Found NIB Fox 35

RknRusty wrote:Nice find. Now go get a fun flyer to build for it. I'm kind of partial to my Yak-9 or its sister slow combat plane, the Sterling F-51 Mustang. Their like snatching around a big 1/2A.
Rusty

Oh I'm going to btw do you know of any place that may have any Flight Streak ARF's in stock? I'm trying to hunt one down so I can put that 25 you sent me to work I want to get some time under my belt before I get the twister finished. (Bandit)

roddie wrote:Hey Bandit, That's COOL! I have an "old" one.. and also an old .29 Stunt. The .29 I paid $5.00 for.. 30 years ago "seized" in a brown paper bag with the needle broken off. The engine ended-up being castor-seized.. and I was able to source a replacement needle. The .35 was my Grandfather's. Both engines still have great compression.

Cool, I'm lookin' to put this one in a Ringmaster. For some reason IMO ringmasters and Fox 35's just go together. My dad had a Fox 35 powered ringmaster back when I was 10 even though I didn't fly it much I really enjoyed flying it. Brings back memories. (Bandit)

Ron Cribbs gave me a Fox .35 3-bolt backplate one just like the one in your photos except for the side muffler mount tabs. It's a 1950's engine. I've got it targeted for my 1960 Berkeley Interceptor build, which would be an apt application for the Fox. Those who built the Interceptor told me that in its day it was a decent stunter. Mine of course will be revised to modern standards, but this classic engine deserves a decent place and the Berkeley it is.

TDbandit wrote:... btw do you know of any place that may have any Flight Streak ARF's in stock? I'm trying to hunt one down so I can put that 25 you sent me to work I want to get some time under my belt before I get the twister finished. (Bandit)

Brodak has the kit, but I don't see the ARF listed. The Streak is extremely responsive and will get ahead of you in a hurry if you aren't already tuned up. Is everyone out of them?
Rusty

RknRusty wrote:

TDbandit wrote:... btw do you know of any place that may have any Flight Streak ARF's in stock? I'm trying to hunt one down so I can put that 25 you sent me to work I want to get some time under my belt before I get the twister finished. (Bandit)

Brodak has the kit, but I don't see the ARF listed. The Streak is extremely responsive and will get ahead of you in a hurry if you aren't already tuned up. Is everyone out of them?
Rusty

Yeah haven't been able to find any. I was going to dumb the controls down a bit and set it a tad nose heavy to take a bit of the sting out besides that 25 you sent me shouldn't pull it around too fast. (Bandit)

If you would like some excellent tips on this engine in regards to how to and what to do, I can enlighten you on some very good suggestions. Just send me a PM and I can provide you. Ken

Nice find Bandit , Nice weather around the corner and I still have not got squat built But did just get some more stuff to build the wig jig , I don't want a lot of trouble out of my next builds like that BRM has giving me . You build with one ? Eric

TDbandit wrote:Hi all went to the Southeastern model show and found a NIB 40th anniversary Fox 35 never had a drop of fuel put through it. I couldn't help myself and picked it up it's all shiny! well...somewhat lol (Bandit)

Bandit,

Just a reminder that this is an iron/steel setup and for best performance, should be broken in.

First step is to remove the backplate and flush some solvent (or glow fuel) through it to remove any junk left over from manufacture (swarf).

First run should be slobbering rich to finish flushing engine. After that you can needle it up to two cycle for a few one minute runs with natural cool-down between runs. This is called heat cycling and is the fastest way to break in a Fox. NEVER run it too lean.

If it will hold a lean run without sagging (slowing down) it is ready to fly.

Of course there are many other ways to break in an engine. Your choice. Good luck with your Fox.

