Hey guys,

OK i recently purchased a RTF Nexstar, it comes with the OS .46 FXi engine. Apparently it's a great engine and I'm sure it is, but I just can't get it to run properly. The title of this thread says whats wrong with my nexstar's engine, but it may be more accurate to ask what am I doing wrong?

I'm very new at this so it could be something pretty simple that I'm just doing wrong. I know some of you will want to advise me to take it to a club and get some professionals to check it out but I'm not able to do that just yet, reason being that I need to get my radio certified before I can use it at the club, and I can't do that for a couple of weeks because the shop is closed, and I'd like to get the engine running well sooner than that.

The problem is the engine runs really rough and I can't get it to idle properly. By that I mean it just doesnt feel or sound right. It shakes quite a bit and it makes the whole plane vibrate. Also I cant get the plane to sit on the ground without moving forward. If I trim the throttle down enough for the plane to stay still, then the engine just almost stops. It runs somewhat better when the glow plug starter is on however still not perfectly. The RPM slows when I remove the glow starter (some times the engine actually dies but since replacing the glow plug it doesn't really die anymore) and the vibrating is much more significant.

A few more details: I'm using 5% nitro fuel. I've adjusted the needle valve as it says in the manual. It says close fully then open 1 - 1.5 turns. I've done this and then adjusted it slowly from there with the engine running and glow starter removed, 1/4 turn at a time and giving the engine time to catch up. After adjusting this it still won't run properly.

Any ideas on what could be happening? Once again I am inexperienced so please forgive me if I'm doing something completely wrong. Please let me know if you need any further clarification on anything I've said.

Your advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks, Chris.