thanks blwblw, your post was informative. sorry i wasnt more specific about the gasket; yes, its the muffler gasket. I used high-temperature silicone to replace it and it seems to be working fine. I have been priming it, like you said, by cranking it with my finger over the wide-open carb, like the manual says. from now on i'll also check if its hydrolocked.

I'll see if i can get some 15% nitro soon. I have a few questions for you, though. Which evo's do you have? And do their rev's fluctuate above 1/2 throttle? I know i've already said this in my last post, but above 1/2 throttle it sounds like i'm moving the stick up and down when im not and it gets more noticeable the higher it is. I was thinking that this could be some kind of fuel supply problem... or perhaps its not a problem at all with smaller glow engines, because they don't have fuel pumps the fuel supply is never constant?

i was browsing through rcu today and i read something about some people finding their evo's performed better when they moved the needle valve closer to the carb. what do you think about that?

thanks for your help.