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Model Technics by Optifuel. Availability update


Jon H
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Just picked up a box of 4 gallons from Modelshop Leeds which had been awaiting collection for a week or more as the main culprit has succumbed to the Wuhan Flu.   He has an inline twin in an Acrowot triple-X-L and because it sounds and goes so well, he hammers it and keeps running low on fuel.

 

There’s an excellent Cream documentary on Eye-Sky so I can’t be bothered to check but I’m sure MSL deliver fuel very reasonably.   Talk nicely to them and they’ll get most things for you.

 

BTC

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 07/03/2022 at 09:57, Jon - Laser Engines said:

Standard Laser 5 should now be available from Optifuel. 

 

Laser 5 v2 and the low oil Laser 5 pro v2 will be in production this month i hope. 

 

We are changing the oil from ML70 to klotz for ease of manufacture for opti

Two gallons of standard Laser 5 couriered from Leeds Model Shop and arrived this morning. Does look rather green! Don't know about the odour of the 'new' fuel, never found it objectionable in the past but as my sense of smell has declined to next to nothing after a dose of covid (now mostly recovered from all the other symptoms), I'm unable to comment on the new. I'm sure it'll be fine.

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I had chat with Model Shop Leeds before I brought the new low oil blend which I shared with Ron. All the Low oil content 'Laser 05 Pro' that MSLeeds have in stock is the new pinky/red colour using the new 7% recipe. Then as Jon said the standard full oil content wont turn pink/red until Opi have used up all the ML70 oil they have. Also worth noting you now get a full 5 litres not 4.55 Excellent service from MSLeeds.

IMG-1607.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Used up the last of my old MT Laser Pro fuel today and went straight onto the new concoction from Opti. Boy has it messed up the settings on my 200 FT! Prior to the new fuel it was running perfect, nice steady idle and good pick up. Changed to the new fuel and tweaked mixture as per Jon’s suggestion above. During flight it started to backfire after full throttle followed by rapid closing of throttle so back to the pits and went through tuning process again nice steady tickover and good transition to full throttle. Next flight one cylinder cut out after a stall turn so landed and retuned with even leaner mixture. Tickover nice and steady with good transition, taxied out to runway, one cylinder dropped out had the glow stick with me so got it firing again and took off. 5 minutes into the flight had a dead stick. Back in the pits started it up but could not get the throttle cut to kill the engine as I’ve run out of mechanical adjustment on throttle pushrod so on kill it was happily turning over at about 200 rpm, had to pinch the fuel line to stop it. Gave up at that point as it needed the wings taken off (WWXL so 2 sets of wings!) so that I can adjust pushrod.

 

Such a shame as it was running so sweet - got to go through the same with the 160 and 200 in-line twins ?

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1 hour ago, Ron Gray said:

I will get it sorted, just a warning to others when they change!

Thanks Ron I will bear you comments in mind and try the Eurobat FT200 on the new fuel before I transplant the engine into the Balsa USA Cub. The Eurobat to some extent is far more expendable than the cub and I suspect much easier to repair in the event of an unplanned arrival. The Eurobat is a absolute pleasure to fly, sounds great where as the Cub is still breaking me in (I really do not like 2 stokes).

 

I am still running the 70 and 100 twins on the std MT fuel as they seem easier to set them up than the MT lower oil fuel, so again I will put off that task until the world runs out of STD Laser MT and I have to go across to pink stuff. I will go with the Dual Ace first and give it a jolly good thrashing before going onto the prize models with the pink stuff.

 

All in all I expect it will be a case of just retuning and setting up the once and then the usual one of tweak on the day of flying.

 

Would be interested on what you intend to do with your Tigercat from a fuel basis (fellow Tigercat owner).

 

PS - sure Jon will be happy with your fuel consumption and must say I find the FT200 very economic per flight.

