thanks for the advice... i will try to hook up the ys63 on a bench this time and run it in without any unnecessary connections. (fingers crossed)

Richard, in "detonation" i'm hoping that you are referring to something normal and not that i just blew up my motor. I haven't done any permanent damage, have I?

Regarding Saitos... I was looking around for some but I could never find them in Hong Kong. Then I went to one of my LHS and, to my surprise, he had a Saito .50 gk. I know that the .50 is an "older" engine but the price was decent $160. The problem was that it just didn't look that high quality. Compared to the O.S. and the YS I just didn't get that sense of fine engineering. The castings (maybe due to the black coating) just didn't seem "precision". And the GK finish that looks so good online, just didn't do it for me in real life. I swear that it looked like a Chinese knock-off more than a Japanese lump. Anyway, I was running over town looking for a Saito .72 but now... i think i will end up back with O.S. Of course, I will try to get YS63 running and broken in. I think it is the perfect engine for my Corsair F4U. Just if the darn thing would work!!!