Glowplugboy fuel is back!

I am interested!

If you need another beta tester, I'll take one, a pint will be fine if you bottle it in that quantity. I frequently fly a 1/2A plane to tune up for my pattern flying. I don't remember if Mike made 20% or 25% nitromethane. I generally use 25 and 35. His castor was 17% and we usually added some oil to balance it. Personally I'd top it off with synthetic now that I've learned the benefits of an oil blend.
Thanks, and good luck.
Rusty

Wow, that was fast. Thanks for the responses!

I don't remember if Mike made 20% or 25% nitromethane. I generally use 25 and 35. His castor was 17% and we usually added some oil to balance it.

His formula is 24% nitro, 17% castor.

If there is a consensus on a castor/synthetic mix, I would be willing to entertain a blend like that as well.
Has pure castor mix fallen out of favor? I think I could offer two mixes, a pure castor and castor/synthetic mix.

Rusty, yea I think a pint will be better amount for experimenting, but that said I'll send three test samples of a pint instead of two.

So... OVERLORD , P-40 Warhawk, and RknRusty send me your address via PM.

-FTZ

Hey Fitz, I have some thoughts on the oil blend and nitro content. I'll get back in here tonight when I can compose a thoughtful reply. Others can as well. Not surprisingly, we do differ on opinions around here about some of the details.

Fitz, sorry for the slow response, it just came when I was concentrating on my larger stunters.
Rusty

I was a pure castor proponent when I turned my hobby up to full speed a few years ago, after having it as a back burner hobby since I was a kid. That's when I found Glowplugboy. It was the most consistent and dependable fuel I'd ever used. I was very sad when Mike passed away at such an early age. I'm happy to see his friends carrying on his business. Do you guys fly at the Johnson Space Center? Any control liners out there with you? That's my sport, fun fast 1/2A and CLPA, aka PAMPA Stunt.

Later, after being introduced to the 50/50 castor/synthetic blend, I realized I wasn't getting the heavy varnish buildup that usually followed breaking in Cox engines. The castor still builds a beneficial coating of varnish, but the synthetic component keeps it from continuing to cake on after a certain point. Enough castor in a blended fuel evidently still is expelled with the exhaust, or else we'd be having over heating problems, because the castor carries out a large amount of heat with it. That's one of the important heat regulators.

I'm pretty sure Sig Champion, a commonly accepted benchmark for glow fuel, mixes half Klotz Benol castor, and half Klotz Original Techniplate synthetic to use as their 20% oil content. The red colored Techniplate is probably why Sig's fuel is pink. I have used their Champion 10(nitro)/20(oil) blend in my stunt engines too, even the steel Fox 35s with great results. Unfortunately after looking at the Klotzlube.com website, they may not be offering single quarts online any more. But motorcycle racing shops may sell small quantities.

Those are my thoughts on blended oil. I'll try and likely buy whatever you put on the market, and if I feel better adding a few % of extra oil content, it's not a problem. In the 100F degree heat in June through September, I would really like to see at least 20% oil.

My personal preference for 1/2A is 25% and 35% nitro, each with 20%(50/50 blend) oil.
Pardon my rambling. I'm curious to see how many have other ideas, so speak your minds, CEF members.

And thanks for taking interest and asking our opinions.
PM on the way.
Rusty

Rusty,

Thanks for the honest input. I understand there will be lots of opinions.

My thoughts are that I would like to pretty much stick to Mike's original castor only offering as well as also offer one or two castor/syn mixes. I know I can't please everyone, but if I can get a good compromise we can start there.

So far from responses (public and private) I have requests for:

- all castor (17-20%)
- 18/2 castor/syn
- 50/50 castor/syn
- 25 - 45% nitro

Hey, look. Three different blends for three different people. Hmm....

Thinking out loud, I'm a little reluctant to to offer 50/50 simply because there are already brands that sell that (I'm not saying I won't make it, just that I'd like to be different).

Those who I've selected for testing. You want the original blend, or a castor/syn to test?

Do you guys fly at the Johnson Space Center? Any control liners out there with you? That's my sport, fun fast 1/2A and CLPA, aka PAMPA Stunt.

Yes, I flew with Mike at the Johnson club (I still fly there). No regular control liners at our club, but there is a fairly active CL group on the other side of town (Scobee field).

I'm pretty sure Sig Champion, a commonly accepted benchmark for glow fuel, mixes half Klotz Benol castor, and half Klotz Original Techniplate synthetic to use as their 20% oil content.

I have both the Benol and Techniplate on hand.

My personal preference for 1/2A is 25% and 35% nitro, each with 20%(50/50 blend) oil.
Pardon my rambling. I'm curious to see how many have other ideas, so speak your minds, CEF members.

Nitro content is another part of the equation. I maybe could do a separate sport and performance blend. Note that Nitro the most expensive component in the formula.

-FTZ

Hi Fitz,

Thank you very much. I can't find any 1/2A fuel over here. Even castor oïl is only known by the older generation!. The fuel I use for Cox engines I mix myself. I bought a can of Dynaglo 25 which contains 8% synthetic and 2% castor oïl. I then add 10% of pure castor oïl to each quantity I use.

http://www.pb-modelisme.com/Moteur/nitroEngine/detailfuel.php?prod=13

I Wonder if you could find a way to export your fuel to this side of the ocean. In France, there is SCIENTIFIC FRANCE, who imports Dumas and Guillows kits, Topflite, Midwest... They also have CL kits for sale as the ARF Flite Streak and others.

http://www.scientific-mhd.eu/modelisme/recherche/articles-pieces-0.htm

I wish you good luck with this new start and welcome to the forum.

