Recent engine acquisitions

A while ago I promised myself to ”kick the habit” of buying engines all the time. It wasn’t too difficult as I don’t do eBay, and it seems I have already accumulated most of the surviving loose Cox engines in Finland

However, there was a deal that an older fellow and I had been haggling on and off for a couple of years... At first our ideas of the price were pretty far away from each other, and I always made the point that ”sure, you will get this or that amount at the bay, but this is what I am willing to pay”. Well, a couple of times he just said ”fine” and that was that.

Now, again, after a year or so of silence, he started pestering me again, with his ”final offer”, and threw in some loose parts. Well, we discussed a little more and he knocked another 10€ off  We made a deal, I think at a fair price. Well, this is what I ended up with:



I don’t have much use for the starter spring sets as they are for hex drive plates, and I only have one 010 Tee Dee that I am not going to fly, so the propellers are sort of extra too. But the stuff I actually bought this lot for is here:



My first bubble-pack engine The Tee Dee looks and feels like new too. Plus an unused diesel head and crank.

Congrats Kari ..That Golden Bee features a thin wall cylinder so must be an early one..is there any Litho mark on the bottom left or right of the backside of the pack? That may indicate the year the engine was made..the TD051 will always feel like new..I tried to overuse one and it outdid me Only I get older but it still works like new..

Very nice score you got there. The Golden Bee is very nice as well as being in the blister pack.

Thanks guys!

Andras, unfortunately there’s no litho Mark or other indication of the date of manufacture. The Golden Bees, Pee Wees and Babe Bees (maybe some others too) came to the store in ”cards” of six, and it looks like mine was the top left based on the other three sides having marks of the perforation, and a white stripe on top edge, part of the ”main label” on top edge. Just my guess. The litho mark was probably on one of the bottom row engines only.

Attached is a picture of a dealer catalog I got from a fellow who once had the chance to visit the factory in 1978 (there’s a date stamp on the catalog, ”JUN 20 1978”). On one page there was a picture of the cards.



Here’s the cover:



They used to sell the RTF models in packs of four to the stores

A piece of history arrived at my door from a German ebayer, a beautiful old-stock TeeDee051 from 1963 - as the litho mark on the bottom of its Manual sheet testifies.



Unfortunately the NV body was cracked, but I have replacements from Mecoa. So because I had to dismantle it anyway, at least I have checked its parts:



Its features include all those 1st generation TeeDee attributes:

1. Thin wall tapered bore cylinder, no flats machined in the top fin for the wrench
2. Piston conrod made of some light alloy and having a oiling hole on its large end
3. Screenless Venturi
4. Unmarked crankcase mounting beam (No #2 cut in it)

The engine is crispy and has never seen fuel. Has a nice, gradually tightening pitch near the TDC, and amazing, bubble-less compression. The shiny  honing crosshatch marks in the cylinder are untouched..

Trying to resist temptation to start it up...have a few similar, but younger 051-s still waiting to be used.

Nice acquisition. Love seeing the craftmanship in these old motors.

Kari - Andras, Congratulations !!, what beautiful pieces they have there, loaded with history. I fully understand what it means to receive those jewels ... I am very happy for you.
Here in my country again you start the strict restrictions to be able to receive from the something interesting, so, I will enjoy what you can get. I also have to entertain myself, but it is always beautiful to be able to conquer some more Cox!
Hugs and again, congratulations !!

Gents, thank you for your nice words. With my DIY method I have filed the flats on the top cylinder fin succesfully, so it is ready for service in one of my RC planes!

....And one beercan later the oldstock thinwall cylinder has been equipped with my DIY exhaust throttle sleeve....seals almost as well as the stock exhaust throttle barrel on a thick wall cylinder...

My  COX related acquisitions from EBAY in past few months



COX Medallion  .15 from Hawaii ( dead glow plug)
COX Medallion  .09 From United Kingdom , great condition
COX Medallion .15 Glow head from France
Cox Medallion .09 Glow Head adapter -std glow plug from exmodelengines EBAY store
Cox .049 glow head gasket x3 from exmodelengines EBAY store
1/4-32UNEF Thread Tap for Cox Medallion .15 dead glowhead conversion to Glow Head adapter

That's enough for 2021.

