New Cub from EBay

Your mystery piece is a "dishpan" washer used at crankcase-cylinder joint in lieu of the standard copper washer. The are common on plastic tanked A models and any Bs that were used on Comet RTFs. They deflect exhaust heat away from nearby plastic parts. The also make for a more efficient exhaust port prime. I like 'em.

It's an exhaust deflector it was probably in a Comet plane of some sort it replaced the cylinder/crankcase gasket. TJ

As you now have learned the hard way, never attempt to unscrew a Cub cylinder until piston will move up and down. If crankcase does not have two nice intake passages then that needs to addressed before investing too much in this unit.

Thanks guys. Now, if one was to be looking for one, I do not know the exact size at the moment, nor do I know the diameter of the one pictured, I think I still may have a few of these..... It looks exactly like a lock cylinder cover from a Dodge car door lock. While typing this, it appears that GM uses one similar too.

https://www.lockpicks.com/gm-caps-c-321166.html

Yeah I don't like breaking parts but I'm not going to lose too much sleep over this one , I'd be ticked though if the rod cost more then 2 bucks ! I actually had written off the cylinder and was thinking about putting a glow head cylinder set on it, but the piston & cylinder cleaned up a lot better than I thought they would. TJ

Tico, do you think OK made a needle that long from the factory or do think it's home made it looks to be one piece of brass from the handle right to the tip of the needle ? TJ

It's aftermarket. Perfect, Kap-Pak or Austin Craft.

Glad you asked that as I was wondering the same thing. But I wated to take a peek at mine first to see if there was a provision for an extension before asking. I had never known that there were 'aftremarket' parts available for the OK Cubs.

Hey Yak 9. As you have now learned, patience is really a virtue. Lots of advice here for you to help you along with your Cub engine. I was wondering if the A engine you are showing, has the pressed in aluminum fuel tubing at the tank flange, or a hole for the fuel tube at the tank flange? If it has the pressed in aluminum fuel tube, the engine could be of the later run from say, 1962 up til production ceased in 1964. Although the older design of the B engine and the A for the matter with the screw in head and glow plug are good engines of their time. The latter from 1961 to the end of production run in 1964 that have the glow head, like the Cox engines, are the more rare, but more powerful engine over the older design to seek out. The few that were produced after the shut down of production that have the white see through fuel tank are all the better yet. I have taken apart all but a couple of my Cub engines, only after a 24 hour soak in a small crock pot with antifreeze at the low temperature setting. Just about all of the old castor gum that seizes the engine will have dissolved, and the breakage of these old parts is minimized, when carefully taken apart. If you have need to remove the spray bar from these engines, always remove from the threaded needle side pointing up and drive it down, while supporting the opposite side (fuel inlet) inside with a 1/4 by 1/4 drive socket. The socket is placed against the venturi with the fuel inlet of the spray bar inside of the 1/4 socket for support, while the bottom of the socket is flat against a metal plate or vice. I have made a flat head nail that just slides inside of the spray bar to keep from crushing the needle threads. You only need to tap with a very lightly with small hammer to break the spray bar loose and to drive it down and out. Notice the orientation of the holes in the spray bar as you will re-install it with the holes in the same direction, that being just so you can barely see the both of them. The reason the spray bar is removed by driving it from the threaded needle end, is that the needle end is of a slightly smaller diameter and that the opposite end, the fuel end, is of a larger diameter, to hold the spray bar in the venturi. To drive the spray bar from the fuel inlet side, will damage both the venturi support holes for the spray bar. Good luck with your great OK Cub engine. Remember, its old school fuel and oil. I run no less than 26% oil, and use 25% nitro for sport flying. Good luck and good flying.

Hey Eddy, the fuel line hole is smaller than my other 2 A's but the line is gone this one has a glow plug head on it , I have another A with a glow head & a B with one too. I got my first A about 35 years ago on a hand me down little toot biplane, the tank screw holes were drilled out and it was screwed to the firewall and it used a little perfect tank, it was a twitchy little plane but a lot of fun, unfortunately it met it's end on a bottomed out loop on asphalt. Ted
at OK rebuilt it for me last year with a new case & tank I've bench run it a little bit and I am going to get another little toot kit for it. I have a bunch of Cub's and have flown a few of them but my 35 year old wizard test plane is getting replaced by a new Skyray the wizard has more epoxy on it than balsa but it's time for it to retire . TJ

Good Information Guys !

