Hello; I was "training" a newby at our field yesterday, He brought a new "Easy Flight" with a 40 LA in it. We checked it all over Then fired it up and had a flight. I had tuned it up for a safe flight, and it was runninng okay. I trimmed it out and handed it over to him. While he was flying around, he told me that it is the first flight ever for that engine. He did pretty well for awhile then the engine stopped, and I landed the plane with no damage. The head was too hot and oily.

A few other fellows wanted to fly, so I went on to the next student. When the fellow was ready to go again, he couldn't get the engine to start, we richened it up and got it to run, but it would bog when advancing the throttle. After trying a few things, we got it to throttle by leaning out the bottom one turn in ((air bleed screw), the engine ran, but just barely, and when it dead sticked, I brought it in right away and the head was almost cold. It could easily be held in your hand. Once again, the head was very oily.

We went back to the bench and re-fueled and fired it up; While it was running, there seemed to be oil running off the left side of the joint where the head attaches to the barrel. We tuned it up and had another flight, after trying to tighten the head screws. This time we only got 5 minutes on a full tank, and more oil all over the same spot.

Did we overheat it? and warp the head?

It runs, but not verywell, it seems to need to be re-tuned after every flight. What should I advise him to do?

I suspect that the the cyl head screws are loose. That engine has a 4-bolt head with phillips screws -- they often loosen -- it is a chronic problem. I usually carry a supply of socket-head screws in my flight box for student's engines. I can't remember the correct size right off the top of my head.

Make sure that the head is seated flat on the block (not cocked), then tighten the screws incrementally in a criss-cross pattern. It should be OK, but you will have to re-tune the air-bleed screw.

It would be a good thing to also check the back-plate screws & the carb hold-down screws.

It sounds IMO like it did overheat, how badly I don't know. The LA should be broken in slightly richer than normal operating settings. Too rich and the engine won't warm up enough to break in the engine right. You don't want sloppy rich like on a ringed engine. The fact that you needed to richen to get it to start also makes me think too lean. Does it still have the "tight spot" at the top of the compression stroke? Did it have good compression "feel" before first start?

Oily? I can't think of anywhere it might come from but the head seal at this moment.

Hello; first of all, thanks for your help with this engine. Yes it still has that tight spot at TDC. Whenever it stops, it seems to stop at TDC and it's hard to turn the prop either direction. Also the needle valve was loose, but because of the way the engine is mounted, we couldn't get at the screws to tighten them up. We tried to tighten the head screws, but it didn't stop the oil from the head.

You need to make sure the backplate is tight or it will never draw fuel very well.

The oil on the head may be coming from the front bearing area?

Jim