RE: Welcome to Club SAITO !
Dear God you guys won't believe what just happened to my .82.
It blew up. Not literally, but close enough.
I was running it on the bench today to try and clear out the air tool oil I had been using as an after run. Hobbsy thought it might have been causing a bit of build up and thus some valve leaking. I cleared it out and ran the engine for a few minutes and voila, that must have been it. The engine was running like a Swiss watch. Since I still had about 12oz. of fuel in the tank I decided to go ahead and let the engine run it out - more break-in time is always good and I don't like to mix fuel that has already been dispensed back into the main container. I peak the engine, 9900RPM with an APC 14x6. I idle it, peak the idle, it dies when slamming the throttle to full. Richen it up a bit, transition is flawless. I richen the engine to 9600RPM and set the throttle to around 6000RPM. I am about to go inside to get some water while the engine runs the fuel out when I hear a noise like someone letting up a clutch too fast without enough throttle - a metallic DINK sound, sort of. The engine stops dead. I go to turn the prop and I hear some rattling. Take intake valve cover off, looks fine. Take exhaust valve cover off... umm, big problem. This is no bueno! A piece of the rocker arm falls out, the spring goes flying who knows where, I can't find the valve retainer and the valve guide (you know, the big brass thing permanently inserted into the head) is not in the head. It's resting in the place where the valve spring should be. The valve itself is still in the cylinder. Maybe the other pieces are too.
Anyway, I think this engine is toast. Only 1.5 gallons through it, and it was a replacement for another .82 that I could not get running right. To top it off this .82 must have been one of the "good ones", in that it seemed to pull really strong numbers relative to other .82s.
I'm not upset at all. Mostly, I think I'm still in too much shock to be upset.
I will put up some pictures later tonight when I find my digital camera.
*sigh*