I had a small experience that I think would make a valuable post.

I was out flying yesterday. A guy that was just starting to fly after a 5 year hiatus was out with a new trainer. He also bought a used Sukhoi from the LHS with a ST 90 on it. I think it was an old Byron's kit. He asked me to put a trim flight in on the Sukhoi. I checked it over quickly with the wing on. After checking the controls I noticed there was a Dubro quickfiller back under the canopy. So I expected the worst.

Well, I decided to give it a try. We fueled it up and I set the needle at 3 turns out to start with. The motor would finally run at about 6 turns out. I backed the needle off a half turn and it passed the nose up test.

About 2 minutes into the flight the engine leaned and died. It was a miracle that I made it back to the runway. It had a high sink rate. I made the runway by about 2 feet.

After it was on the ground we took it apart. It just so happes that the fuel line runs from the clunk back to the fueler and then up to the carb with no pump. The plane was built such that there was no access to the interior plumbing. By hacking a small hole in the engine box we were able to re-route the tubing and out the quickfueler in the cowl. We cut nearly 2 feet of line between the tank and the carb. It is now about 6 inches total length. I pulled the Pitt's muffler and took a look at the piston. It was very black and had been run very lean for a long time. Probably during the latter half of each flight before the deadstick landing. The engine is all but ruined.

I'll bet the original owner was unable to get the engine to run well with his setup and sold the plane. It got dark and we weren't able to fly the plane after that so I don't have results of the fix. I'll post them if I ever see him again.