Well got out there to start this morning, and what a great morning. 46F calm sunny, oughta warm up to the 70's.

So I tried hand flipping this 46fx conversion. No good. Backed comp off a little, nothin. After trying for 20 minutes (and after 10 I got a hair dryer to warm the cylinder head a bit) I threw the electric on and it started right up. White smoke, knocking then I screwed compression in a bit and it smoothed out. Still had a few knocks but when I put the plane in a nose up attitude it smoothed right out and sounded nice. Every time I put the plane level it would knock again. So I went down to idle and it died (around 2800 rpm). Opened throttle, hand flipped, no go. Primed again, hand flipped, no go. Electric, starts. I get 8600 rpm with the 12x8 - impressive. I richened it up and got it to idle but transition wasn't too good and nose up still does better. I'm lost on this thing and will it ever hand start?