George

Ken Cook wrote:                If you would like some excellent tips on this engine in regards to how to and what to do, I can enlighten you on some very good suggestions. Just send me a PM and I can provide you. Ken

Sure that would be nice,Thanks! (Bandit)
PM sent

getback wrote:Nice find Bandit , Nice weather around the corner and I still have not got squat built  But did just get some more stuff to build the wig jig , I don't want a lot of trouble out of my next builds like that BRM has giving me . You build with one ? Eric

Thanks I kinda suprised to find one to tell ya the truth. There was also a NIB McCoy Red Head for $35 that I almost picked up as well but sold before I could get to it.
I rarely build with a jig but when I do I use a through the rib jig that I got from tower years ago. They are great for building straight wings, What type of jig are you building btw? (Bandit)

gcb wrote:

TDbandit wrote:Hi all went to the Southeastern model show and found a NIB 40th anniversary Fox 35 never had a drop of fuel put through it. I couldn't help myself and picked it up it's all shiny! well...somewhat lol (Bandit)

Bandit,

Just a reminder that this is an iron/steel setup and for best performance, should be broken in.

First step is to remove the backplate and flush some solvent (or glow fuel) through it to remove any junk left over from manufacture (swarf).

First run should be slobbering rich to finish flushing engine. After that you can needle it up to two cycle for a few one minute runs with natural cool-down between runs. This is called heat cycling and is the fastest way to break in a Fox. NEVER run it too lean.

If it will hold a lean run without sagging (slowing down) it is ready to fly.

Of course there are many other ways to break in an engine. Your choice. Good luck with your Fox.

George

Thanks for tha tips!
I heat cycle all my engines best way to beak em in.
What I usually do is not only do i pull the back plate but I tear the whole engine down and wash all the parts and inspect them especially the piston/conrod assembly and make sure the retainer clips or pin pads are in place (Ran into a brand new OS one time that was missing not one but both of the Teflon pin pads). then I re-oil and re-assemble the engine. then I proceed with the break-in which is pretty much like ya said. Slobbering rich for a tank or two to knock off any rough spots then perform a series of wet two cycle runs with cool downs in between followed by rich runs.

BTW I've already pulled the engine down for my inspection and found that the sleeve was positioned wrong (Exhaust port misaligned with the stack) While it probably would of run, it probably didn't run well I wonder if they ran the engine when it left the assembly line. (Bandit)

Although quality control issues once in while pop up, could also be that one of the previous owners disassembled to remove swarf and relubricate, or just out of curiosity disassembled and reassembled, not watching cylinder alignment (water under the bridge )

Now you've discovered that you fixed it. All that's left is to break in your prize, mount it  and fly it!

That is something that very well could've been done at the factory. I had heads on backwards and the baffle was smacking into the underside of the head. It's a Fox. Yes the engine will run with the sleeve in backwards, not good but it will run. Let's ask Sonny Perez, he ran all of the Fox engines, his name is probably on the tag on your crankshaft.

Ken Cook wrote:            That is something that very well could've been done at the factory. I had heads on backwards and the baffle was smacking into the underside of the head. It's a Fox. Yes the engine will run with the sleeve in backwards, not good but it will run.  Let's ask Sonny Perez, he ran all of the Fox engines, his name is probably on the tag on your crankshaft.

Lol yes it does say Sonny, the sleeve was off center exhaust side so I corrected it when I tore it down to clean up the parts.
More than likely it wasn't run if it was shipped like this. (Bandit)

Ken Cook pointed out something interesting, and goes to show that manufacturers are only human. During its hayday, I imagine they had more than their hands full of work to do, could be just too much to do.

I had 2 Fuji 099S-II ABC engines, the last of the cross scavenge series full of swarf prior to Fuji discontinuing glow production when I disassembled them. Gathered that those working the engines had too much going on at the end perhaps.

Regardless, all speculations on my part. The good is, once one is aware, to fully check over the engines, disassemble as required, clean up, debur, straighten, realign and etc. I bought Enyas and a McCoy for a song that looked a little rough on the outside like they were abused. After cleaning, removing corrosion and discolorations, found they were hardly run or not run at all. Some minor cleanup and they were excellent running engines. Another two, McCoy 35 Red Head and Enya 19-VI TV had bent crankshafts bought for a song. Straightened them, and now they are good runners.
I don't know about others, but I considered this a part of the discovery and fun.

Thanks Roddie, for posting the right link. I just checked the link I posted and it's the seach page. The Streak is in stock indeed. ( there is this green square next to the price).

