Hi guys,

Many thanks for your kind comments. And you know, this thing is becoming a Bible of sorts because of all of your efforts. I might have kicked it off but all contributions, freely and generously shared has prompted the courage to experiment as never before. As each discovery, tidbit of information, valid opinion and respectful scepticism emerged, we've made progress that might not have developed in any other way.

RCU is a commercial enterprise and I'd bet that they're doing very well but they did the work to make it happen and that has benefited all of us. As they deal, day to day, with the decisions, influences and constraints of the job of managing the complexity of the task, they may take things here or there that in retrospect, give them pause to reconsider. That they did, and made it right again, shows that there's a fairness of mind at play. For the longest time I've wondered how we've managed to get away with this thread for as long as we did. This HAS happened before, where a diesel fuel discussion had quite quickly been moved.

So here we are, back where we belong.

Yesterday it rained and memories of Bill Cosby doing Noah came to mind. Yeah, and I remember Laugh In too. So I got busy making up a device that plugs into the back of the muffler on the Norvel. This is a 3/4" ID automotive heater hose. At six feet long, it creates a really, really big muffler. Long and lots of volume. The end of this is going into a 5 gallon, plastic pail that'll have a multitude of small hoes drilled into it. I'm anticipating no loss of power and zero noise emissions except for the hiss of air coming out of many, many 1/16" holes drilled randomly all around the tub. There'd be pictures if the memory card on my camera hadn't got corrupted. Should have bought that spare and the computer kid at Staples tried to tell me but old farts rarely listen to the advice of rash youth, do we? Well, I speak for myself, but anyway, a few days from now and I'll be back in business.

Bentwrench,

I like your handle. Conversions from glow to diesel can be a very rewarding experience. Stewart has summarized the advantages of diesel very well. Once you experience diesel, it's hard to go back. Stick with a traditional fuel for now and you'll have no problems. Throttling becomes better sometimes and sometimes you just need to make the proper adjustments. Where diesel works to your advantage is the capacity to adjust the compression. With glow, if your idle is too rich, even with the low speed maxed out, you can bring it back into adjustable range by reducing the compression by adding a shim. Reducing compression requires a leaner high speed needle and this will lean out the mix to where the low speed adjuster will take effect. This, of course, requires some wrench work but with a diesel, it's just a tweak job. The control over your engine's performance is superior on a diesel.

Don't be afraid of a starter. Just use the engine as glow to break it in and find the settings. They'll be close and from there you can get a start and proceed to fine tune. At the outset, the very most important thing is to establish your compression setting WITH NO FUEL IN THE TANK. This prevents any danger from hydraulic lock when using a starter. Once you get a start, it's just a amtter of making the adjustments for that perfect run. After that, your new, diesel engine will start every time as long as you apply DROPS of prime at the intake. If you have very good compression seal, you're also in danger of being able to hand start the thing. Look Ma, no glow clip. [X(] Your flying buddies will be amazed and delighted.