Druff1

I'm sure this has been asked before, but is it worth the hassle to buy a cheap weed wacker and strip it down, or just buy a motor specificly made for a plane? I'm asking because i need a gasser for a new plane. My dad bought me a 96" Low Wing Stick for X-mas. I want to put like a 30cc on it.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

The weed whacker is a pride of accomplishment deal. Some people do it with little expenditure and others go all out.

Do you feel capable of converting one? We can help you in the engine conversions area but you will need some mechanical skills.

RC Extreme power

My Feedback: (24)

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_92/tt.htm

Milton

buck1856

My Feedback: (49)

Ive been doing conversions for over a year now and besides being fun you have a sense of real accomplishment when ya go to the field and tell you can say your plane is flying on a weedie or saw motor.especially when ya say ryobi,echo,stihl,ect that everyone knows already.plus there cheap if ya find the engine at yard sales ect,but make sure they at least try to start.you could put a 30cc homlite or even a poulan 42cc on that stick.both are easy conversions and conversion parts are easy to come by.I believe av8tor just put a twin on his stick.maybe he will chime in.brillelli engines can fix ya up with poulan parts.heres a pic of my 24cc echo on left and a 28cc stihl on right.

shaunmichaeljohnson

yeah go for it!!!
much cheaper even if you buy everything like i have to.
you see i don't get loads of people throwing out stuff like that here, i live in a town of scroungers so everyone keeps stuff.

but i bought myself a good quallity weedie 28cc (unknown brand) for $100 and it has been GREAT!!!
relaible, light, needed a new carb but some of these new ones do if you want as little more oomph.
shaun

klykera

can someone tell me who. or where u can find all the stuff 2 convert a weedeater motor. cdi. muffler. backplate. all the stuff at one place? and what happened 2 carr prec. where did they go. Ive been out of this 4 a while and they just dissapered.thanks kelly

captinjohn

klykera: Hang in there...some person will find the data you want. I can check more also tomorrow. Capt,n

shaunmichaeljohnson

try www.wackerengines.com
shaun

buck1856

My Feedback: (49)

wackerengines.com
jagengines.com
carrprecision.com
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...1071/ryobi.htm
what ever model youd like to try just use the search function in this forum on the bottom of page.just about every weedie or saw engine has somthing posted about it.I was on carrs and jags site 2 nights ago.If your looking for one already converted shoot me a pm.If you have an engine already and just need parts,check out any one of these 3
rcignitions.com-------assorted,almost all
chignitions.com-------poulan,ryobi,homelite,McCulloch.these are from his product brochure i have.
brillelli.com--------poulan,echo

klykera

Thanks. I am looking for some imfo. on weedeater brand. 18 and 21 cc featherlite. I find a lot on other stuff just not them. I want 2 put the 18cc in my 94" telemaster.

rangerfredbob

My Feedback: (13)

one of my next projects will be the 18cc on gas/glow and seeing what kind of power I can get out of it, there isn't much out there on that engine on a conversion standpoint since it's not the lightest or most powerful engine, but that might change on gas/glow, there's mention of one in the gas/glow thread, but they apparently never got started on it.

I have one of the 18cc engines with prop and stock tank and stock ignition and it's just under 4 pounds, it has to be lighter after you get rid of the stock ignition and just have a glow adapter in (I just made one for it today), I'll check out what the weight of it is after the ignition is removed and with a glow adapter ready to run, probably have that info within the hour...

ready to run on glow is around 2 pounds 7 ounces without any aluminum removal, which is probably another couple ounces, if you really tried you could get it close to 2 pounds, I'll work on it oveer the next couple weeks, see where I get...

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

I believe aeronut did one of these and felt it turned out ok. The ports are quite small originally, but I believe aeronut ported one and ran it on Gas/Glow, and was happy with it. You might try a pm to him. I don't think he monitors the forum all the time...

As a reference though, the little Echo 21 to 25cc engines on Gas/Glow weigh about the same, and have a lot more power. I realize they are a bit harder to find though.

AV8TOR

rangerfredbob

My Feedback: (13)

I'll contact him when I look more into it. this engine probably needs a new ring

I messed around with some pliers and got rid of any material I could in about 30 minutes and it's 2 pounds 3.5oz, still need to take the choke off, and I could probably shave another oz off... the only thing I need to do is make a new prop adapter to account for the taper and get a glow plug

rangerfredbob

My Feedback: (13)

I'm down to 2 pounds 3 oz, and probably a little less. last time I was into that engine I don't remember noticing that the ports are about the size of a normal nitro .46...

it also turns out that the piston/jug are scored in a couple spots, which would explain some of the low compression... I'll clean them up a bit and see where it gets me, makes me worry less about screwing it up porting it... do you think this thing would benefit more from increased port size or duration? or both? the exhaust port seems to take about as much room as it has available width wize, but could go up without a problem, the intake could be a lot wider and still be fine and could go down without problem, the transfer ports look decent, but didn't check out their timing...

