Glow Plug Cross Reference
Glow Plug Cross Reference
STD ROSSI GLOW PLUGS BI-TURBO GLOW PLUGS (without idle bar)
(conical w/o washer)
Rossi Glow Plugs (cold for pattern type work / high nitro fuels, hot for
sport / low nitro flying)
Model glow plug engines are extremely dependent upon the type and
quality of the glow plug used. Enya glow plugs use a platinum alloy coil,
which uses a thick diameter wire for long life. The thicker wire coil also
eliminates the need for an "idle bar" as found on other brands of glow
plugs; idle bars tend to reduce top speed slightly, to achieve a more
stable idle speed. Enya's glow plug design insures both good top end
speed and stable idle speed.
Enya glow plugs also have a thicker battery contact at the tip of the plug
for greater heat dissipation and better electrical contact. Altech
Marketing presently stocks glow plug battery cords specifically for Enya
glow plugs, which are standard equipment with Enya four-cycle engines.
Other glow plug cords usable with Enya glow plugs are available from
several other manufacturers.
IDLE BARS
Idle bar glow plugs came about because some engines were having
trouble transitioning from idle to high speed. When the throttle was
opened from idle, the incoming air and raw fuel would strike the glow
plug's heated coil, cooling it to the point where it would no longer
support the combustion process, so the engine would die. To help
prevent this, the idle bar was added to the glow plug to serve as a
physical shield, helping to keep the coil from cooling off too quickly.
A glow plug with an idle bar will not increase peak RPM (it may even
reduce it in some cases), but it may improve the idle with some
engines, since it simply helps to keep the plug hot enough to light the
fuel. If your having transition problems, you might want to try using a
glow plug with an idle bar. Some modelers use idle bar plugs in the
winter only, since the glow plug tends to loose heat faster in the colder
environment.
Naturally, all of this assumes that you have the low speed mixture
adjusted correctly to begin with.
HOT PLUGS
So what is a 'hot' plug, and how does it differ from a 'cold' plug?
Naturally, a hot plug will heat up faster and stay hotter, but that's not
the whole story. When discussing this aspect of glow plugs, another very
important aspect must be considered, the amount methanol in the fuel.
The more methanol we're using (i.e., less oil and less nitro), the hotter
the plug we should use. Conversely, the more nitro and/or oil we use,
the less methanol we're using, so we use a cool(er) plug. An extreme
example would be when using a very high nitro content fuel in a very
high RPM engine (a typical ducted fan engine, for example). Here we'd
use a very cold plug. For most sport pilots using fuel with just 5-15%
nitro, however, a hotter plug would probably do well.
Probably? Yes, trial and error is often the best (and sometimes 'only')
way to determine the right glow plug for your application. Most 4C
engines need either high nitro or hot plugs to run at their best, since
they have combustion strokes only half as often as 2C engines.