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Old 10-20-2025 | 05:51 PM
  #10  
1QwkSport2.5r's Avatar
1QwkSport2.5r
 
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 10,532
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From: Cottage Grove, MN
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Hunting and surging is a tell-tale sign of lean fuel mixture. The dark brown head and Piston also tells the tale. I don’t care what the manual says for carburetor base settings. They’re wrong most of the time even in the best English translation.

Every fuel along with every oil composition/blend smokes differently. Color, amount, etc. ignore it altogether. Temperature is just a reference.

Your prop is probably too big too. Run a 1” shorter diameter prop than the intended flight prop, run oilier fuel, and get it up to rpm. Richen until it 4-strokes; let run like that for 30 second. Lean it until it just*** cleans up with the occasional miss for 1 minute. Alternate between rich and clean for a tank of fuel, all at WOT. Run another few tanks at WOT at the rich 2-stroke running with occasional miss. Give it 30-40min and then fly it rich on the shorter prop until it will hold a lean needle setting without sagging or surging.

This regimen has never failed me.
The following 2 users liked this post by 1QwkSport2.5r:
HobbyFlying (10-23-2025), mgnostic (10-21-2025)