AA5BY

I think the original and subsequent questions have been well answered... my addition is simply another personal perspective.

I did one conversion of a John Deer weed whacker. I did all of the conversion including the mount, prop hub, cleaning up the flywheel, and even milled out an exhaust stack from bar aluminum. I have a nice metal lathe and basic milling machine. I stayed with the magneto and mated it to a Phaeton 90 that has over 1500 inches of wing. The Phaeton was on someones short list of models that will work with a conversion, having enough wing area to handle the poorer power to weight ratio of a conversion.

It was a satisfying experience to do the conversion with total cost a carb kit for around $12. The plane flies realistically as an older era biplane and will pull loops if not too large. Total fuel burn for a flight is no more than 4 oz so the plane is very cheap to fly and it really does pretty take offs and landings and has great ground handling manners so is a very fun plane to do touch and goes.

The motor is far too heavy and low powered to provide any measure of performance. Top rpms are around 7400 with a 15-8 MAS whereas I've a Zenoah G-20 that is a lighter motor and turns a 16-6 APC prop at 9,000... for a far superior power to weight ratio. Of course, the engine cost $350 more. The conversion also must be started by an electric starter whereas the G-20 hands starts very easily.

A conversion can be fun... keep perspective on the performance window though.

Ralphbf

My Feedback: (27)

The real trick is choosing the right engine.

Basicly chainsaws are the higher performing engines.
Ebay has lots of stuff fairly reasonable.
I like the Echo CS-300 series. It goes to CS-306.
A good place to start looking is small engine repair shops.
I've got stuff for free and I've paid up to $20.00 for an engine.

The other thing to concider is, How much nose weight do you need?

I hate to add more than a couple of ounces to a plane for balance.

My CS-300 weighs in at 3lbs. 14oz, ready to fly on gas glow. With the flywheel.
It balances my Ultrs Stick perfectly as is so I left the flywheel on.

In short find how much weight you need and then find the right motor.

Right now I'm puting a 25cc Toro on a 60 size Great Planes Tiger Moth.
This should be an interesting combo, and my first Bi-Plane.

Length: 60" [1,524mm]
Weight: 10.25 lbs [4,592g]
Wingspan: 71" [1,803.4mm]
Wing Area: 1360 sq in [8,840 sq cm]
Wing Loading: 17.35 oz/sq ft [485.5 g/sq cm]
Radio: 4-ch (5 servos)
Engine: .61 two-stroke, .91 four-stroke [10cc 2-stroke, 15cc 4-stroke]

Believe it or not, it needed no extra weight for balast.
I moved the battery and receiver just behind the pilot
and it all worker out.

Here are some picture right after the final check.

Druff1

Well i went and ordered a BCMA 40. I figured since its my first gasser, it will give me a good idea on what i need to do to convert my homelite chainsaw.

JWQ500RC

My Feedback: (2)

OK I'm really a rookie at this. I've no gasser experience. I have a Sears 25cc weed wacker engine I'd like to try to convert. I need all the help I can get. Where do I start?

Thanks
Jim

Ralphbf

My Feedback: (27)

Actually it probally has a Ryobi engine in it.

They are at the lower end of the horsepower scale with low potential for improvement.

I recommend an Echo 23.6cc or a Homelite 33cc to start with.

Try a small engine repair shop. Sometimes the are free some times just a few bucks.

Both engines I described are good strong engines with a strong following.

The Ryobi does convert, there are conversion parts available.
But it will always be a Ryobi.

JWQ500RC

My Feedback: (2)

Ralphbf

I dismanteled the weedwacker this afternoon. It doesn't look good the back plate is part of the plastic cover and the mag and flywheel are very large. I think I'll try your suggestion and see a small engine shop. Thank you

Jim

Ralphbf

My Feedback: (27)

At a local shop here I got about 12 engines at once.

The headge trimmer engine works well also.
Just offer to bring back any parts the shop is interested in keeping.

Also the dozen donuts I brought back went over well also.

rangerfredbob

My Feedback: (13)

a sears 25cc trimmer would be a poulan 25cc, it has a decent following, the plastic back plate issue isn't much of an issue if you have some tin snips (or hack saw, or any other form of destruction to get it down to size), pretty much all the flywheels are the same size, that engine is about as good as most of them, of course the echo's are better, but they're harder to find... I have well over 20 engines in my posession and haven't paid more than $25 for any of them (and only two at that price, one 52cc and one 46cc, both on ebay, the rest were $8 or under)

JWQ500RC

My Feedback: (2)

I'll try tp post a picture of the flywheel and front of the engine. Any suggestions after that would be great.

Thnaks
Jim

rangerfredbob

My Feedback: (13)

go here, scroll down about halfway down the page and you'll see a kit for the poulan 25cc engine, or you can make the parts if you have the tools. other than that just start pulling stuff apart and cutting it until it looks like a plane engine and have fun

JWQ500RC

My Feedback: (2)

That looks like what I've got. I'll give them a call tomorrow.

Thank You Ranger

Jim