We don't have needle settings to give you or a temp. That's because anything we tell you cannot be correct for those items. What needle settings you find when you tune the engine, and what temperatures the engine runs at are the "correct" ones. You have to set the engine based upon how it sounds and handles. The number of turns on the needles or the temps can only be very rough guides to let you know if you are anywhere close. Your engine will tune where it needs to go, and not where someone tells you. We only count needle turns when setting the very rough "ballpark" settings. We then richen or lean the engine based upon where it needs to go. As long as the engine's running well, we never worry about how many turns. They are what they are.

Same with temperature. As long as the engine's running well, we ignore the temps, and never use them to tune an engine.

If an engine just stops running in mid-flight, and there's no fuel system problem, then the greatest likelihood is a too-lean setting. That's a very common reason engines quit...especially if they are set by temp or number of turns of the needle. You have to set an engine by performance...either by sound and handling, or by using a tach on the engine to locate the peak RPM and then tune to be rich of that setting. That's also the most likely reason why the engine quit and shed parts of the piston the first time.

Finally, ignore the amount of smoke you're getting. Different fuels will emit different amounts of smoke when the engine's running. We know one fuel that is rather smoky, even when the engine's running too lean. You can only rely on smoke as a rough indicator once you know how the engine tends to run, and when you have it properly-set in the first place.