Okie dokie, well I bought a Magnum XLS25 engine. While waiting for it to ship and arrive i have a few questions. These will mostly be strange questions as initially this engine is going to be for research/tinkering.

For one thing the glow plugs. Given in a heat range (in this engine's instance hot, and long reach) are the plugs pretty much universal in fitment? Which are good glow plugs without idle bars(the engine's guide says do not use plugs with idle bars quite explicitly. How long do glow plugs last?(I do get a feeling break in will burn through one however)

I bought this engine primarily for just curiocity and study into the glow engine design and operation, however i do want to eventually build a plane for it and fly. Until i can afford all the servos and such, i want to pretty much ground run it. Are these like car engines where you can manually operate the carburator throttle without needing the transmitter and such? With ground running, will a prop be enough for cooling? Or should i fit a fan for supplemental cooling using the prop simply as a run load?
Thank you for taking the time to sift through my weird questions. I am rock bottom new with these kinds of engines, having only tinkering and test bed operation of a Volvo B230F