3W-100 Looking for some advice

[thurmma]

I agree with Bunky, fuel it, check for leaks and fire it up. The only thing I would do is pull the needles and clean them off. Chances are they have gunk around the tips and will cause you grief trying to start it. I have a 150 that hadn't ran in 3 years and after pulling the needles and cleaning them, the engine ran fine. I did eventually need to replace the ignition, but that was just due to the age of the engine and the fact that I wanted to run a lipo straight without a regulator. Good luck!

 

[Bartman]

Send it to Gerhard... he'll go through it, do a carb job and you'll be good to go. Very reasonable and he does a great job.

I think I'm going to give him a call and then take a drive over to his shop. Having never been there before maybe I'll wrangle him into posing for a few photos and I'll post them back here.

Bart

 

[Bartman]

I agree with Bunky, fuel it, check for leaks and fire it up. The only thing I would do is pull the needles and clean them off. Chances are they have gunk around the tips and will cause you grief trying to start it. I have a 150 that hadn't ran in 3 years and after pulling the needles and cleaning them, the engine ran fine. I did eventually need to replace the ignition, but that was just due to the age of the engine and the fact that I wanted to run a lipo straight without a regulator. Good luck!

sometimes it works out doing this and sometimes it doesn't. reading through that Walbro carb service manual makes it clear there are a lot of tiny little details in a carb that can give you grief and so why kill what could end up being hours tinkering when you could just hunker down, fix it right the first time and know it's all back to 100%. If it hadn't been sitting for so long I'd probably just go fly it but
A. the plane is big and cost some real money so I don't want to crash it
and 2. the plane is big and cost some real money so I don't want to crash it!

 

[stangflyer]

For what it's worth Bart, been watching your videos and you're no noobie to all this r/c stuff. You're gonna do just fine. As it has been mentioned, just look things over real well. An engine is an engine is an engine. By this I mean, it really would not matter if a motor was sitting for three days or three years. As long as it is not in the harsh environments, and had decent storing properties in place... About the only thing you will need to worry about is gaskets hardening and a carb that could be a little "JUNKED" up. But that is totally dependent on storage time. Completely easy and for me, relaxing Saturday afternoon with a beer by my side project. A shot of compressed air goes a long way. Just be very careful of those tiny little components inside the carb. Put some gas to it, choke it...flip it, unchoke it and see what happens. You'll get a pretty good idea in very short order.

 

[Bartman]

thanks for the suggestions. has anyone ever tried putting some carb cleaner in their gas mix like what we put in our cars' gas tanks? the STP stuff or something similar?

 

[stangflyer]

thanks for the suggestions. has anyone ever tried putting some carb cleaner in their gas mix like what we put in our cars' gas tanks? the STP stuff or something similar?

Not sure if it is really even necessary. There really is not enough of a benefit of STP or like items to even warrant the cost of them. In fact, a good ole washing out of the carb if dirty, using quality gasoline with good filters in place go a long-long way.

 

[Bartman]

thought it might help to clean out any residue that might be in a carb that has been sitting.
i'll take a look at it next week, haven't had any time to work on it this past week. i'm comfortable taking the carb apart and following all of the guidelines in the Walbro service manual, i can pull the jugs and see if there's wear or not, just haven't had time and it can be a time-suck if something gets screwed up.
Tom from BME serviced that 102 that I have for sale in the classifieds, he charged me $125 and it was probably the best way to get started with a good used engine. good as new for half the price!

 

[dhal22]

Gerhard's service is awesome and inexpensive. And he will spend a good amount of time on the phone if needed. I love his service.

 

[TiredOldMan]

It's got a DA ignition which looks relatively new so the ignition leads and caps are in good shape. I'll have to pull the lower cowl off to get to everything else.

Thanks for the info, I'll have to give it a good look and we'll go from there!

Oh my, you managed to get your hands on an old Mako Shark UAV engine. They started out using 3w ignitions but the desert heat turned out to be a little to much for them to handle. Around the middle of 2005 some testing was done and a decision was made to incorporate the DA ignition for improved reliability. A bunch of those engines got snuck out the door a little before the Mako program reached its end. Some of the employees had pretty low ethics standards.

It's a good engine and what has been covered above is pretty much all there is to making it good as long as the bearings and rings are ok. It's a lot stronger than many give it credit for. It was used to fly a 100lb+ high drag airplane Have Gerhard check the numbers, the 106 was used as well in that aircraft but it was till being called a "100". You may have more than you thought you did.

 

[Bartman]

whaaa??? i haven't looked at it since I brought it home but now I"ll have to get back on it and see what it is! thanks T.O.M!