What is the right glow plug for your engine?

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Timbo Whalen said:
Pricing on raw materials- platinum, iridium, and rhodium- has went through the roof, post Covid.

We've been using Al's Rossi plugs....supposedly, there were some sealing issues but we've not encountered that as of yet.

We short heat cycle them prior to use.

Looking forward to trying these newer plugs from him.

Sure wish Al would come out with a line of decent carburetors, too.
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I finished a heat race with my twin that was losing a glow plug seal… came across the finish line with a 4” flame shooting out of the plug!!!! then POP!! 🤣🤣

Got my money’s worth out of that plug!
 
McCoy R6 iirc…
Still have a couple hundred or so of them..

I hated running those big heavy coiled R8’s ..
They were good plugs, until they weren’t.. then it looked like you dropped a coil spring from a Buick in the motor.. 🤣
 
Wasted wages said:
McCoy R6 iirc…
Still have a couple hundred or so of them..

I hated running those big heavy coiled R8’s ..
They were good plugs, until they weren’t.. then it looked like you dropped a coil spring from a Buick in the motor.. 🤣
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We used to use those heavy coiled OPS RC300 plugs....you could put more juice to 'em.

Screenshot_20240730-132931.png
 
I really liked that Idea of a guy on here that was a real talker a few years ago he had made a circuit to keep the glow plug lit at max intensity to 250 degrees of its failure point. Never shared his design and I think it died with him. Was interesting though.
 
Davidkrienke said:
I really liked that Idea of a guy on here that was a real talker a few years ago he had made a circuit to keep the glow plug lit at max intensity to 250 degrees of its failure point. Never shared his design and I think it died with him. Was interesting though.
Click to expand...

I’ve used remote glow plug drivers in the past on my twin as an experiment… radio controlled, from the airplane guys… it was pretty cool… I could be running wide open, chop the throttle,,down to an idle,, boat would almost come to a crawl, pull the trigger and it would light right back up..

At WOT the plugs are off, below half throttle they lit the plugs..

but the glow plug clips were the weak point. They weren’t made well and could pop off at anytime.. I went as far as soldering wire leads onto the plug tips and using quick connect wire ends…

also had to “slot” a glow plug wrench to clear the wire for tightening the plugs… it worked great,, just a lot of trouble to implement…
 
Davidkrienke said:
Me too > I am a mcdaniel orange glow driver to the end I think haha.
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Those Cyclon rechargeable batteries are the bomb, wire it to a glow plug clip lead, recharge with a standard glow plug charger…lasts all weekend..

Don’t let the 2V rating scare you,.. it will only charge up to the rating of the glow plug charger, and I’ve never had it smoke a plug..

It lights them bright !
 
Wasted wages said:
I’ve used remote glow plug drivers in the past on my twin as an experiment… radio controlled, from the airplane guys… it was pretty cool… I could be running wide open, chop the throttle,,down to an idle,, boat would almost come to a crawl, pull the trigger and it would light right back up..

At WOT the plugs are off, below half throttle they lit the plugs..

but the glow plug clips were the weak point. They weren’t made well and could pop off at anytime.. I went as far as soldering wire leads onto the plug tips and using quick connect wire ends…

also had to “slot” a glow plug wrench to clear the wire for tightening the plugs… it worked great,, just a lot of trouble to implement…
Click to expand...
I made some nice plug clips for my helis. They start as a kwik link with the arm with the pin ground off. I then opened the hole to fit over the plug stem. Soldered a wire lead where the push rod used to go and soldered small piece music wire that retains the plug stem in the hole. I’ll dig one out and take pictures. Never had a failure yet, knock on wood.
 
