CONFIGURATION
3 cylinder radial - spark ignition - petrol fuel
DISPLACEMENT
84.28cc
BORE
36.0mm (per cylinder)
STROKE
27.6. (per cylinder)
WEIGHT
3,528g ready to run
STATIC THRUST
7-9 kgf (Dependent on the Prop size)
R.P.M. RANGE
1,300 - 7,000 ground RPM max. - 5.5 to 6.5k
RPM
PROP’ RANGE
24 x 10 standard - prop for 6.5k RPM
maximum
FUEL
15-20:1 petrol to oil
SHAFT THREAD
M10 x 1.25
SUPPLIED WITH
Engine mount spacer, full ignition equipment,
muffler tubes, carb’ adjustment and choke
tool, toolkit, instructions for engine and
exhaust, mounting pattern. Decals.
The humble
beginning of the
Saito industry back
in the late 40’s. This
was the start of the,
now, great industry.
Note the kettle on
the floor - the ‘meal
room’ perhaps?
FOREWORD
Before we get into the ‘good stuff’, this engine
review is in two parts. I have considered that with
the rather unique or totally new large engines, I
cannot cover all I would like to pass on to you with
the allotted space available in this magazine. So,
this will be an introduction and some background
about the engine and the manufacturer - a sort of
a good flying field discussion when it is too wet or
windy to fly a model. Part 2 will contain the technical findings and the test results.
SERIOUS POWER
Now we are getting really serious - this is one
big - even bigger - engine that is going to provide
some real authority in a suitable model and attract
a lot of interest in the pit area. The Saito company
produces engines for worldwide modellersall corners of the globe as is said, and there is reasoning
behind that which led to the introduction of
spark/petrol engines. Since the introduction of the
first latter day series spark ignition, petrol fuelled
engines (you can run some spark ignition engines
on methanol - hence the petrol fuel qualification), I
have had many email contacts with modellers in
countries and locations I have never heard of ,
countries where methanol is impossible (or almost
so) to obtain or so expensive you would need a
gold plated credit card to purchase a litre - that’s
really gold plated. Petrol of course is used and
available anywhere you go, so the introduction of
22
Airborne
the Saito engines converted for petrol operation
was a blessing for many modellers. As well as the
praise for the petrol conversion, the general praise
has been for how well these engines perform.
Some modellers thoroughly enjoy the smaller capacities, some like an intermediate range of sizes
and some like the big, brute force engines. When
my review of the Saito FG-57TS (57cc twin opposed petrol engine) was published, one reader
contacted me and said he just had to have one, if
not for model use, but to have it running and to hear
the sound. I must admit I had a real buzz when I
heard it running and.I did tend to run it for quite
some time - just to make sure it ran well (HoHoHo).
The reader did purchase his engine, ran it, loved it
and felt it was a shame to not use it so he built a
model for it and it is a real show stopper at the field
with other fliers watching the power it exhibits and
listening to the sound as it flies past low and fast.
At the time I considered the 57TS to be a very
pleasing large engine - the largest petrol engine in
the Saito range and the second largest overall engine as it was eclipsed by the FA-450R3D glow ignited 3 cylinder radial at 75.2cc. I remembered
that, when I test ran that engine, I considered it
one really big power supply - a round engine that
required a very large aircraft with a round cowl and
two wings. The only small shortcoming of the FA450 is that it does tend to use glow fuel at a rather
rapid rate - a large onboard tank is required and a
large fuel caddie is needed. Now we have eve