Taipan Series 67 Glow

 

Name Taipan Series 67 Glow Designer Gordon Burford
Type Two stroke, glow plug ignition Capacity 1.5cc
Production run unknown Country of Origin Ahstralia
Photo by RC Year of manufacture 1967

 

Notes:

The Series 67 Taipan 1.5 Glow motor is unmistakably "Taipan", but differs in many respects from common Taipan practices exemplified in Taipan engines up to this time, while retaining a distinct heriatge with the Series 66 Diesel that preceeded it. First off, well, it's a GLOW and if I'm right, all Taipans up to this engine had been diesels--if we and ignore a 35 with no case marking that was called a "Taipan", produced after Gordon's trouble with the CAC (Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation), acting with North American over the use of the word "Sabre"--Gordon's original choice for his engines. Gordon's Glow engines has all been "Glow Chief". So ignoring this, the other difference is the common glow practice of cutting the cooling fins into the cylinder itself, where as the Taipan diesels always used screw-on aluminum cooling jackets. The shaft design is the usual splined prop driver, the case is very similar to the Series 66 diesel, with a screw-in backplate, but there are differnces engough to show it is apparently from a different die--or resulted from changes to the earlier one.

The big difference is internal: the use of a ball and socket for the conrod/piston attachment. My example is new in box, never run and quite surprised me in that at BDC( bottom dead center), the piston crown is only half way down the exhaust ports. Rocking the shaft back and forth at this point showed many degrees of movement that give no piston movement, indicating a very sloppy fir of the conrod ball in the piston socket. Sure enough, giving the piston a poke through the glow plug hole got it to the bottom of the exhaust ports, but it's sad to see a Taipan, factory-fresh, set up with a power robbing feature like this (at least, this condition in a Cox engine is a known power-robber). Either my engine escaped QC at Taipan, or Gordon's hart was no in this design.

 

Ruler

 

Please submit all questions and comments to enquiries@modelenginenews.org