I have been mixing fuel since the early 80's. Started out with Castrol M oil until it was discontinued. Similar viscosity to STP, poured like honey.
Switched to Ucon LB 625 when it was availble locally in 5 gallon pails. Ucon LB is the same base as Klotz Synthetics. Many other synthetic oils out there but most all are compatible with Methanol/Nitro. Didn't use Castor till we started bumping up nitro from 40% to 50 and 60.
The 625 refers to the viscosity of the oil, 625 centipoise. Klotz used to publish their viscosity number for Techniplate and it was around 900 so it's thicker than 625. The Klotz Helioil is down around 400cp and they recommend mixing at 22%, probably to give a bit better protection. Heli's are not piped and likely use low nitro so I would not recommend straight Helioil in a high nitro application. I did pick up some Helioil but I mixed it 50/50 with Techniplate and it seemed to work well.
I bought a drum of 625 from a local industrial supply house in early 2000 and found out they stocked LB1600 ifor the oil industry as it was used to suppress foaming in oil/gas separators. They brought in a barrel of 625 for me with their regular shipment. I added 20% Benol to give protection from lean runs. Took 5 years to use up the barrel. It was a real ***** in spring to pump it out, 20 min/gal.
On the technical side, straight synthetic flashes a vapour at 500'F so it leaves little residue. However, a hot/lean run the oil will be a gas, not liquid and protection will be severely compromised. Castor on the other hand, thickens when it gets hot so it complements the disappearing synthetic. Your engine will "gum" up on a lean run and slow down as the Castor plates out on the sleeve/piston. Thus it prevents metal to metal contact. If you don't use castor, great, but don't let it run lean and especially if you use LB625.
Ucon LB oils are food grade so they are pure hence it can be used on food production lines with no danger of adverse contamination. Klotz or others may add something (red and racy scent) but none are willing to share their additives. A minor issue we had with pure Ucon is you couldn't see how much was left in the plastic tanks. These days, I use just SuperTechniplate at 20%. Easy to mix in 5 gallon batches (1, 2.5, 1.5 for 50). Tried 18% but took out too many pistons in 67/80 engines. Spares are expensive and hard to come by in the older engines so I am in it for the long run and the fun of racing. I leave to others to set records, deeper pockets I guess. Personally, I am slower than many but on average, I finish most heats. I'm the tortis.
For Buckshots sake, I will confirm that I use Rossi plugs from Mr Hobbs. Bought a couple dozen cards of McCoys MC 9's when the were clearing them out 10 years ago but I have prescious few left. I do have some issues with brittle breaking of the coils but I think I will try the suggestion of annealing them with a few cycles on and off to see if they last longer. Looking forward to testing the new Rossi X plugs should they be brought in in quantity. I think Al gets them 10000 at a time to get use the best prices. So they will be expensive for him to front the cost. Local shops are asking C$16 to 20 each so that is just not an option.
Sorry for the length of this but I thought some background to this discussion on plugs, er fuel, was needed.
 
DougSick said:
I have been mixing fuel since the early 80's. Started out with Castrol M oil until it was discontinued. Similar viscosity to STP, poured like honey.
Switched to Ucon LB 625 when it was availble locally in 5 gallon pails. Ucon LB is the same base as Klotz Synthetics. Many other synthetic oils out there but most all are compatible with Methanol/Nitro. Didn't use Castor till we started bumping up nitro from 40% to 50 and 60.
The 625 refers to the viscosity of the oil, 625 centipoise. Klotz used to publish their viscosity number for Techniplate and it was around 900 so it's thicker than 625. The Klotz Helioil is down around 400cp and they recommend mixing at 22%, probably to give a bit better protection. Heli's are not piped and likely use low nitro so I would not recommend straight Helioil in a high nitro application. I did pick up some Helioil but I mixed it 50/50 with Techniplate and it seemed to work well.
I bought a drum of 625 from a local industrial supply house in early 2000 and found out they stocked LB1600 ifor the oil industry as it was used to suppress foaming in oil/gas separators. They brought in a barrel of 625 for me with their regular shipment. I added 20% Benol to give protection from lean runs. Took 5 years to use up the barrel. It was a real ***** in spring to pump it out, 20 min/gal.
On the technical side, straight synthetic flashes a vapour at 500'F so it leaves little residue. However, a hot/lean run the oil will be a gas, not liquid and protection will be severely compromised. Castor on the other hand, thickens when it gets hot so it complements the disappearing synthetic. Your engine will "gum" up on a lean run and slow down as the Castor plates out on the sleeve/piston. Thus it prevents metal to metal contact. If you don't use castor, great, but don't let it run lean and especially if you use LB625.
Ucon LB oils are food grade so they are pure hence it can be used on food production lines with no danger of adverse contamination. Klotz or others may add something (red and racy scent) but none are willing to share their additives. A minor issue we had with pure Ucon is you couldn't see how much was left in the plastic tanks. These days, I use just SuperTechniplate at 20%. Easy to mix in 5 gallon batches (1, 2.5, 1.5 for 50). Tried 18% but took out too many pistons in 67/80 engines. Spares are expensive and hard to come by in the older engines so I am in it for the long run and the fun of racing. I leave to others to set records, deeper pockets I guess. Personally, I am slower than many but on average, I finish most heats. I'm the tortis.
For Buckshots sake, I will confirm that I use Rossi plugs from Mr Hobbs. Bought a couple dozen cards of McCoys MC 9's when the were clearing them out 10 years ago but I have prescious few left. I do have some issues with brittle breaking of the coils but I think I will try the suggestion of annealing them with a few cycles on and off to see if they last longer. Looking forward to testing the new Rossi X plugs should they be brought in in quantity. I think Al gets them 10000 at a time to get use the best prices. So they will be expensive for him to front the cost. Local shops are asking C$16 to 20 each so that is just not an option.
Sorry for the length of this but I thought some background to this discussion on plugs, er fuel, was needed.
Click to expand...
Ucon LB-625 was/is available in different viscosities, different anti corrosive and detergent packages. If Ron Logghe were still with us he could elaborate on the matter.

