Thanks Pete, thats some good information. As for the balance, I placed a piece of masking tape below the wings on each side of the plane, made a mark at 130 mm(EDIT! the mark I made was 152 mm----I was thinking about the 120 size Gee Bee I bought at the same time as the Long EZ!) back from leading edge of wing and using your numbers from page 1 of this thread with regard to "16 3/16 inches back from the leading edge of the canard, gear down and no fuel" and made a mark on the tape at that spot as well. The mark suggested in the manual is right at 1/2 inch behind the mark from your data. I agree, it does feel heavy on the front end....but I'd much rather be just a bit nose heavy than tail heavy. It would be interesting to see where your model balances with regard to a measurement back from the leading edge of the wing---gear down, no fuel--to compare. If it's right at 118(140!) mm then I should be good to go.
I like that tip about cutting out the cowling. I rarely paint a model, but recently I've completed a vintage Ziroli F4 Phantom with a K&B 7.5 ducted fan for power. Used copious amounts of brown paper and masking tape in getting the paint right. So I found a new use for the masking tape on my EZ--use it to mark and measure things. See if I can post a photo of the F4. (the Long EZ is going to be my "jet trainer" to get my thumbs adjusted!)

Oh---and about mounting the prop. I'm using a Master Airscrew 9X7 3 bladed prop, and from what I can tell, the markings (Master Airscrew) are on the engine side of the prop instead of the cranskhaft nut side.....this puts the heavier leading edge of the prop in front of the trailing edge in a counter clockwise rotation as viewed from the rear looking forward. Sound right?

Thanks!
Rube