ORIGINAL: Bax
A note:
The rear cover needed is out of stock. It is cracked, but the engine can be mounted and run. We don't have engines in stock, or we'd take one out of stock and get the part. We've been assured that one is coming from O.S., in Japan.
We have successfully run the engine twice. It runs normally and very, very well.
Please note that the instructions for the engine do state that it is intended to be started with an electric starter. Please see the last paragraph of page 16 in the instruction manual. The engine can be hand-started, but you must get it really flipping fast, because the engine does need to have the prop hub moving fast enough to excite the sensor. It's not surprising that hand-starting could be difficult because of this.
Bill, I have a few questions/comments. While I am not the owner of this engine and have no real business getting involved other then being a consumer whom at some point may consider buying an OS gas burner in the near future. I do have 2 50cc airplanes under construction now and the OS 55 was a consideration.
First off, I am curious as to why you have taken the time to run the engine twice knowing that you will have to split the case to make repairs. Obviously you will have to run the engine again after this work is complete. To me it just seems like a waste of time setting it up on the bench multiple times.
The other thing is the use of a starter. IMO the market you are trying to reach with this engine is used to hand starting engines. This alone is enough to make me skip over the OS offerings as I will not buy an engine that can't be easily hand started. OS could easily fix this via ignition timing ( Adjust the ignition firmware ), port timing or both. Obviously I'm not sure of which one or both that prevent hand starting. Having to turn over the engine fast has nothing to do with the sensor. What I think is going on is that OShas programmed the IC that controls the ignition not to trigger the coil until a certain RPM is reached. They most likely did this to prevent accidental starts. It's a simple fix, edit the firmware. Again IMO Great Planes, Hobbico and any US based hobby supplier needs to be more focused on customer service, especially now with all the available stuff outside the US. There are still lots of us that will spend the extra money on quality products as long as the customer service is up to par.