Hi Jon, Hobbsy, Fiery, Hans,
I am planning to build the Proctor Albatros. I will put the LASER 300 Vee in it. Yesterday I visited a friend, who is a carpenter, at his workshop. We build a test-stand (beautiful work on his part, by the way) and got the LASER running for the first time. Oh what an engine. He himself is a Harley buff. And he instantly loved the sound of that Laser. Now I am planning to build as big an exhaust as possible to enhance the low frequencies. Any experience with that?
I tried to use my old starter on it - but that was a joke. Not a chance to turn the thing. So I hand-proped ist. More scale, anyhow, isn't it. And after a few initial throws where I thought it might not start or something is wrong, it fired. It ran smoothly from the beginning. I had opened the needles four full turns as described in the manual. I slowly turned them in one whole turn. And it idled just beautifully and responded instantly when I opened the throttle. Not a caugh or anything. Very low vibration. So from those few first minutes I can say: I totally recommend that engine. It is a piece of art!
Any suggestions as to fuel, oil, lubrication, service intervalls (rocker adjustment and so on) are welcome.
All the best, Martin