ORIGINAL: Steve Campbell
My admittedly limited Saito experience (four; 150, 100,91,56, all NIB and broken-in on a test stand) has been that the motors come out of the box excessively rich on the low-speed needle. And that makes the engine pound itself big-time.
As long as you adhere to the don't-exceed-4000-rpm-for-the-first-ten-minutes rule, and use fuel with plenty (20% or more) of oil content, you won't hurt the engine by immediately adjusting the low end mixture. IOW, while you need to be careful with the main (high speed) needle at first, you should be able to lean the low end out considerably, thus smoothing the run up quite a bit; especially idle.
Just a thought...
That's a good point. I haven't actually touched the low end yet it's still at the factory setting. I've got 4 tanks through it now so I'm probably ok to lean it out a little to smooth the idle out.
I did keep it under 4000 for 10 minutes on the first tank at 5 turns out on the high speed needle.