Know nothing about the Klotz HeliGlo....have had a couple of discussions with the lubrication engineer at Klotz, Jeff Streby. We discussed the Union Carbide products, specifically LB-625, and some other brands. Klotz products use their own 'trade secret' components in their Estorlin brand synthetic...it has nothing in common with LB-625, which is a PAG (Polyalkylene Glycol) based lubricant. (PAG-based lubricants are a type of Group V synthetic basestock oil, which can contain esters)
Klotz products are a purely ester based (esterfication process) which produces a complete synthetic lubricant with an intricate chemically integrated bonding process specifucally engineered for the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) environment. Esters are stable molecules, provide good solvency, and provide very good low-temperature and high-temperature performance in engine oils.

The Klotz KL-198 Lite Techniplate affords the proper viscosity for our engines to operate most efficiently in the ICE environment.

We've the OEM TDS files somewhere, and will gladly provide copies to any interested parties. The film shear moduli and viscosities are all provided (in cSt, or centistokes- unit of measure in kinematic viscosity in the CGS system), among other physical criteria.

Klotz KL-200 Techniplate Synthetic 2 Stroke-
Screenshot_20240801-223130.png

Klotz KL-198 Lite Techniplate-

Screenshot_20240801-223039.png
 
Al Hobbs said:
Many years ago, when we were running the Veco 19, K&B 6.5, and OPS 40 and 60 marine engines, the choices for glow plugs were limited. I ran the K&B 1-L in just about everything. If my engine was taking plugs, I'd add a head shim.

Then there were the McCoy glow plugs, OPS glow plugs, K&B HP glow plugs and several others. Again, we'd add or take away head shims to get the best engine performance and reliability.

We were adjusting the engine to fit the glow plug we used.

Since then, engines have become more powerful. This was due to improved design, better materials, and better parts fit. Larger marine engines are now available.

At the same time, some glow plugs were no longer available. Other glow plugs became available.

Things change over time.

Glow plugs not only ignite the fuel, they establish the ignition timing in our model engines. That is why there are cold glow plugs, colder glow plugs and much colder glow plugs. An extremely cold glow plug will work in a 21 size engine, it just won't work well. Plugs that work well in a 21 size engine will not last long in a large engine.

Most model boaters are not serious racers. They like to go out and run their boats with friends on the weekends, but they don't travel to big races. They want a dependable glow plug they can run in their different engines. One glow plug for a few engines. They are getting convenience, not peak pervformance.

The serious racers, the people that travel, sometimes hundreds of miles, to compete in a prestigious event, want peak engine performance. Head space, head volume, and port timing can be changed to improve power and rpm. Many people change their engines to work better with a certain glow plug. That is a lot of work and testing to adjust your engine for a certain glow plug.

With the number of glow plugs available today, it is much simpler, and cheaper, to test your engine with different glow plugs. Instead of chasing what engine mod helps the glow plug, you can test different glow plugs to see what glow plug gives the best performance out of each of your engines.

Glow plugs have become expensive. This is because the wire alloys and gone up in price, the other materials used in glow plug manufacture have gone up in price, and the technicians operating the machines are no longer working for $4.00 per hour.

It is cheaper to find the best glow plug for each of your engines, than to replace engine parts and/or burn out a glow plug every time you run your boat.
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I give the credit to more powerful motors to perry back in the day when we use to race planes I was the first one in my area to buy a hb 40 pdp which most of you know stands for perry directional porting basically added another port the motor it was so much more stronger then all the other motors that I was running my 40 in the 60 pattarn racing and really beating them good even though my motor was a 40 there's where 60s then they banned the hb pdp motors then o.s and others started added even more ports and better carbs I would only use perry pump carbs on all my planes and boats back then . Now what are motors up to 10 ports on some but perry was the guy who really started with companies following suite along with lighter parts and better bearings like you said i remember in the 70s if i got my boat or plane to start and gota few runs in is was a success we had guys including myself rigging wha
ts now a onboard glow driver to keep the plug llite but anyway nitro and gas motors come a long way. It's a same kids rather play video games inside instead of r/c that's the real issue of our hobby dying a slow death my 2 cents anyway
 

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