Hi All,

Mike's SS30S has the weakest / most leaky compression I've ever felt in a glow engine in the .25 - .40 range. Even my Fox and McCoy .35s are better. Hand starting, without a muffler, seems possible, but for muffled operation it is much easier to just use his starter. Nothing wrong with it when its running 'though. I'd be interested in some comparisons with another SS30 'though. Luke - do you have any figures for yours yet?

Bob - I know what you mean about variability in engines and what feels like the good one not necessarily being the best runner. Case in point - my two OS MAX-S .35s. One of them I have had since it was NIB, broken in carefully on all castor fuel. Great compression. The other is a C/L conversion of an R/C one from eBay. Unknown history, maybe some running on synthetic. Doesn't feel nearly as nice to turn over. In practice when I put them on the bench they are both 2nd flick starters, and I can't separate them by 50rpm with my tacho when running on the same plug & fuel.

Another example was my CS Olly. Steve and I both bought Olly clones on eBay recently. His felt GREAT from the beginning. Mine felt like a piece of utter junk. We ended up having both of them "seen to" by David Owen. Turns out that mine is the stronger runner!

None of this seems to apply to older Enyas as a rule. I have a range of them (including some of the recent "vintage" builds Ken Enya put out), and all of them have fits & compression that are extraordinary. The only better fitted engine in my collection is an early '60s Cox TD .049 which gave me the absolute pips getting it to run the first time.

cheers,
Colin