Thaba Raptor

My Feedback: (2)

Hi Guys, I want all your Saito "nitro heads" opinion on this:....
What weight warbird will you fly on a Saito Fa 170 R3.

I bought a Fa-170 for a YT/ESM/KMP FW-190. it is rated for a 120 to 150 four stroke but some guys feel that they think the Saito Radial will not have enough power to fly the 17 lbs plane with authority.

What fuel and prop (2 blade and 3 blade would you recommend) I fly at an altitude of 1200 mamsl

Thanx in advancefor all your replies.

Thaba Raptor

balsaeater

Only 1.5 gallons fuel through the engine so needs more running in I think


Here is a vidio and mild crash into a high weed which I clipped when flying on my 4th final flight of the day ( excuses for expletives issued so you have been warned very bad lingo for the sensitive types but damage is very minor due to strong head wind ) using my Saito 180 on a APC 18*6 with a Graupner Ultimate biplane meant for the 120 4 stroke

I adore the way the ~10lb 54 inch plane must follow the 18 inch prop and makes low level in your face in very high wind flying condititions possible without falling from the sky in the down wind legs

The beeping is the primary batterry has switched out and forced the secondary to take over which triggers alarm beeping sound requiring a hasty landing (I suspect voltage drops in 4 cell CP1700 nicads trying to enter the hover mode working the control sufaces hardest and there is a strong wind ~15 to ~20mph )

The issue is the running of the engine with 5% nitro 18% synthetic (15% EDL 3% klots )

First flight required 2.5 turn to run correctly on the ground
However in flight it was very close to quiting so aborted the flight early

Second and third flight opening the fuel tap to 4 turns which seemed to make engine burble a bit on the ground but work ok in the air and did a two of 15 minute flight with lots of acro and alarm triggered on third flight so recharged the primary batterry

All flight would trigger a heart sinking very uneven run at take off but would be ok in the air once airbourne

My preference is to fly slow as possible and am working on getting the best grunt at the 20% to 40% gas with WOT just for punch out

Any way to make this engine much much more quite( I can take a 20% drop in power if necessary to get a 50% drop in noise levels as I have gobs of power to spare ) as this is just to noisy for the nearer fields to me ( It is a very quite engine compared to my MVVS 26cc with tuned pipe that flew the bipe before ) as you will see in the vidio I mostly at less than 1/4 gas and rarely exceed half gas and this field is unfriendly field if the engine quits and you land off the (piste )Runway so any hush pipes let me know
( later I need to work on a gas curve for best spread in the 1/5th gas to 1/2 gas region as its a bit grabby now on linear and the RC mc24 has 8 point curve to play with )


Tank is 20oz with fuel consumption on ~1/3 gas about ~0.75 onz per minute so average flights can often in good conditions be ~20minutes with ~5 minutes reserve

Engine cover is left off until all the gremlins are worked out

Color of craft is very different from original kit from a off field landing mishap fix and recover and the LHS didn't have ordinary red in stock so now its metalic red

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VscZjmCD_20

Balsaeater

mike109

G'day SAito lovers all. I've just spend a pleasant afternoon playing with my latest Saito. It is a 90R3 radial and is an absolute gem. I built a test stand out of some particle board, fitted a tank and mounted the engine. As the engine has three glow plugs, I used three separate glow drivers to light the plugs and a standard 12 volt electric starter. I have not yet tried to flick start it. I used some 10% nitro fuel with 20% oil (5% castor). I set the high speed needle (HSN) as specified in the instructions, set the throttle at about 1/3 and applied the starter. She burst almost instantly into life. I adjusted the throttle to give about 5000 rpm and ran it for a few minutes while briefly testing the lower ranges. After only a couple of minutes, the engine would idle at 2000rpm with the plugs disconnected.

This is an amazing engine. The sound has to be heard to be believed. And the low idle is so stable even though the engine has had a few minutes running. It is going into a Hanger 9 Sopwith Camel.

I will post some tacho data once she is run in.

blw

My Feedback: (3)

That is going to be a heavy model for the 170 R3, imo. You can count on the engine to put out the same power as a 1.20 4 stroke when running at peak condition. The Kondor website lists the model as needing a 1.50 4 stroke.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Mikester, here is my .90 triple turning a Graupner 12x7 at the numbers on the tach. You're right, the idle is something to behold.

bawls

oof. First Poncini Hobbies, then Hobby Warehouse fibbed to me! They claim to have these Saito parts in stock, get my $ and then... tell me otherwise, and I patiently wait for the refunds...

Meanwhile,

SAI90TS40 Pushrod Cover w/Rub Seal:LL
and
SAI200TI39 Pushrod: VV

are impossible to purchase in the free world!

woe is me

Shubova

My Feedback: (9)

bawls,
Sorry, this may sound like a dumb question...have you tried Horizon Hobby? (http://www.horizonhobby.com) Since they are the main distributor for Saito I thought they would have a good stock of parts. Maybe I’m wrong I have never rebuilt a Saito.
Good Luck,
Shubova
[8D]

airborne14830

I have a saito 100 and is wondering if this engine has enough power to fly my 11 pound skybolt biplane? At the present it is tacking at 9300 rpms, with 15% cool power MV.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

It will fly the plane but the performance will be more scale like.

airborne14830

thanks W8ye,

I will give it a shot, but i am looking for more of an aerobatic type plane. Alos, I will be using a 14X8 prop. What is your recommendation for the right engine size?

bawls

Horizon is out of stock too....

