Painting inside water hopper/around water jacket

[Helder22]

So how do you guys go about painting inside the hopper and around the water jacket in a hit or miss engine so it doesn't rust in there? If I look into the water hopper I can tell I wont be able to squeeze a paintbrush in there and I doubt spray will be able to give every nook and cranny a coat. I thought of pouring some primer in there and then pouring it out again.
What do you guys do? Or is rust probably not going to be an issue?

 

[kuhncw]

Hi Helder22,

I've found, based on my three hit & miss model engines, that they will run all day with no coolant when running unloaded at the model shows. Idling they don't generate enough heat to need coolant. This is not the case with a throttled engine, of course.

I spray just enough paint inside the water hopper opening so you can't see bare metal, unless you look closely into the opening.

If you decide to run coolant, you can use glycol which won't rust your hopper.

Regards,

Chuck

 

[Philjoe5]

You can also add a few drops of water soluble oil to the water to prevent rust. I've used that trick in my water cooled stationary engines for years.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Helder22]

Thanks Chuck, Ive heard that before from other people as well. But how do I know if an engine is running too hot or not. Im afraid I wouldnt notice when and if it did and bad things could happen :wall::wall:

Hi Helder22,

I've found, based on my three hit & miss model engines, that they will run all day with no coolant when running unloaded at the model shows. Idling they don't generate enough heat to need coolant. This is not the case with a throttled engine, of course.

I spray just enough paint inside the water hopper opening so you can't see bare metal, unless you look closely into the opening.

If you decide to run coolant, you can use glycol which won't rust your hopper.

Regards,

Chuck

 

[Helder22]

Thanks Phil,
I like that idea too! Very simple and probably very effective.

You can also add a few drops of water soluble oil to the water to prevent rust. I've used that trick in my water cooled stationary engines for years.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[kuhncw]

Hi Helder,

This isn't very scientific, but I've had no problems. Just put your finger on the cylinder head and also reach down into the hopper and touch the cylinder liner. If you can hold your finger on these parts for a minute or more, your engine is fine and probably running cold from the engine's point of view. Even if you did overheat, the engine would only slow down and die as the piston began to get tight. Our small engines don't have enough power to do damage. Again, I'm talking about low rpm hit & miss engines.


Regards,

Chuck