e engines
Re-building the Arden 0.099 and the Arden 0.199 from old versions from Ebay
updated 22/07/2012
 4 engines
In June 2012 I purchased 8 engines from the USA via Ebay. The engines comprised 6 off 099 ballraced engines, 1 off 099 plain bearing engine and 1 off 199 engine. The condition of the engines was as expected and I was pleased with the purchase. I have started the process of re-building these engines into as many working engines as possible. A first pass indicates that 2 and possibly 3 of the engines have either not been run or only run for a very short period. 4 of the cases are in good condition with little or no corrosion 3 of the cases have some corrosion but should be reclaimable and one of the cases (the plain bearing one) is both heavily corroded and badly cracked so this engine is only useful for spares.
There is a page of information about these engines and their restoration by Tandy Walker here and Tandy has written a very instructive description of his methods for restoring these engines here.
Ray Arden was an extreemly clever designer and the more I am exposed to his works the more impressed I am. Here is a link to a reprint of a may 1939 Popular Science article with a really good appraisal of his early work. I will keep a blog of progress here.
First: strip down the engines:-
organiser
The organiser has all my current Arden projects. From the left:
  1. Engines that are too worn/damaged to be rebuilt until I get some of the more expensive bits (crankcases).
  2. Arden Atom 2 being rebuilt to running condition.
  3. Arden Atom 5 new build from castings.
  4. Arden 0.099 No.10891 being rebuilt as a spark ign needle valve version.
  5. Arden 0.099 No.13198 short of a tank and prop driver but otherwise being rebuilt as a glowplug needle valve version.
  6. Arden 0.099 No.13694 and is well on the way to being rebuilt as a needle valve glowplug version.
  7. Arden 0.099 No.21596 needs a tank and a prop driver being rebuilt as a needle valve glowplug version.
  8. tools.

The first job was to create the necessary tools to ensure that no damage was done during stripdown. I made a tool to unscrew the backplate, a tool to extract the front ballrace and a tool to unscrew the cylinder head. click on the picture to see the drawing.

tool

Head end of the tool.
(must be a really good fit into the hexagon.)
tool

This must be a good fit into the backplate.
tool

This tool pushes through the inner of the ballrace and the tapered head screw is screwed in to open the flange. The case is then heated with the hotair gun and the ballrace pulled out.

tool
To remove the cylinder from the crankcase I hold the cylinder by its fins in a Ø22mm C5 collet. This grips the cylinder really well without any chance of distortion. I then heat the crankcase with a hot air gun and, using an old towel to hold the crankcase, it can be unscrewed with little effort.
To remove the cylinder head I first cool the cylinder and head in the freezer as it is much easier to unscrew the head once it has shrunk a bit. I hold the cool cylinder in the C5 collet and unscrew the head using the hexagon tool.

