It's done!
I finished up this last weekend. Had a heck of a time getting the engine apart… 30+ year old castor makes great glue. Ended up soaking the case with piston and sleeve and front end with bearings in PB Blaster and then lacquer thinner overnight and still needed a torch to get things unstuck. Once cleaned up everything assembled back together like new, with new bearings too.

The model came out perfectly balanced and weighs 8 lbs. 9 oz. with an empty tank.

I fired it up in the driveway yesterday afternoon… it started on the second flip! After playing with plugs, I ended up with an Enya 4 doing the trick. It hits the pipe at full throttle with a slightly rich setting and recovers after a line pinch. Idle holds a slightly rich setting without loading up and the transition is good. I ran it on 5% CP and a Zinger 11x7… I may get some castor to add to the fuel just to be safe. I don’t know what it was turning (I have a tach on the way!), but it was howling! It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that sound…

Tried to load pics, something's not working with that...

Test fly next weekend…

Regards,
Cliff