Deezil (oz13712)

About this Plan

Deezil. Model aero engine.

CAD drawings by Ron Chernich. Article by Roger Schroeder.

Quote: "The Deezil Engine, by Roger Schroeder.

The Deezil model airplane engine was originated by Gotham Hobby at 107 East 126 St, New York, NY in about 1947 or 48. It was a .12 cu in diesel engine with a bore and stroke of .473 in and .708 in. The designer and/or the manufacturer of the Deezil has not been identified. A July 1949 ad offers the Deezil for $2.95. In an April 1955 ad, the price had gone down to $1.95.

The name of Gotham Hobby is closely linked with America's Hobby Center (AHC) because both organizations were founded by brothers of the Winston family. AHC was started by four Winston brothers before WW 2. When WW 2 started, two brothers took their share of AHC and went into the service. When they returned the remaining two brothers were not interested in having the returning brothers rejoin AHC. Therefore, the returning two brothers started Gotham Hobby.

Despite the assurances in each ad that each Deezil was factory tested, only a few owners ever got their engines to run. As can be expected from the price, the Deezil was made cheap. Although the design was current for the time and similar to the classic Swiss and Italian engines, the execution was bad. Nothing fit well and the compression was usually insufficient to run. The Deezil was selected by the Motor Boys because it is an infamous engine! Ron Chernich did the Motor Boy drawings from casting kit drawings developed by Roger Schroeder.

The Motor Boys wanted to make an engine that looked like the original Deezil, but unlike the original, it had to run well. For this reason the scavenging arrangement of the Mills 2.5 cc engine was selected and the port timing of Gordon Burford's reproduction Deezil used. The prop driver is secured with a collet instead of a flat on the shaft. A tank was added although there is no record of the original being supplied with a tank. The compression screw is turned with a 'tommy bar' handle because this was shown in all the ads. The usual production engine had a 90° bend in the compression screw that served as a handle. The crankcase was sand cast using an original die cast case as a pattern.

A lot of testing and design development has gone into this version of the Deezil. The result is a reliable design that is easy starting and will turn a 10-5 prop at 6000 rpm and a 9-4 at almost 8000 rpm. Deezils have been built by Bert Striegler, Ron Chernich and Roger Schroeder. Many more have been built from casting kits."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

For more notes and background on the Deezil engine, see http://modelenginenews.org/deezil/index.html.

Note this plan (and article) is an extract from the MBI (Motor Boys International) Model Engine Plan Book, 2nd Edition. This was originally published through the MEN site run by Ron Chernich, see http://www.modelenginenews.org/. Also see Mary's page on RCLibrary https://rclibrary.co.uk/title_details.asp?ID=2122 which hosts a copy of the book as submitted from MBI by Ken Croft, in accordance with Ron Chernich's wish that from 2013 onwards the book should be available, freely, to everyone as a PDF download.

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