Second: a triage of the engines:-
  • 1: engine No. 14541 - complete spark ign + spraybar + red tank
    This appears to be quite a late engine and the case has no hole for the throttle version fuel jet.
    Crankcase: excellent with little corrosion. Rear mounting face slightly curved - crack in mtg lug -broken.
    Cylinder head: good with slight carbon browning on hemisphere.
    Cylinder: excellent condition - no wear dicernable - fins un-marked.
    Piston and conrod: excellent with no corrosion. little end ball has some play.
    Backplate: light corrosion only - no marks on rotation features.
    Crankshaft: good condition - some very light surface staining
    Remaining parts all present and good condition.
  • 2: engine No. 13694 complete glow + spraybar black tank
    Crankcase: good mechanical condition with some surface corrosion but only light pitting. Should clean up OK.
    Cylinder head: good with no carbon browning on hemisphere. Some light scratches and dents on top.
    Cylinder: excellent condition - no wear dicernable - fins un-marked.
    Piston and conrod: excellent with no corrosion. little end ball has some play.
    Backplate: light corrosion only - no marks on rotation features.
    Crankshaft: good condition - some very light surface staining
    This engine has a spark cam instead of the plain spacer.
    Fitted with a bearing cap at the front.
    Remaining parts all present and good condition.
  • 3: engine No. 13198
    Crankcase: good mechanical condition with some surface corrosion. Should clean up OK.
    Cylinder head: good with no sign of running.
    Cylinder: excellent condition - no wear dicernable - fins un-marked.
    Piston and conrod: excellent, just some light corrosion. The cylinder fit may be slack.
    Backplate: light/medium corrosion only - no marks on rotation features.
    Crankshaft: good condition.
    This engine has a spark cam instead of the plain spacer.
    The needle valve is straight with no curve on the connection end.
    Fitted with a bearing cap at the front.
    Remaining parts all present and good condition.
  • 4: engine No. 20436 (PB)
    Crankcase: heavily corroded & pitted with crack and bit broken off. Scrap.
    Crankshaft: OK but needs a bruise stoning on small diameter. Good spare.
    Cylinder head is clean with no sign of running. Some fins are slightly distorted.
    Backplate is corroded but not pitted should clean-up OK. Good Spare.
    Piston and cylinder are lightly stained but OK. Fins OK. Good spare.
  • 5: engine No. 21596 glow + spraybar missing tank,
    Crankcase: Lightly corroded no pitting. there is a knotch filed across the rear mounting but it doesn't seem to be a problem.
    Cylinder: OK but has a couple of wavy fins and a scratch.
    piston: fit OK - if anything a bit tight.
    Backplate: light corrosion - should clean up OK.
    Cylinder head: good - very little sign of running.
    Crankshaft: good condition with light staining but no corrosion.
  • 6: engine No. 10891
    Crankcase: Lightly corroded with light pitting.
    Cylinder: OK .
    piston: fit OK.
    Backplate: light corrosion - should clean up OK. One of the keys is worn away but it still works ok. I will probably swap it with the backplate from 20436.
    Cylinder head: good with some sign of running.
    Crankshaft: good condition with light staining but no corrosion.
  • 7: engine No. 9176 complete ign + throttle + clear tank
    This engine has not been stripped down yet but is a fully complete throttle valve spark ign engine. The tank and the throttle valve friction spring came with some loose parts from a different Ebay purchase. I plan to rebuild this engine in the same style as it was received in.
  • 8: engine No. 5771 This engine is a complete 0.199 ballraced ignition engine in reasonable corrosion free condition. The only damaged part is the actuating lever that adjusts the advance of the ignition unit and that has its tip missing. I will rebuild this engine to its current status.
    Ray Arden built the first high quality engines, fifty years before Cox come along. The .19 glow was the final and best of the bunch, always easy starting and smooth running with a very unique exhaust bark, you have to love that sound. From about 1946 to 1951 Ardens were the choice of contest flyers everywhere, not a lot were sold because they cost twice as much. An Arden just like this one held the control line speed record for many years.
  • 9 Engine No. 11149 This engine is a mainly complete 0.099 plain bearing glow ignition engine lacking only the front bearing cover. The front spacer is a cam unit rather than the non-cam spacer normally used so this engine may be a glow conversion.
My intention is to restore all of these engines to running condition. I would like to create a representative of all of the styles produced although I don't have a reasonable version of the early plain bearing throttle ignition engine crankcase. the aim is to assemble the following versions
Missing items:-

  • Tanks: 3 off all suitable for Glow fuel
  • Propdrivers: 2 off? I may be able to make suitable replacements
  • needle valve assemblies: 1 off. I can probably make suitable items
  • fuel tank caps: 4 off. I can make these.
  • prop nut: 3 off. I can make these
  • domed prop washer: 4 off I might be able to make these
  • Fuel tank clamp screws 5 off I can make these.
First stage - restore the crankcases

engines
polished case 13694
Six 099 crankcases awaiting cleaning.
First cleaned case for engine No. 13694.
The cleaning process

1) Check for damage

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