My experience is flying diesels in CL stunt with a fixed venturi, so I don't know anything about using an adjustable carb. The general advice on a diesel is to run it with as low a compression as you can and as lean as you can. OK, the airplane flys along level engine running beautiful. Put in in a maneuver, the engine loads and slows down--it is overcompressed. Put it in a maneuver and the engine misses--it is too lean. I like to run engines without changing anything unless the performance of the engine in flight tells me to change the needle or compression setting. For most diesels, the easy starting compression is more than the running compression. So I use a starter. For a 40-size conversion, I expect the engine to run ragged, warming up, for as long as it takes me to walk out to the CL handle, put on the safety thong, and wave OK to the pitperson. Maybe a miss or two in the first couple of level laps, but no more.

Jim