Cutaway,

I recall that engine, vaguely, from the mid- or late-60's. The Army sent me odd places in those days, so only intermittent opportunities... Did try to keep up with the magazine coverage, but again, only sporadically.

Couple of 'environmental factors' that may apply... Those were the days when our younger people seemed to have two main hobbies: slot cars and political protest. AMA's total membership dropped to less than 20,000, if I recall right, in a few of those years. The hard core cadre among us who were able to keep active had certain preferences for and against particular products and manufacturers - and Fox, Mfg., didn't always package lovely sculptures the way K&B, ENYA and OS did. Their QC varied from tolerable to somewhat less than.

So, for timing, reputation, snootiness, and whatever, there didn't seem to be many using your particular engine at that time. It might be fine, given what we now understand about how to make engines run, the need for ample castor for iron in steel piston/cyl engines, and the variety of props we can check to see what makes it happiest. As iron pistons are heavier than the modern aluminum alloy pistons, the older engines are likely to shake a bit more. They did then, and we've become spoiled, since then.

Still, given proper (oilier) fuel and moderate stress operation (at its happiest RPM range, that should be ample power, btw) iron in steel engines last very well, and are dependable and tolerant of conditions.