The LA is indeed, a bushing engine. Bronze sleeve. Two typical reasons for an engine to run excessively hot are too lean and/or too much (diameter) prop. It needs to break in a little, too. Run it on the "wet" side of lean and use a smallish (10-4, 9.5-6) prop for the first few tanks. ABC/N engine - use fuel with synthetic oil or a syn/castor mix. Around 10%-15% nitro.