WEN-MAC STORY

rsv1cox wrote:First flip starting?  15 second start from mount to fuel?  I once cranked on one of the little darlings for a half hour becoming so frustrated that I almost did a Wen hurl even before I knew of a Fox hurl.

Seriously, immediately thereafter I found a Cox Babe Bee which thankfully started right off renewing my faith in glow engines.  

Bob

Amclaussen wrote:

rsv1cox wrote:First flip starting?  15 second start from mount to fuel?  I once cranked on one of the little darlings for a half hour becoming so frustrated that I almost did a Wen hurl even before I knew of a Fox hurl.

Seriously, immediately thereafter I found a Cox Babe Bee which thankfully started right off renewing my faith in glow engines.  

Bob

ABSOLUTELY!  A dear uncle bought me a Wen-Mac 049 powered control-line, kind of "Jet" when I was seven years old, a beautiful plane that had swept back wingswith wing-tip tanks and a triangular shaped stabilizer, tricycle landing gear and a canopy.  (BTW:Someone knows it's name?). One day my dear father decided it was time to "Break-in the engine", so he took a good reading at the instruction sheet... Perhaps too good, as the damn little engine refused to start for a good full couple of hours of futile attempts!  As it happened; at our high altitude of 7,350 ft asl here in Mexico City,  resulted in a wrong needle valve setting (I don't remember exactly, as I was under 7 years old and it was around 1962!), but probably the instructions dictated something like "three and a half turns open", but at that "golden" setting the engine was too rich and never started.  some days latter, my father took me to a local Hobby Shop (that was like being in Heaven!), where an experienced gentleman was able to get it perfectly running in less than three minutes... it happened that the "instructions sheet, like most printed materials of that era, in a probable attempt to show "how easy" it was, lacked any indications about both a flooded engine or a too lean one... and the needle setting was quite critical and had to be adjusted between two and two and a quarter turns only, and VERY carefully adjusted to max the RPMs.    

In a sharp contrast, my neighbor received a Cox olive green P-51B model with a Cox product engine, and even in our too inexpert hands, we were able to get it running after less than half an hour without any help from our older relatives. As it seems, the Reed Valve of the Cox engines was easier to start than any Wen-Mac or rotary valve Tee Dees or Medallions ever were!

rsv1cox wrote:

Amclaussen wrote:

rsv1cox wrote:First flip starting?  15 second start from mount to fuel?  I once cranked on one of the little darlings for a half hour becoming so frustrated that I almost did a Wen hurl even before I knew of a Fox hurl.

Seriously, immediately thereafter I found a Cox Babe Bee which thankfully started right off renewing my faith in glow engines.  

Bob

ABSOLUTELY!  A dear uncle bought me a Wen-Mac 049 powered control-line, kind of "Jet" when I was seven years old, a beautiful plane that had swept back wingswith wing-tip tanks and a triangular shaped stabilizer, tricycle landing gear and a canopy.  (BTW:Someone knows it's name?). One day my dear father decided it was time to "Break-in the engine", so he took a good reading at the instruction sheet... Perhaps too good, as the damn little engine refused to start for a good full couple of hours of futile attempts!  As it happened; at our high altitude of 7,350 ft asl here in Mexico City,  resulted in a wrong needle valve setting (I don't remember exactly, as I was under 7 years old and it was around 1962!), but probably the instructions dictated something like "three and a half turns open", but at that "golden" setting the engine was too rich and never started.  some days latter, my father took me to a local Hobby Shop (that was like being in Heaven!), where an experienced gentleman was able to get it perfectly running in less than three minutes... it happened that the "instructions sheet, like most printed materials of that era, in a probable attempt to show "how easy" it was, lacked any indications about both a flooded engine or a too lean one... and the needle setting was quite critical and had to be adjusted between two and two and a quarter turns only, and VERY carefully adjusted to max the RPMs.    

In a sharp contrast, my neighbor received a Cox olive green P-51B model with a Cox product engine, and even in our too inexpert hands, we were able to get it running after less than half an hour without any help from our older relatives. As it seems, the Reed Valve of the Cox engines was easier to start than any Wen-Mac or rotary valve Tee Dees or Medallions ever were!

Hey amc, I don't know whether to welcome you, or ask - where ya been.  Join 2017 with 2 posts.  

Funny, I have rotary valve engines that start right off Testors etc. yet some that never will, same compressions and NV settings.  

7,350 feet is up there, we are at a mere 1400 feet here in West Virginia.  

Don't stay away so long.