Im new to the hobby. A few months back I purchased a NOS K&B .61 glow engine. I hooked it up to a stand. Everything is hooked up correctly with my fuel tank. My adjusted fuel valve is 2.5-3 turns out from what was told is a good starting point.
I hooked up the charged stick to glow plug. The motor will run but for only 3-4 seconds then it dies. Sometimes it starts hard. I tried leaning it out & richening it with no changed. The carb it came with has one of those flat disc on the side you can adjust. I tried everything. The fuel I'm running is Cool Power 15% green fuel non castor. Someone told me I was nuts to run it on a K&B .61 others said it will be fine.
I have tried a different glow plug that's for this motor with no change. I am thinking my issue could be the wrong fuel or carb. I have taken the carb apart and cleaned it. Everything looks good. Im stumped. Any suggestions or pointing me in the right direction would be much appreciated.

put a new, long piece of fuel line on the carb nipple
make sure the disk adjustment for idle is at it's midpoint mark
open the throttle barrel such that a standard straight pin will just tightly pass through the opening.
set the main needle at 3 turns open from closed
blow through the long tube,

you should be able to move just a little air through at moderate resistance
while still blowing, open the throttle to full in a smooth consistent manner
you should feel mot of the resistance to airflow deplete.

if all that works out ok,
then you have good starting points for your initial start up points.

DO NOT try to start it with the throttle barrel completely closed, it has to have a 1/32 in. so opening to run.

this has worked for 60 years or so for me, when trying to get new, used, rebuilt, or whatever motors to run well enough that they could be fine tuned for flight..


your fuel choice is ok for most model engines.

The other thing I forgot to mention is I'm not running the factory muffler that that came with it. I put on a Pitts style muffler because it fits my plane much better.
I will try everything you suggested with the carb. I had the disc adjustment screw set in the middle. I was starting it with the throttle 1/4 open, that might be too much. It's just strange it runs 3-4 seconds then dies everytime.

I will keep you updated. Thank you.

Mongo's advice is spot on for a first start setup. It sounds like you are burning through the initial prime and then not drawing fuel. The problem may be somewhere between the carb and the fuel in the tank. If you put your finger over the carb opening and flip the prop, can you see fuel being drawn through the fuel line? If the throttle is open you should see fuel moving within a flip or two of the prop. This wont eliminate all fuel line problems as doing this puts a relatively strong suction on the fuel line but it at least demonstrates that fuel is actually making it to the carb. If you have an electric starter on hand, you should be able to see the engine draw fuel with the engine set up as Mongo describes. If the carb doesn't easily draw fuel from the tank your problem may be a pin hole in the fuel line or an unnoticed kink in the line. Is there a clunk on the fuel line to hold the end of the fuel line in the fuel in the tank. Basically, does the fuel have an uninterrupted path from the tank to the spray bar in the carburetor? The pitts carb shouldn't be a problem. Does it have a pressure nipple? if so, is the nipple clear? Usually there is a fuel line running from the nipple to the fuel tank vent. This uses pressure from the exhaust to pressurize the tank and act as a kind of fuel pump. Just sitting on an engine stand the engine should still run even if this is not connected but the tank does need a vent so that the carb isn't trying to draw against a vacuum in the tank. You need a path for air going into the tank to replace the fuel that is going into the carb. As I'm typing this I recall that I have more than once seen a situation where someone was setting up a new engine installation and they mixed the fuel and vent lines when installing the fuel tank. The vent line often wont be submerged in fuel. Everything looks okay but no fuel to the carb. I hope I'm not over explaining. I'm just trying to cover the possibilities without the engine in front of me.

Are you running a pressure line from the fuel tank to the muffler tap? Does the engine run if you leave the glo ignitor on?

carl

I have two lines in the 12oz. Sullivan tank. One is for the klunk that goes to the bottom of the tank and the other is the vent that points up into the nipple as per the directions. I did double check the lines if I had them backwards and they are correct. I have the tank mounted as close to the motor as I can so my lines are not too long. There is a hose from the nipple on the muffler going to the vent line in the tank. The klunk line goes to my fuel adjusted valve then a hose from the valve to the carb. I have taken a separate hose connected to the fuel valve and blew air as I opened it, I could feel less resistance the more I opened it up. The same for the carb. More air I could blow through the more the more the throttle opened.
I do use an electric start motor to spin the prop. It does draw fuel pretty good with finger over th carb or not. When I do get the motor to start I been keeping the glow stick on the glow plug because the motor only will run 3-4 seconda then dies.
Im gonna try a different fuel OR try adding a little castor oil to see what happens because I keep getting mixed answers that fuel could be the issue. I'll keep you in the loop. Thank you for your answers

If the engine runs with the glo ignitor on then dies when you take it off, you might have a bad plug OR the needle valves are grossly out of adjustment. Try adjusting the high speed needle valve with the ignitor on and engine running full throttle until it runs well. Then disconnect the glo ignitor. If it still dies, the plug is bad.

carl

Yeah I don't take the glow igniter off the plug. I have tried a different glow plug with no change. Im going to get some different fuel with castor and see what happens.

Lot’s of very good advice here. I run my K&B 61s on 5% nitro and 22% oil half of which is castor. However, the engine should start and run fine on what you have.

I assume the fuel is fresh and there are no air bubbles in the line when you choke the engine. True?

The engine sounds like it’s starved for fuel. Sometimes, in this situation, I just go ahead and open up the needle another 1/2 to full turn and see if anything changes.