Sure did, and its not even tuned or anything that's running as is out of the box carb settings. I was curious so I blipped the throttle to see if it would stumble after sitting there and it just responded with no hesitation. So now I need to run it in to seat the ring and and check temps. Im using full synthetic Klotz this time because I think the problem with the 61 could have been related to using Klotz semi synthetic with Castor. I think this oil was causing over heating issues. So that engine will get reworked with cylinder honing and a new ring to see if it can perform better on full synthetic oil too.
I understand your buddies position... if it aint broke....