I suspect that many of us (Old Farts) are still thinking in terms of breaking-in lapped piston engines of many years ago. They did require a good break-in for top performance, however I've mounted many a McCoy, Fox and K&B lapped piston engine on my models and just tuned it for max rpm and let it go on my control line models. They seemed to "break-in" just fine without all of the blubbery rich four-stroking that the old timers of the day recommended.

Later, as I became a little more educated (read more model magazine articles) I began babying my engines of all types. Why? Well, because the engines did seem to run better and feel better, plus I just enjoyed running engines and when it was too windy to fly, I'd mount up several on the engine test stand and have at it.

Today's engines are a far cry from what was available back when I was a kid starting out. You can fly-in most engines as long as you start out with the needle valve rich enough to still be running somewhat rich at the end of the tank of fuel. What you can't do is count on the throttling to be 100% reliable. So, think out your break-in flights before hand so as to keep the model upwind of the landing site and with enough altitude to make it back to the field. Good luck.


Ed Cregger