I been a mechanic for a living since 1986, but I sure don't know everything, I enjoy being a "semi" old dog that can still learn new tricks thanks for sharing your knowledge with me, I thoroughly am enjoying my second go around with Model planes & their engines. When I was a kid we were just happy to be able to fly out a full tank since we knew nothing about trim or balance or props all we knew how to do was set the needle to scream on a black widow they must have been tough as nails because all mine still run. I like the relaxed run style of the cubs more now and don't want to spin that fast anymore TJ

Hi again Yak 9. Your early days of flying are similar to mine and the guys I flew with. We had no one to teach us at all, and if one of us got to run a tank of fuel out, and keep the plane level in flight without crashing, we did good. Not only learning to how to fly was hard, but the understanding of the engine was something else. My first plane was a Christmas gift in 1957 that was a plastic ready to fly model of the Little Stinker, with an .020. First flight was it's last, and bent the inverted .020 cylinder. One of the guys that I flew with, knew of a couple of older men that flew .35 size planes. It was at a school yard that we watched them fly. I think the older one was named Lyman, and the other was either his son or nephew. The younger one was early 20's maybe, cause he drove a car. The younger one flew a Veco plane of some kind that had flaps, maybe the Chief, along with an OK Cub .29 or .35 engine. He was so good at flying, and made it look so easy. He would actually lay down on the grass, on his back, while doing all kinds of stunts. That was the summer that the 4 or 5 of us really got the bug to learn u-control. I had a paper route then, and bought a new Cub .049 B engine, as it was cheaper than the A engine, and a Scientific Stunt Master kit. I have been flying ever since. Today I belong to a small u-control club called, the Smoke Rings. We, ( 9 of us ) have our own field to fly at, along with a cement circle to fly 52 and 60 ft. lines from, along with a smaller grassy circle to fly 1/2 A planes as well. Thanks for your story, you jogged my memory, those were really fun days back then. Best of good fortune with your flying.

I like tinkering with the little guys, the stuff I normally work on requires a crane.

Well I did it again , I bought three more engines off EBay a McCoy stunt .29 , a Cub .049, and a cub .074., he accepted my offer and they were local so I picked them up and saved the shipping charges as well.

The .049A is different than my others as it's set up for direct firewall mounting with only 2 holes bored in it instead of the 4 for tank mounting and no fuel line hole.

The .074 has a scary looking aluminum prop on it that looks very accurately made I'm not sure if it's homemade but it also is a pusher prop or a left hand prop, looks like a real finger biter !

Deleted double post

While we're talking about recent acquitions, I just picked up these for $10 plus $12 postage.

Veco .19s. All three have venturi cracks, but I didn't have one, so for $10 I thought "why not"?

For combined postage I also nabbed this K&B (Torpedo) .40 for the same $$.  I have a couple of parts engines so I'll see what I can do with it.

The darn things are addicting aren't they.

YakNine wrote:The darn things are addicting aren't they.

You don't know the half of it

Hi Mr. nine. Your new .049 A engine has me wondering, as I've for the life of me, have not come across the likes of that. I couldn't even begin to guess about it. A couple things I noticed, the extended needle, the back plate does have the ring and bolt hole for the small fuel tank that some of the B engines came with. With the 2 other missing holes that would hold the red fuel tank, and they were omitted being drilled and tapped at the factory, for a reason, and who knows? It would be interesting to look back at the history of the engine. The .074, if it has a serial number, would date it along with the add on fuel tank as an early model, say from the very early 50's. The aluminum fuel tank was a standard order from the factory right up till closing. I have some .074 engines, and they are quite the powerhouse with a 6x3 or 4 prop, depending what you mount them on. I have an original P.D.Q. Baby Clown, with the 24 in. wing span, and have a Cub .074 mounted, and it is an absolute hoot to fly on 42 ft lines. The .074 and the .099 for sure, are loud and noise engines. I wouldn't even think about using that aluminum prop.

Eddy, Agreed on the little meat cleaver of a prop, I think its destined to live on a hook on the pegboard behind my work bench. How large of a fuel tank do you have on your Baby Clown, that's one of the planes i'm considering, I am also looking at a couple of Pat King's 1/2 A designs for my .074's. My brother in law and I were in the same 4-H model plane club and we are having a blast reliving our child hood and teaching my little nephew to fly control line, multiple Skyrays are under construction as we speak, I am coming back to 1/2 A because the planes are quick to build, a lot cheaper, and I can do it in my back yard. I'm a member of the Garden State Circle Burners, but we recently lost our flying field so for now its back yard flying like the old days. TJ