Setting Up, Operating and Maintaining Model Aircraft Engines

Having a reliable power system in your model airplane is critical to your fun if not the aircraft's health.  The power system should be dependable, consistent and provide years of service with little maintenance or tinkering.

The average sport airplane is designed to have the engine and tank installed as ideally as possible while providing good access to the engine for maintenance.

These pages should help you avoid confusion as to what you need, what you do not need and to dispel some myths.  Hopefully this information will get you on the right track by helping you avoid problems or wasting money.

I e-mailed Clarence Lee, the Engine Clinic columnist for Radio Control Modeler magazine, and asked if he would use some of his valuable time to read over these pages to ensure the information I am providing is correct.  He replied with excellent feedback that I have included in sidebars on the appropriate pages.

The following pages give specific information about engine mounting, propellers, spinners, throttle linkages, fuel tanks, lines, fuel and air filters, hand starting or using an electric starter and general maintenance suggestions.

In this series

• Types of Model Aircraft Engines
• Mounting an Engine
• Setting up a Throttle Linkage
• Propellers
• Spinners
• Fuel Systems
• Assembling a Fuel Tank
• Installing a Fuel Tank
• Glow Fuel
• Starting and Running an Engine
• Setting the Mixture Controls
• Breaking-in an Engine
• Cleaning and Maintaining an Engine
• Disassembling an Engine
• Disassembling a Carburetor
• Assembling a Carburetor
• Make a Backplate Gasket
• Assembling an Engine

Also see

• Mail and Frequently Asked Questions about Engines

What you do not need to buy

If you are new to this hobby then I can save you some money right off the bat.  You will get a lot of recommendations of things to buy.  If anyone suggests you buy any of the following items then hold off on these purchases for now.

You may decide you want some of these items later, but for now they are not needed.  In fact, I have been running model airplane engines for over 30 years and have not had a need for any of these things in that entire time.

• Hobby Industry "After run oil"

  It costs much more per ounce than Marvel Mystery Oil (which is what I think it really is anyway).  Marvel Mystery Oil is a 2-cycle engine oil that can be purchased from a variety of places such as Wal-Mart.  Buy a quart and put some in a small plastic squeeze bottle.  More on after run oil later.

  Some art stores carry small plastic squeeze bottles with stainless steel tubes that are great for dispensing oil.  I bought several of these bottles to use in my shop with oils and other fluids.

  To avoid confusion, you should use an after-run oil in your engine to prevent rust.  But you can purchase it much more economically than in tiny bottles.

• Center Marking Gadgets

  The problem is not finding the center of the mounting holes for an engine.  The problem is getting around the muffler area where there is not a straight shot at the holes.  The center marking things do not solve this problem.

  Advertisements always show the gadget being used on the non-muffler side of the engine.  Generally the gadget is something like a pointy stick.  Any modeler can make a pointy stick if they want one badly enough.  Like I said, they don't solve the problem though.

  Also see

  • Mounting a Model Aircraft Engine — A practical solution that works.

• Commercial Chemical Engine Cleaning Solutions

  Read the Engine Maintenance page for an excellent method of cleaning your engines.

• Compression Gauges

  Unless you are reworking your engines, what's the point?

• Engine Temperature Gauges

  Learn to set you engine properly and listen to it.  You can see and hear if it is running properly or if it is over-heating.  Engines also give off a distinctive smell of cooked oil when they are running too hot.

• Tachometers

  I have never owned one because I do not try to squeeze every last RPM out of my engines.  The best way to choose a propeller is by observing how the plane flies and choosing the one that suits the plane the best.  Knowing the numbers doesn't change this.

Back to Information Source
Airfield Models Home

Copyright © 2003-2007 Paul K. Johnson