Hi Joe;
Mostly it is correct, but the high compression ratio of the Saito, coupled with the fact that the engine is inverted, might very easily cause a full or partial hydraulic lock. Now, if one starts the engine by hand (I love my engines, but my fingers are more important to me than their welfare) than the chance of damaging the engine is very low, but if you apply an electric starter to the engine, you might - easier than you might think - bend then con-rod. Coomarlins description of what happened to him: first flight for that day, starting the engine, full power vertical till an engine cut-off and than a bent con-rod suggests that this might be the case.

Yaron