Torpedo .29

No plan on mounting it other than on my test stand. I only use all-castor fuel anyway so that's not a problem.
I know how hard it is to find parts for some of these old engines, so with everything in place on this example I was certainly tempted to make a bid, with surprisingly little competition. Do you know the approximate year of this example? Is it pre Green head or is the green just worn off?
Quite happy with this one. Will sit nicely in the collection once cleaned and test run. Adds to my Torpedo collection, including Torp Jr. .035, Green Head .15 and a couple of .40s.

Just a further comment re. missing parts, I once spotted a McCoy .35 on ebay without the prop driver. It's a pretty common thing to see them missing from the McCoys. As it happens, the seller had another listing with a heap of bits & pieces, and sitting amongst them was what looked like the missing drive washer. I contacted him and he corrected the listing to include the washer just in time for me to nab it. Nice when that happens.

Well this engine arrived today. Looks pretty good apart from a bit of wear in the bushing. The end of the shaft rocks up & down a fair bit. I'll pull it apart & see how it looks. I may be able to get it bushed. Compression feels really good.
As I asked in my last post, should this have a green head or is it originally plain? There is no evidence of green paint at all, but I may see something when I lift the head off. The head has a small "29" stamped on the front, so that leads me to believe it wasn't painted originally.
I may just try to fire it up before I dismantle it & see how she runs.

Oldenginerod wrote: As I asked in my last post, should this have a green head or is it originally plain?  There is no evidence of green paint at all, but I may see something when I lift the head off.  The head has a small "29" stamped on the front, so that leads me to believe it wasn't painted originally.  
I may just try to fire it up before I dismantle it & see how she runs.

When K&B went to the green head they also went to the four-bolt back plate...except, I believe, the .29. If I remember correctly, K&B held off on the .29 because they had an abundance of parts to use up so they updated the .29 three bolt with a green head. With that in mind, it could be either way.

Enjoy your engine.

George

I have a engine just like it with no green paint on the head. I believe this was the norm around 1956.

I got this message from the seller.

"A bit of history about the engine. It was owned by Bill Booth, USA SAM President from 1996-2000. Bill was an accomplished FF guy. He was also one of the longest serving club newsletter editors ever. He did the newsletter for the Fresno (California) Gas Model Club for more than 50 years. He was a nice guy, and good friend of mine for more than 30 years. He passed a couple of years back, and I am selling off his engines for the family. Treat that Torpedo well."

Oldenginerod wrote:I got this message from the seller.

"A bit of history about the engine. It was owned by Bill Booth, USA SAM President from 1996-2000. Bill was an accomplished FF guy. He was also one of the longest serving club newsletter editors ever. He did the newsletter for the Fresno (California) Gas Model Club for more than 50 years. He was a nice guy, and good friend of mine for more than 30 years. He passed a couple of years back, and I am selling off his engines for the family. Treat that Torpedo well."

So you have a treasure, from a treasure.

George

I read that and is Cool As Cool can bee , its always a wonder where these engines have been before wee get them

Yeah, it's nice to have some history attached to an engine.  While I don't know a lot about Bill Booth, he'd obviously been in the game for a long time & was well respected.  Sounds like he was mainly into FF but I would think an engine like this would have been a little large for most FF projects.  I may be wrong. I frequently am.
If anyone can fill in some gaps about the gentleman that would be good.  Sort of feels like I now have some responsibility for the engine.
I gave it a cook-up in AF and a scrub with a brass wire brush which has brought it up nice.  Pulled the backplate to dry out the innards and all looks good there.  Just the movement in the crank that concerns me.  
(No, not the rotational movement )

Rod.

When I got into modeling in the early/mid fifties I think the FF classes were 1/2A - up to .05, A - .051-.20, B - .201-.30, C - .301-.40 (I think), D - above.401 (I think). In about 1956 they added the FAI class - .15.
Some engines were created in .051, .201, .31 size to allow one to compete in two classes with the same model just by switching engines, With the sizes so closely matched you usually would not need to change flight trim.
Sorry if some of these are wrong, it's from memory 60+ years ago and I was not into FF.

George

You'll see on my other post & got the Fox 40 back together.  While getting pictures of that & also snapped a few of the Torpedo.  Yet to mount them up for a test run.





Obviously not the original backplate screws, so I'll need to neaten them up.  I also have to get myself some more gun blue to  re-do the black steel parts.

Looks Good !! Rod could this bee the guy appears he is from your neck of the woods http://aeromodelismovolarlibremente.blogspot.com/2009/07/busy-bee-de-bill-booth-pee-wee-30.html

As stated in my Fox resto thread, I used some spare time today to try out my latest clean-ups. I had a slight panic when I mounted up the Torpedo as the needle was missing. It took quite a bit of scrounging around but I managed to find it where it had fallen into a box of parts.
The compression isn't stellar and it didn't want to fire on a hand flick. The starter got her moving but it would do nothing but burn off the prime, even with the needle screwed right out. I stuck a piece of fuel tubing over the needle and that worked ok, but it still needed to be cranked out a long way. All in all it ran pretty well. I probably had it propped a little heavy, so I should look up what it should run & give it another try. My tach had a flat battery (like always) so I couldn't get an RPM reading, but that doesn't matter. As long as it runs ok I'm happy.

You got her going ! I know about those missing needles they can really throw you into a spin on these older engines were you just don't have another lying around . What prop were you using ? I would think 9x3-4 would work fine 10x4 to much for the old timer > Eric

I've got some 9x4 and 9x5 Plasticote Grish props if you'd like to try them.
I think this is the engine on the Cal Smith Shoestring Scale/Stunt design plans from about 1949 or '50.
Chris...

stuntflyr wrote:I've got some 9x4 and 9x5 Plasticote Grish props if you'd like to try them.
I think this is the engine on the Cal Smith Shoestring Scale/Stunt design plans from about 1949 or '50.
Chris...

Thanks Chris. I'm sure I've got the size I need if I just took the time to look. The point of the exercise was to get it looking nice and just getting it to run, which it did fine. It won't be flown. I'd like to try it again with an appropriate size prop and a tach that works, just so I know.
If I get back into flying larger than 1/2A I have a good selection of other more common engines to use, mainly Enyas.
Thanks for the clue about the age. I wasn't sure.

Rod.