Fuel Q

[sargan]

Noobie here ..

Couple of questions on Fuel to educate myself.

If we take a 20% Nitro fuel, if I follow this is a high energy 2-stroke fuel... that is 20% Nitromethane, 18% syntheic oil.
The remainder (62%) being Methanol.


My engine .. TT RL53 states to run on a richer oil mix for initial running in, richer by how much ? ... increasing oil to 25%, 30% ?


Secondly as a beginner once I have put my build together, do I run it on 12% Nitro .... the Optifuel web site suggests that is what should be used for beginners learning to fly Helis.
Swapping to 20% once I am able able to move on from circuits. (which may be some time )

[Eckchaz]

Running richer means putting more fuel through it.. the carb needles will dictate how much fuel gets into the engine. Your right, stick with 12% until you start to do more adventerous stuff!.. also saves you some pennies

EDIT: To Clarify, On OS (not sure about RL53) we start to bed in the engine with the carb needle 2 turns out from fully closed.. the 2 turns out is running "rich".. idle on a few tanks at 2 turns out and then start to "lean" out the engine by closing 2 clicks at a time inwards, when taking it into a hover and onwards.. so effectively, your now getting leaner. You should end up around 1 1/2 turns out from totally closed. The extra 1/2 turn out from optimum settings is your "richer" running in period

[derrick]

[waveydavey]

Run the 53 with 20%, a tad rich. Read the manual you get with the engine as the 53 is a bit different to OS in the way that it tunes, or doesn't. Make sure you use push/pull with the throttle servo and be gentle with it. What pipe are you expecting to run with it? I would suggest the high flow TT one. This engine needs to breathe and the carb isn't the best at allowing it to do this.

[sargan]

Running richer means putting more fuel through it..

Thanks for your comments .. but I did mean richer oil mix.

(I do understand your comments about richer carb mix)

The TT RL 53 manual states that it should run on 20% oil during normal use, but 25% oil should be used during breaking in period.
Just wondering how much extra oil people put in mix in practise ?

Optifuel seems to use less oil than they recommend at only 18%.

Interestingly TT don't seem to like synthetic oil, as they state it is much less tolerant of lean run compared to a castor oil mix.

[pgkevet]

I wish i understood 2-stroke oil theory...It;s not just percentage it's oil type too.
Rapicon fuels are 23% oil as example compared to the optifule 18%. Folk seem to have moved away from castor oil but 'just engines' on their website make a simple statement that 'no engine has ever been destroyed by castor oil' and they even suggest pure medical grade castor oil from a phamacist as consideration for a 1% top-up...but then they are probably referring to plank engines.

I like their other comment that 'It's a lot easier to decoke an engine than to rebuild it' On the other hand most plank engines don't have rings and rings can get stuck..<sigh>

[davie]

just run in the engine rich no need to add extra oil when you are running rich you will see plenty of smoke and oil dripping out the exhaust as it cant burn all of it so there is entirely no need to add anything to your fuel , run ritch for a few tanks then start to lean off over the next few tanks ,, or if your like me one tank rich then hunt the power down over the next 2 tanks never had a engine fail this way and my tt53 is 4 years old and still runs nice with plenty of power on opti 20