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I only flew the Mustang once today and that was also on the new fuel. Not sure if it was that but it was a pita to start as it only wanted to run on 1 cylinder (rear) but eventually got it started. On low throttle out from pits to runway but in the strong winds we had today it wouldn't hold a straight line (tailwheel had come loose so was castoring) so I got someone to hold the tail whist I throttled it up but when I did that there was a lot of smoke coming from the engine until it cleared so I'm thinking it was running rich (new fuel). Anyway with its tail held and me applying half throttle it was good to go and took off OK but did seem a bit down on performance. I will have to take the cowl off and re-tune it either at home or up at the field.

 

Tigercat has had the dust swept off it and is due to take to the air again very soon but that will also be on the new fuel so cowl x 2 to come off complete with baffles to get at the slow run needles. Maybe I should just dedicate a day to tuning some of the Laser engines, but there's so many to do it will probably take a week!

 

Agree with you about the fuel consumption of the 200 FT!

 

Oh yes, lost the alloy spinner off the WWXL mid flight, the holding bolt had sheared. Didn't realise it until I went to fire it up again!

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9 hours ago, Ron Gray said:

Oh yes, lost the alloy spinner off the WWXL mid flight, the holding bolt had sheared. Didn't realise it until I went to fire it up again!

 

Interesting! Haven't tried the new OptiLaser fuel yet, some in stock ready but a couple of pints of old MT Laser pro to finish yet.

A couple of weeks ago, flying the AcrowotXL with Laser 200i Twin, lost the alloy spinner mid flight, the holding bolt had sheared. Didn't realise it until I was back in the pits!

Bolt was 5mm HT Allen cap!

 

Steve.

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Slightly surprised by the tuning troubles after changing fuels as i have not experienced anything like it. The tuning is markedly different, but i have not had issues finding it. 

 

The new 200i will be set for the new fuel as that it what i ran it on here on the bench. So that is one you do not have to touch beyond the usual tweak to suit the model. 

 

Regarding spinner bolts i have had a few let go in recent years and decided to swap all of my other ones out for new ones. I am going to do this every year from now on i think as those spinners arent cheap!  

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Thanks Jon

 

My problems with the 200 FT were compounded by the fact that I couldn’t get the throttle cut to work as I ran out of pushrod end travel on the Tx, that will need altering now that’s it’s on the bench. My one cylinder cutting out is down to that one still running too rich, evidence of which was the underside of the fuse - very mucky! But it does boil down to what you said, the tuning is not slightly different, it is a lot different, (I thought you were exaggerating!!!).

 

New spinner bolts all round on ‘older’ models then.

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So I too am going pink soon, as nearly out of the bluey stuff. Iirc both main needles and slow run needles will need leaning. That’s a cowl off at home task for my two warbirds. About how much of a turn do you think the slow run needle will need? I signed up to fly the Sea Fury at Woodspring, so I better be sure to have the 360 back on song as I will be nervous enough flying in front of a crowd for the first time.

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Jon said, and it’s my experience of the 200 FT, that the slow run may need up to a full turn in (leaner) with correspond tweak to top end. So far my 200 FT has about ½ turn and it’s not enough! Going to have a go with the twin 160Vs in the Tigercat on Monday!

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Well my 180 powered Stampe needed some work as it was weeping a lot of fuel last time out and had two dead sticks. I had thought it was a failure of the filler valve, but once I had the cowl off to my amazement it was a tiny hole in the front of the tank. It had slid forward and rested against the exhaust which obviously had melted the plastic to make a tiny hole.  Fortunately I had a spare, albeit 2oz bigger, so slotted that in and made up a clip to keep it there. 

As the cowl was off it seemed a good time to set the engine up on the pink stuff, since the slow run needle was accessible. I wound it in 3/4 of a turn and tried to start her up. No dice, so I put it back half a turn and she fired up. Once warmed and the plug power off I had a fast tick over but any effort to reduce the revs resulted in an immediate cut. By the time I had a reliable tick over and responsive pick up I am pretty sure the leaning of the slow run was 1/4 of a turn from the prior setting. After the recent high winds here calmer days are forecast next week so will see if all is good in the air. 

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