3

I own a wide array of model engines. Typically those engines are either glow engines using nitro fuel, spark engines using gasoline or "diesel" engines using "kerosene". However I recently acquired a 6cc engine that runs using a glow plug (like a nitro engine), but it is fueled with gasoline.

I was curious, what are the mechanics that allow an engine to work on gasoline without a spark plug? Is it higher compression? Is it a special plug with a different catalyst that helps ignite the fuel/air mixture? Is it something completely different?

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
  • 165,084
  • 32
  • 259
  • 508
Yanick Salzmann
  • 715
  • 5
  • 18

1 Answers1

1

The glow plug engines have a glow plug that gets heated from a power supply and once it is hot, the repeated combustion process is sufficient to keep it hot so that it can ignite the fresh incoming charge.

This can happen with gasoline engines that have suffered a build-up of carbon deposits and is often called "dieseling" or self-ignition, when the carbon stays ignited through the exhaust and intake part of the engine cycle.

Solar Mike
  • 34,681
  • 2
  • 30
  • 59