ORIGINAL: Bonified Wingnut
I understand what you are saying, I have been building flying models for 37 years. I understand where the CG should be. I uploaded pictures to show where I am attempting to balance. Right where the plans call for.
Yup, you have it dead on what the instructions say.
The plane will fly just fine with the C.G. another 1-2" further back than that.... but don't go beyond 2". With the latter it will tend to pitch up a bit when climbing inverted.
But then so does my Funtana and newer Katana.... yet they 3D beautifully and roll axially.
ORIGINAL: Bonified Wingnut
So I need 30 ounces of weight in the nose with nothing in the tail. Whatever I could not jam into the cowl would have to be made up by lead and whatever gets put in the tail times the moment arm will also need to be added as lead. If I move the engine forward the servos go where they are supposed to and no lead gets added.
Your engine is lighter than what the plane was originally designed for exacerbating things.
In the picture you have everything in the bucket sitting on the cowl.
With the engine installed it will actually sit a few inches forward of where it's weight is distributed via the bucket.
So it is likely you will need less actual weight to get things to balance. Maybe a few ounces less, but that may be offset by any servos in the tail, which I'd advise against.
I had one of these planes with a Magnum 1.80 Four Stroke and moving the batteries and servos forward did the trick for me.
I crashed the plane and put everything into the newer orange version the website shows, where things remain.
That said, as long as the mountings are secure, there is no reason you can't move the engine forward more.
Given where you have the C.G. marked that solution would probably be the best.
At worst you can use small "L" shaped brackets to mount the cowl right to the edge of the firewall without looking unsightly.
How much further forward can you move the cowl without resorting to having to build something to hide a big cowl gap?