Newbie and Brown Jr

Hi, all. I’m new here and could use a bit of help. Started control line in the ‘50’s to about ‘64. Then RC in the ‘80’s and back to CL last year. Recently came across an estate sale and picked up a lot of engines—which of course, I know very little about. Several green head K & B Torpedoes, Cox, Spitfire and Spitzy engines. There was a diesel and a number of pulse jet (mostly Dyna Jet) engines. Most intriguing was a Brown Jr ignition engine on a wooden mount with tank and what appears to be a capacitor. Engine won’t turn over by hand and I haven’t tried to force it. I suspect it’s gummed up from residual castor. Any ideas about displacement, prop, spare parts and getting it to turn. Oh yeah, what to use for fuel. I have 90 octane ethanol free gasoline in my area if that’s a good choice and is the oil mixed in with the fuel as in current glo engines?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Nova Joe

Joe, I'm no expert on ignition engines but I fly with the experts who know them. In fact today we had the bench set up for running ignition sparkers. The Brown Jr I believe is a .60. From what I have gathered, you can run a ignition engine on glow with a glow plug and glow fuel. You can also run a ignition on glow fuel using the ignition. You need to be careful though if the engine has it's own thimble like tank as some of these can melt if you use glow fuels. Most of the guys in our club who run spark ignition prefer to run on glow due to the reliability. Unfortunately, the engine runs are shorter on glow over gas. When running on glow you don't run R/C fuel but high quality full castor fuel which is increasingly becoming more difficult to source unless you mix your own.

           Walmart sells a fuel for stoves called Crown Stove fuel and on the can itself it says white gas camp fuel, Walmart also sells a oil called Super Tech 2 stroke oil. I've been informed that while there's many options to use, these two items have been superior for ignition engines. We recently had a Old Time Stunt contest and many spark ignition engines were present using these Walmart items.

         Your engine will free up if you heat it with a heat gun and put some oil in it. I like to use trans fluid due to thin viscosity and detergents within it which will immediately free things up. Once it's free with the plug removed, flush it out with fresh fuel and continuous flips prior to putting the plug in and firing her up. Keep in mind that you will need to probably clean the points carefully and insure gap. A prop size like a 13x6 is a good start preferably a wood prop. You tube probably even has videos for starting or maybe have them running. Ken