Cool, I'll look into it. BTW tower is expecting to get some streaks in by mid April. (Bandit)

Though that I would post a little update on my progress. Using Ken's suggestions, I pulled the engine completely down and started going through the engine and in the process I've found a couple of issues one of them being the wrist pin retainers one which popped out out on me upon dis-assembly how I was able to find the sucker is beyond me, call it LUCK. Anyway I reinstalled the clip which believe it or not was not sprung and made sure it was in the grove good I checked the other side to make sure it was seated properly as well. The other issue was the rod which had no radius machined into it (Fixed) I also polished the crank and added to the radius for the crank bushing, The piston to cylinder fit seemed OK as well no real binding around the ports, there was a burr in the intake port which required me to lightly touch it up with my dremel. The biggest problem is the back plate which I'm going to hopefully replace with a stuffer plate (Anyone know where i can find one?). I also surfaced the back of the case for the back plate. Anyway i'm still wrenching on it i'll let ya'll know when it comes the time to run it (Bandit)

You may try Fox Manufacturing, they may have a few laying around still. I don't see any on Ebay at the moment, so your best bet would be Stunthangar or Stuka Stunt.

One of my fellow club members and I made a few backplates from graphite impregnated Delrin. We even made them a pit deeper than the current offering from Fox. We eliminated the need for a gasket by making a o-ring groove on the backplate and we machined the inside of the case to accept this. Currently were trying to see if we can bush the rod on the large end. There's not a lot of material  down there on the rod or the case. The problem is that some Fox's have very little metal around the rear of the case. I've seen many porosity holes that go entirely through the case in the area in and around the backplate ear lugs.  If they didn't take so long to make I would love to see these as a offering.

As for the wrist pin clips, they're most problematic and really should be installed with the piston inside a plastic sandwich bag. I've ruined more than one brand new engine from those stupid clips popping out. We started to use drill rod with the ends drilled to receive end pads.

One thing I should mention, the 40th case has the small ears. These will break after a while just due to normal use. They will instantly break upon ground impact using the stock muffler. There is a solution to this problem however. The older 70's version Fox muffler while still a piece of crap works better than the current offering. It does though wrap around the exhaust stack yielding far more support and sealing. Using 3/16" steel brake line tubing you can JB weld stiffeners from the back of the ear to the face of the exhaust flange. The tubing can be filed off flat with the flange and this provides enough support to prevent the ears from breaking. Ken

Ken Cook wrote:One of my fellow club members and I made a few backplates from graphite impregnated Delrin. We even made them a pit deeper than the current offering from Fox. We eliminated the need for a gasket by making a o-ring groove on the backplate and we machined the inside of the case to accept this. Currently were trying to see if we can bush the rod on the large end. There's not a lot of material  down there on the rod or the case. The problem is that some Fox's have very little metal around the rear of the case. I've seen many porosity holes that go entirely through the case in the area in and around the backplate ear lugs.  If they didn't take so long to make I would love to see these as a offering.

As for the wrist pin clips, they're most problematic and really should be installed with the piston inside a plastic sandwich bag. I've ruined more than one brand new engine from those stupid clips popping out. We started to use drill rod with the ends drilled to receive end pads.

One thing I should mention, the 40th case has the small ears. These will break after a while just due to normal use. They will instantly break upon ground impact using the stock muffler. There is a solution to this problem however. The older 70's version Fox muffler while still a piece of crap works better than the current offering. It does though wrap around the exhaust stack yielding far more support and sealing. Using 3/16" steel brake line tubing you can JB weld stiffeners from the back of the ear to the face of the exhaust flange. The tubing can be filed off flat with the flange and this provides enough support to prevent the ears from breaking. Ken

It would be nice to have an O-ringed back-plate especially made out of billet hmm wonder if my buddy could machine one... might be a project for later. The rod though I agree not much meat there on the big end and I'm kinda supprized on how small the wrist pin is especially the keepers of which I'm still supprised that I found the dang thing when it came out. I've got to have a muffler at my field so I'm going to as you said come up with some sleeves to go between the muffler and the ears keep those ears from breaking off. (Bandit)