as "close outs".

Many people don't realize how excellent parts availability is to the Cox hobby.

Patronize our vendors!

SD

Years ago, I (along with another gentleman) had been in communication with John Brodak on the possibility of kitting a profile stuntship...another story.

During one of my phone visits, the subject turned to 1/2a engines and he told me he was going to market a 1/2a engine. I suggested he look at anodizing cost, I had told him about the 'golden age of 1/2a (early fifties) when just about every manufacture was anodizing heads, etc. and thought it would look cool. He totally agreed and thanked me for idea...and now you know the rest of the story.

Here is the MkII

It has about the same power as a cox babe bee....
I put an exhaust throttle on mine few years ago;

I had the Brodak MK 1 .061 myself. Lots of flash in the venturi stack which wouldn't allow the engine to start at first. Very poorly designed cylinder liner and head.When the head is tightened the liner turns.  The liner itself has a notch for indexing but no roll pin to index it. I was going to install one. I modified the crank hole which in my opinion is far too small. My first attempt was drilling out the head and using the head as a clamp to retain Glo Bee head buttons. This added a automatic 1000k to the stock setup. I had the luxury of flying some combat with Henry Nelson and he made a replacement head for this engine and the CS versions.  This placed another $40 on top of the engine. At this point on 35% nitro the engine would not only start well but I was seeing 23K on a 4.5 x 4 APC prop. The standard head with the glow plug is pretty much useless. I questioned the use of that many of times and I know those responsible for the making of this engine. The answer I received was the engine was targeted for the beginner and sport flyer. I feel it was a very bad decision .

This a MKII we had at our club last year which after some extensive cleaning up we managed this on a APC 5x3 and 35% nitro.

Ken

Definitely seems like these engines need a bit of TLC and attention to bring them up to scratch. One of those pictured is tight and the other loose. Neither have been run.

Ian, I think you should take a real close look at your MK II's. I think these have some real potential. I feel the crank timing is why the engine is so timid in it's stock state. I think these engines are very well constructed and I've never seen an AAC piston sleeve offered in a 1/2A engine under $200. Cyclon's are now $350 plus and you can't even buy them currently and no one offers them in the US. Profi's can be purchased but they're over the $200 mark factoring in shipping. Point being is that I do feel the MKII with some assistance could really be a little powerhouse . I thought about making a crank for this engine. Ken

I bought the MK II from John Brodak, it ran pretty well on my baby ringmaster. But I started having trouble with it. I finally emailed John, he called me ASAP and told me he would send me a new one. He didn't even wait for the old one to be shipped back, he put the new one in the mail the next day. He even broke the engine in for me and tore it down to make sure there was no problem. I've always received great service from Brodak.

Ken Cook wrote: The standard head with the glow plug is pretty much useless. I questioned the use of that many of times and I know those responsible for the making of this engine. The answer I received was the engine was targeted for the beginner and sport flyer. I feel it was a very bad decision.

Yes, I don't understand why they would use a regular plug either, all that effort in making an engine and then ruin it by making a regular head. Heads for Nelson or Turbo plugs are not that hard to make...

I have one of the MkII RC ones too. There they couldn't be bothered to put an airbleed on the carb....

Ken Cook wrote:             Ian, I think you should take a real close look at your MK II's. I think these have some real potential. I feel the crank timing is why the engine is so timid in it's stock state. I think these engines are very well constructed and I've never seen an AAC piston sleeve offered in a 1/2A engine under $200. Cyclon's are now $350 plus and you can't even buy them currently and no one offers them in the US. Profi's can be purchased but they're over the $200 mark factoring in shipping. Point being is that I do feel the MKII with some assistance could really be a little powerhouse . I thought about making a crank for this engine. Ken

This chap did some part swapping and got this



If you read his comment he swapped out the crank. I have only seen Picco motors in cars but they are screamers. Never seen one as small as 049 though.

Yes I remeber that, it was done by AndyW on RCU and I think he only kept the crank-case, and possibly the carb, from the brodak engine...

Crank-case was hogged out though in the intake using a drill press, and the carb was modded to have an airbleed. So it doesn't tell so much about Brodak as it does about the dedication of AndyW.

The Picco engines are very well made but the crank has a rumour of breaking when converted to airplane use. Some people make custom cranks for them and get very good numbers out of them. And yes they do use a Turbo plug.

Here is my "conversion" runs and throttle very well but I don't dare to push it too much...

Kris I own a few of those Picco engines. I had one from Doug Galbreath in my 1/2A combat plane this year in Huntersville with Rusty. It was actually the first time I ran the engine. It took a bit of getting used to. I kept flooding it on start up. I did manage to get a very good reliable starting technique accomplished but in the heat of things it seriously clouded my thoughts and adrenaline quickly got the best of me. Are you saying the Picco crank fits the Brodak MK II? The Picco certainly has some issues with the crankshaft breaking especially the way I'm running them. Doug does something to the crank. I can't remember if it's a sleeve . My first one had JB weld ramped up in the cutout. Thanks to Mike Londke also a CEF member he provided a lot of entertainment and video for the 2 days I was there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWxoxNo7Ldk The first match is my son and I my son is in yellow and I was in red. I put us into a line wrap. I have a bad habit of doing that. 1/2A combat using high powered ball bearing engines is insane at times. I really gave that Picco a workout though. Mike and I had a match and I think I was certainly yelling out words that I can't type here due to flooding the engine. Mike is pictured in the second match in the blue shirt. I love those little engines.

Hehe, that's pretty crazy, I got dizzy just by watching the video...
Engines certainly sounded great though!

Andy did many mods to the brodak engine, and essentially there was only a modified crankcase left as I remember it. It sounds a little strange if the picco crank (designed for ballbearings) would just swap right into the case though, will have to check/find his thread on RCU.