Lieven

FitzFuels wrote:Hey, look. Three different blends for three different people. Hmm....

Thinking out loud, I'm a little reluctant to to offer 50/50 simply because there are already brands that sell that (I'm not saying I won't make it, just that I'd like to be different).

Those who I've selected for testing. You want the original blend, or a castor/syn to test?

I'll take whatever you feel is the most sensible mixture to make. Mike's juice ran very well and consistent, but I always topped off his 17% oil to bring it up to 20%. But sometimes the pharmacy castor didn't mix very well.

It makes sense that you want to offer something different from Sig and the new Hobbico fuel. If your oil content is anywhere between 50% and 100% castor, then I'll run it. I do believe adding some portion of modern synthetic oil aids lubrication and controls varnish accumulation.
Rusty

More good stuff from you guys. As always, thanks.
I'll mix up some samples and send them out later this week.

I pulled an old TD .049 out of retirement (I'm pretty sure I hadn't run it since the '90s). It runs on stuff I mixed up, but I think it needs major overhauling. You guys recommend a good thread for reviving old abused motors?

OVERLORD wrote:Hi Fitz,

Thank you very much. I can't find any 1/2A fuel over here. Even castor oïl is only known by the older generation!.

Bonjour!
I remember reading that in WWI, castor was used for lubricating the engines and that much of it leaked out (or was part of the engine design's total loss system). Some was ingested by the pilot giving him the "runs" constantly.

OVERLORD wrote:
I Wonder if you could find a way to export your fuel to this side of the ocean. In France, there is SCIENTIFIC FRANCE, who imports Dumas and Guillows kits, Topflite, Midwest... They also have CL kits for sale as the ARF Flite Streak and others.

Shipping flammable liquids overseas is a major hurdle (shipping companies tend to not like to put it on airplanes).
I'll do some research on it, but it will probably take some time, if it can be done practically.

I'll take whatever you feel is the most sensible mixture to make. Mike's juice ran very well and consistent, but I always topped off his 17% oil to bring it up to 20%. But sometimes the pharmacy castor didn't mix very well.

It makes sense that you want to offer something different from Sig and the new Hobbico fuel. If your oil content is anywhere between 50% and 100% castor, then I'll run it. I do believe adding some portion of modern synthetic oil aids lubrication and controls varnish accumulation.

I think I'll always keep a high castor content.
I'm leaning towards tweaking Mike's formula to up the oil (castor) to 20% and maybe 25% nitro. Any objections?

-FTZ

Nah, no objections from me. I think with Cox engines, varnish is mostly only an issue after break-in runs and the first flying season of its life, than any other time. And we all know how to deal with that. Besides, that's the same time the piston rod ball socket usually needs checking for excess play, and possibly resetting, so it has to come apart anyway. Leroy Cox actually used 18% castor and 2% of something back them called Dow Lube XA-1180-6 in his three formulas. I'd bet anything that Techniplate is far superior to his Dow additive of that era.

It was also made in 15% and 30% with the same oil content.

FitzFuels wrote:

OVERLORD wrote:
I Wonder if you could find a way to export your fuel to this side of the ocean. In France, there is SCIENTIFIC FRANCE, who imports Dumas and Guillows kits, Topflite, Midwest... They also have CL kits for sale as the ARF Flite Streak and others.

Shipping flammable liquids overseas is a major hurdle (shipping companies tend to not like to put it on airplanes).
I'll do some research on it, but it will probably take some time, if it can be done practically.

-FTZ

Hi Fitz,

Commercial goods generally don't travel by airplane but by container. "Dangerous" cargo is transported by container daily all over the world. And Cox fuel was exported all over the world too. So there must be a way. The question is if there would be sufficient demand.

Lieven

I got my test fuel in the mail last week. It is 35% nitro and 18/2 oil, mainly castor with 2% Klotz synth.
I'll be using it in my Tee Dees and Norvels, and report back with my results.
Thanks Fitz.

Has any one got around to running this fuel ?

I was wondering that too. Is there a website with pricing? A web store? Something?

Phil

I have flown several flights on my Tee Dee 049 Li'l Satan. I need to get on the ball so I can post a report. I appreciate being given the rest fuel, 35% nitro. After next weekend I'll have more time for 1/2A and I can really wring it out and see how it works. So far it appears to work very well.
Rusty

COOL !! hope its smelly HOTT !!

I'd be willing to outright buy a few quarts (whatever it takes to mitigate the HAZMAT fees).  There's gonna be an explosion of 1/2A flying up on the hill once these Scientific Hollow Logs start coming off the table.

Small Business Supporter Kim

FitzFuels wrote:Hey, look. Three different blends for three different people. Hmm....

You ask 20 people and you'll probably have 20 different blends.  LOL  You know how we are.  

For me, I'd like 25% nitro with 20% oil castor/synthetic 50/50. But I don't fly a whole lot and I'm mostly a round and rounder with Sure Starts. As far as I know, I don't need high nitro, but I'm not real picky and I'm currently flying with some Morgan helicopter fuel that I think is 30% nitro and I dumped some castor in it, how much I don't remember. And it's so old, it's a god aweful color, but it seems to be running fine. Whatever the overall consensus is, that'd be fine with me. And I'd rather buy from the "little guy" than buy the Cox fuel from Tower.... nothing against Tower, but that's how I roll.

Hey Fitz
The 35% nitro you sent me runs great in my Norvel Big Mig and AME .061s. Also have run it a few times in one Tee Dee .049. We'll call it a successful test batch. Looks good.
Thanks,
Rusty