Is it a very bad idea to break-in/run a nitro engine in freezing temperatures? Right now the weather around my place is about -15 to -20 degrees, Celcius, or about 5 to -5 Farenheit. I know some of you are probably going to tell me I'm an idiot for trying to run in these temperatures and that I should wait until warmer weather, but warmer weather is months away. If running my engines in this weather means I need to replace the pistion/sleeve come summer, so be it, the enjoyment I get out of it is well worth it to me.

Anyway, I finally replaced the ancient and crappy Pro .15 in my TMaxx with an OS .18 CV-RX. I let it idle 1 tank indoors, just because I didn't want to take it straight outside. The second tank I idled sitting inside my door, but with the door open to let fumes out. After that, I took it outside, and started running it gently up and down the sidewalk, no WOT. For the fourth tank, I started giving it some short blips of throttle, but never to WOT.

I have been running it with the body on to try and keep the engine warmer, and I have the cuff from a wool sock that I just stretch over the cooling head, in an attempt to keep it warm. I do not have a temp gun at this point, but my "home test" is seeing if small bits of snow boil off the head, it must be around 220F

Now, the engine seems to be going fine so far, around 6-7 tanks through including the first 2 idled ones. There is still a slight pinch if I try to rotate the flywheel, more than just compression, so I know it's not fully broken in. It's very difficult for me to try and break these in/tune them because I only got into the hobby in October, and don't have a lot of experience. The temps I'm running in make my carb settings drastically different than typical, so I don't really know if I'm being harmful to the engines.

I'm posting this because I'll be putting the finishing touches on my Nemesis soon, and will need to break it in. I guess if I made a mistake on the OS, I'd like to know so that I don't make the same mistake with the 7.7. Is there anyone else here that runs nitro engines in very low temperatures, and can you give me any hints that you've picked up? I feel like I'm flying blind here, trying to tune these myself. I've already asked my LHS's and they all tell me I shouldn't be running in this weather, but it's too fun not to.

That, and my TMaxx is extraordinarily clean, not a speck of dirt anywhere. There's some advantages to driving around in the snow [8D]

Thanks for any help, sorry for the long post.