Killer Bees, They Look Legit to Me

Nice Killer Bees!!! I pick em up when they come well priced also because you can never have too many Killer Bees.
I like to tinker with them like put a Black Widow tank on.

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There is a date on the cardboard behind the engine. I have found 95 and early 96 to have the proper KB parts

Thanks for the info, guys. I'll have to take them apart again and look at them closer when i can. Am a bit more skeptical of the later-produced silver one. I've heard rumors that some of those were short changed on performance parts, even lacking the HD crank in some cases. I think the seller was being honest in this case and bought each of them new.

Thanks Brad i have a parts engine ni picked up that may bee a killer inside i will have to do some more looking into it .....  

As long as that piston didn't make a hole through the top, keep running it. Just carefully tighten up that joint obviously. I even had one where the hole was through the piston and while the compression was down, once running, it was certainly a terrific engine.

It took me awhile to realize that I had one of the little darlin's packed away.

Case is not anodized and there is no date on the cardboard backing that I can see, didn't take it apart.  Other NIB Cox engines I have are dated on the cardboard though.



Edit add:

This is strange. Cox teamed up with Sterling back in the day?

Every genuine KB I have had has the date either 95 or 96 stamped here in the box.
Ive had 15 or so, i never even unfolded the paper, must be there too.

Bob, Sterling model company burned down in the 90's. Mr Manulkin was the founder and his daughter ran the company when he passed. After the fire, a few years passed when the decision was made to sell the designs. Estes made the purchase and produced a few of the Ringmaster models. Sterling was well gone during these times and essentially was a name of the past. R/C electric cars/trucks were making their debut and there was very little interest in control line anything. The Estes/ Sterling models were quite short lived.

Well, I tore them apart again tonight for a closer look now that I'm all schooled up on KBs. Just as I suspected, the gold one looks legit. The 1995 manufacture date was stamped on the cardboard insert. The piston was indeed the lighter thin-walled version and it has the correct HD crank. Unfortunately, the later-produced silver-cased engine was short changed on the go-fast goods. It has a standard crankshaft and the piston is the common thick-walled version and lacks the copper coating on the underside. It also lacked a manufacture date stamp. I have a KB crank to put in it but as 1/2A Nut mentioned, the piston is a tough find. I know I've seen a thread somewhere about lightening them yourself with a Xacto while turning in a drill press. I might have to look back into it. In the pics, also note that the "Killer Bee .049" graphic on the inserts differ slightly. The smaller text on the right was the original 1995 version.

I still think this engine was assembled, packaged, and sold this way when new, relying on the reputation of the original KBs to sell these newer, cheaper versions. Ya win some. Ya lose some.

Thanks for the info on the Box text i did not know that , One out of two an't all bad at least it can bee fixed and flown like you own it .

Your silver case KB should run fine as a sport engine. Flyers like Nut can wring em out for all their worth and take advantage of the KBs high performance features.
In my opinion. I ran some of my KBs on 25%N and 5" prop and not much performance boost.

crankbndr wrote:Your silver case KB should run fine as a sport engine. Flyers like Nut can wring em out for all their worth and take advantage of the KBs high performance features.
In my opinion. I ran some of my KBs on 25%N and 5" prop and not much performance boost.

That's true. In my case, to be honest, I'm just a sport flyer. I fly average 1/2A sport planes at less than supersonc speeds and usually use factory Cox props on them. At 25k, the reedies can wear out pretty quickly or at least need frequent ball socket clearance checks. My Skydrill is now flying very nicely on a reedie I set up with a KB crank, KB backplate, TD head, and a Cox International Tee Dee cylinder/piston that is actually a Surestart cylinder with modded porting and exhaust which provides SPI. The performance of that engine is "just right" for my sport flying needs and I figure the silver Killer Bee I just aquired will probably be very similar in it's performance. The only disappointment is that I already had some more of those KB cranks, KB backplates, and TD piston/cylinder sets in my box for future build-ups of stock reedies. I could have gone that route cheaper than what I spent on the "genuine" later-produced Cox version of the KB. It's all good. I have another cool engine in the collection, another chapter of Cox history in the box that my kids will have no interest in when I'm long gone.

Here's my Skydrill flying on that engine with 25% nitro. Works just fine for me!
https://youtu.be/bQ5d1tC22eg

Troy those are the real mccoy!

TB its not that hard to get rid of i needed ,, try ebay. i feel your disappointment

Sorry I came off as whining. I'm OK with the purchase of the KBs. I knew that the later ones weren't up to par with the originals. Heck, Mr. Sitter didn't even mention the later model KBs in his book. I guess that should say something about them. I've paid more for less many times in this hobby. For instance, I paid somewhat dearly(to me, at least) for a TD .15 MKII Special since I wanted one for many years. It was loose without the original box and had some use on it with a few scratches which kept most of the collectors away. It turned over smoothly with good strong compression. After months of admiring it on the shelf, I finally tinkered with it this weekend only to discover that the piston had a broken skirt with a significant piece missing from it. Bummer! I have probably aquired the majority of my Cox engines from ebay over the years but have been taken for a ride a number of times along the way. It's all par for the course, I guess. Without avenues such as ebay, it would be much harder for us to aquire the stuff we enjoy so much.

I need to stop fiddling with all these little engines and get serious about checking out batteries, ironing down loose covering edges, and other chores to prepare for the trip to SMALL which is a little over a month away. Can't wait to see the gang there and spend another great weekend flying Cox engined models.

Troy do you still have your td .15? Ronald Valentine can make you 1 very easy. I purchased about 70% of parts of a Conquest 40 from Ron Young that hadn't even been machined. I sent them to Ronald Valentine a couple years ago and he is finally near completion and I'm very excited. It sport the Perry carb and the rear attaching muffler like it's lil brother Conquest 15. Hope you get to feeling better, happy flying.

Interesting option! Thanks for the heads up.

As a point of reference for info almost no one would ever want or need to know.....
Today, I weighed a brand new Killer Bee .051 piston and rod ( two rings on bottom of piston skirt) and a brand new TD .051 piston and rod ( one ring on bottom of piston skirt ).
The Killer Bee unit weighed 3.0 grams and the TD unit weighed 3.5 grams.
Both were brand new from the Cox inventory...
For what it's worth to anybody.......

Steve..............

Invaluable info for those crazy enough to tinker with such foolish things.