Hot and Gooey Looking Head

Marleysky Sat Apr 11, 2015 11:07 pm

This engine came off a Dune Buggy. The head is as dark as the cylinder. The INSIDE of the Glow Head is also a dark brown color. When I removed the glow head there was NO copper gasket.When rermoved from the chassis the engine did have a sliding barrel throttle control, which i removed for the pictures.
What would cause the dark burnt color on the inside of the glow head?
Is it possible to run an engine without a head gasket? If so could that have caused the black gooey build up on the exterior of the cylinder? Or is it possible that the sliding barrel thotttle control directed the exhaust out around the head causing a build up of castor oil residue. The opening which the cylinder protrudes thru the chassis is not discolored.
Got any Ideas as to what would cause this: ??

Hot and Gooey Looking Head Darkhe10

1/2A Nut Sat Apr 11, 2015 11:26 pm

Was this engine inverted on the car? All the running had oil dripping past the exhaust throttle. Do you have a pic prior to pulling it out of the car? No gasket so could help leak.

pkrankow Sat Apr 11, 2015 11:26 pm

I would bet it has 50+ hours on that head, possibly many many MANY more. It that was a spark plug in a car I would say it was running rich and burning oil...Hmm...

No gasket means it was run with low or no nitro fuel. It could have been run on denatured alcohol + drug store castor oil. If you start looking at MSDS for different items Kleen Strip denatured alcohol is 50/50 ethanol/methanol. Crown denatured alcohol is 75% methanol/25% ethanol. These run acceptably well with 25%+ castor through larger engines, and probably would run acceptably through a Cox .049 (although I never tried.) I ran HEET which is 100% methanol, with 25% castor oil, and flew Cox .049 reed engines very nicely.

Phil

GallopingGhostler Sun Apr 12, 2015 12:21 am

Goo is Castor oil glop from running fuel with all Castor oil. Because inside a car, there isn't much air circulation, I imagine that just like a dirty oven, Castor mist and fuel up splashes added up. With engine running extra hot without much air blowing by, it just cooked on.

Ditto with the interior of the engine. Nowadays fuel comes with synthetic mixed with Castor oil, so it helps to keep down the Castor oil varnish on the engine interior.

Slow cooking with 50-50 Antifreeze in a crock pot or coffee percolator in warming mode for a day will help soften and remove that congealed Castor, restore like new looks.

**Cribbs74** Sun Apr 12, 2015 2:56 pm

I think George is on the money.

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