The cylinder liner was in the right way. The exhaust port lines up perfect. The carb needles were backwards, so I switched those back. I had it running a little bit yesterday, but not very much - It started and ran for a little bit, but I couldn't get it to run long enough to tune the high speed needle. Seemed to run out of fuel and stall out. The fuel tank was full, and at the proper height in comparison to the spraybar. After it ran for about 5 minutes it would just stall out. Each restart attempt would get it to fire only a few revs before it would quit. The pressure line is connected and It ran best on a regular hot plug - didnt run for crap on the idlebar plug. The head screws came loose, so I think that was the problem towards the end. I'll have to clean the screw holes out so I can loctite the head screws so they dont come loose again. (The head screws are phillips head, not hex screws)

It seemed like it wasn't priming well, either.. I blew into the pressure line to the tank to prime the engine and it wouldn't even pop. I put a few drops of fuel down the plug hole and it fired right off and quit but eventually fired on its own.

From what I've been able to gather, some of these engines had a head shim in them and some didn't. Mine doesnt have one and I don't know for sure if it is supposed to have one.. Can someone tell me if its supposed to have one?

The guy at Fox said they have a new carb for the .40 that outperforms the old ones any day (his words) but its $50+shipping and I almost wonder if it would be worth it to buy the carb or if I should just send this engine to them and get a new one.. The cost would be about the same using their trade-in program. (not to mention If it is supposed to have a head shim, I don't know if it would have enough compression to run right - then I would need a new piston and sleeve set and at this rate, a new engine would be the better choice based on cost.) I got this engine for free and really planned to run it as is if it will run right - I don't want to sink a ton of money into it. New Fox .40BB Deluxe R/C is $120 factory price. They sent me two price lists - one for current engines and one for the engine I have. The cyliner/piston kit is $18 on the old list and looks like $50 on the new ones, the Carburetor is $50, and I dont see a head gasket/shim on any of the lists.. So even to put just the carb on it is half the cost of a new engine.

Maybe it just gets cleaned up and put on the shelf? (I dont like shelving my engines - I like to run them as intended)