I'd pay shipping clear from Japan! but cannot find any Japanese sites that have the things.

If I had technical drawings of all the engines, I bet I could find pushrods that would work, and sleeves too. Alas.

This is an issue I shall remember when it's time to buy my next 4-stroke.

Can you blame me?

balsaeater

have you tried my source for Saito (through LHS agent ) aeronaut.de in germany

http://www.aero-naut.net/355.html?&L=1

this is what they claim
"
Mr. Gen Saito (founder) and aero-naut have started a successful cooperation which made aero-naut an exclusive importer for Germany.

This was the reason to built-up an own service department for SAITO engines having most of the spare parts in stock.
" ( end quote from site http://www.aero-naut.net)

Often shipping costs from Japanese sites can be interestingly low and often as fast when they use Japan postal service( often half the interpostal costs seen in the USA ) instead of using the international more costly outfits like DHL or similar







also others exist

this one is in the UK but postal prices from UK are often horrific often more than double the German prices so you would want to be really desperate to order from the UK

http://www.macgregor.co.uk/saito/saito_spares.htm


http://www.topmodel.fr/

http://www.topmodel.fr/product_detai...2a5cc4&id=5735

This shop " www.TOPMODEL.FR " I know well and is reliable but international postal might be with DHL or similar ( internal french postal charges are reasonable )but the shop owner speaks english well so email and phone questions should be solved easily

Hope some of these links locate the missing spare parts you need


Balsaeater

mike109

G'day Hobbsy. I was out running the little R3 again today. More Bliss. I am really amazed at the transition of this engine which is far from run in and its amazingly stable idle at 2000 rpm. I notice you have set up a three into one glow driver setup. What do you actually use to drive the three plugs? I have been using three separate plug drivers. I wondered if I could get away with driving all three with four parallel connected sub-c nicads. I guess if each plug draws between 2 and 3 amperes then the total current draw would be at most about 9 amperes which should be well within the capability of four parallel connected 1.7mAh cells. That gives a total capacity of about 5.1 Ah and so should be able to supply 10 amperes for about half an hour. That should be more than enough for a large number of starts given that this engine starts very easily. I will probably eventually lash out on some sort of on board glow driver but for the moment, I just want to use existing resources. Then again, there is plenty of room inside the Sopwith Camel for a few nicads and a switch. Bye for now. Mike from Oz.

bawls

I found them in the UK
1 x SAI200TI39 Push-rod (pair) £2.95.
1 x SAI90TS40 Push-rod Cover and Seals (pair) £3.95.

Not really sure how much that is, but it appears to be more than it cost here.

I am trying to be patient until the slow-boat hits the shores....

Shubova

My Feedback: (9)

bawls.
Here is currency converter web site http://www.xe.com/ucc/
From what I can see 2.75 UK is 5.90 US and 3.75 UK is 7.90 US.
Try is yourself to make sure.
Shubova
[8D]

captinjohn

Is there any good data in this thread about converting a 1.50 Saito to run on gas? Thanks Capt,n

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

It has been mentioned a couple times about converting a Saito but not necessarily a 150.

Typical points are the higher heat involved

Less power but less cost of fuel

More sensitive needles on the carb.

The fact that you cannot run 50:1 oil because of the rod and the inability of the crank pin to stand up with needle bearings running on it.

The Gas-Glow situation has also been mentioned

rustypep

My Feedback: (6)

Anyone have any feedback yet on the Saito 115. I saw one at the hobby shop last weekend and haven't see any posts on it lately. I am getting ready to do the engine selection on a 9-10 lb Spit and the shorter case is appealing.

stallwart

Stay tuned for Hobbsy's report. I think he has a 115 on the way.

On The Patch!

No one? Please, Please, Please...

Shubova

My Feedback: (9)

Hi,
Just curious...what's everyone using for glow plugs? The manual is recommending the Saito SS SAIP 400S or the Hanger 9 Four-cycle Super plug HAN3011. What do you think?
Shubova
[8D]

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

In addition to the plugs you mentioned I use the OS "F" plug

Capt Lou

I have had good results with the OS Type F glow plug. I have found them to be dependable and last for a long time. You will probably get many different opinions in response to your question, as this is like asking the question what is the best fuel for your Saito.

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

Mike, I use the 4,400 MA Hobbico Super Starter.

Stall, I've been gone for a couple of days and the 1.15 arrived Tuesday, here are a couple of pics. The big wide nut on the exhaust is half sleeve and half threaded on the inside. The muffler has the engine size stamped into the end, the camera would not pick up the size. I'll run it in about an hour and report back. I got it to show up.

bawls

Very nice..

What are the exhaust fittings diameter? 12mm or 13mm?