Hope 2022 will bring some more COX stuff to my mailbox.

Cox a certain truly international engine. Thankfully millions were produced

Me. The last engine I bought in 2021 it is this beautiful defective fatal flaw engine from fredvon4 soon I hope it should come to life soon when I am going to finish making the missing pieces I am slowly making progress
With this first connecting rod I could make it work but I prefer to improve it In order not to risk damaging it, it is a new engine after all ...and i was thinking To make my own little circlip for the piston wrist pin For that too I think I should find better way than cut a loop on a litle spring Anyone have any ideas suggestion advice

I have an idea.
Make it like how Enya did it for their little .049/.06/.08/.10 engines.

Below is a photo of Enya's "Four-part piston"

This photo is of the Enya .06 piston assembly.


You have the piston itself.
Then there is the "cage" that slips into the piston
That cage has a hole in it for the pin and to hold the connecting rod.
The wire ring (.062") is slipped into the piston where there is a small groove it snaps into to lock in the cage.

Here are photos of the Enya .049 piston assembly



With this design, the piston is free to rotate just like the Cox piston.
By the way, the Enya piston is close to the same dimensions as the Cox piston.
Too bad the piston assembly is not available. I think it could work with your engine with a different connecting rod length?

It's not a bad idea but it is this model of piston that should be in this engine, this is what I was going to reproduce as close as possible
Photo borrow from à CEF group member If someone has an engine with this model of piston the measurements of the dimensions could help me a little

This beauty Black Widow has just arrived from a British ebayer. After I cleaned it, the engine  turns out to be crispy new, with shiny piston and honing cross hatches still visible on the cylinder wall. The beryllium reed is intact, showing the engine has never run.




Came with the rubber spinner, aluminum tank and metal backplate that proves it to have been born near 1974 when the BW-s appeared on the market.

(Later produced engines had first the thick wall cylinder with wide exhaust ports, then last production runs with slit cylinders and aluminum spinners with cam and  spring starters, plastic tank and backplate)..

Nice, tight piston to cylinder fit, cannot and do not want to push the piston beyond the TDC.

What is interesting is that unlike the Bee tanks, its venturi does not have the O-ring gasket between the backplate and venturi tip, just a smooth even surface. I cannot resist giving it a bench run sometime soon.

That’s a looker all right. Good catch

Could it be that the o-ring was not installed at the factory, and the engine would not run, eventually ending up unused?

I have a Tee Dee 049 that I received un-run, no box, the seller told he got it for helping out doing inventory at a hobby shop as a kid. The motor was a bit stuck, so I disassembled it to clean and re-lube. The needle felt weird, did not close fully, and I found a small aluminium drill shaving the shape of a spiral wedged inside the NVA body. May have been the reason the engine had never run, and maybe had ended up returned to the store.

Well, I haven’t run that engine either, but other than the thing in the fuel system, I found nothing wrong with it. It’s one of the last, Estes-era engines, with aluminum colour driveplate and NVA.

If there's no o-ring groove then I'd suggest that it was assembled faulty. Not only have I never seen a tanked Cox engine without a venturi seal, I would suggest that the engine hasn't and won't run correctly, if at all. That's most likely why it appears unrun. It WON'T run. Excellent clean and tidy example for display.

Checked it again, Kari....my bad...it actually does have a gasket but it was pressed so flat in the past 48 or so years of storage that it was hardly visible to be a separate material from the venturi tip.

Actually I have a contemporary 74 BW which is fairly used with decent compression, and is a terrific runner...

Oldenginerod wrote:If there's no o-ring groove then I'd suggest that it was assembled faulty.  Not only have I never seen a tanked Cox engine without a venturi seal, I would suggest that the engine hasn't and won't run correctly, if at all.  That's most likely why it appears unrun.  It WON'T run. Excellent clean and tidy example for display.

Just corrected my faulty observation, Rod, it does have a gasket, and will certainly run as well as its contemporary '74 brother I have in my fleet...

Thank you Eric..yes. the black gasket flattened on a black intake tube is not really easy the recognize..anyway, thanks for the idea, if the gasket is defective, I will replace it with a short silicon tube section as you suggest.