I am an idiot see below...

I just bought a new dalton with a 3w 150-qs on cans. the engine was upgraded with new case and pistons in janurary of this year. It has had 10 gallons through it since rebuild. It has the old style ignition and the titillison carb. It is on 3w cans, and running a fuchs 33x10 prop.
Today was my planned maiden. I copied the programming from the previous owner 9z--to--9z. I fueled her up and filpped and flipped and the engine would not fire choke on and off. Next I removed a spark plug to see if it was getting fire and it wasn't. I switched to the back up ignition and could not see it firing either. next i removed and cleaned the pick up assuming it was bad. I called a friend and he said you can not get a spark unless you flip the engine over I was just moving the magnet past the pickup. I watched the plug while a friend flipped and could not see a spark. so I cupped the plug in my hand to block out outside light and sure enough both ignitions was giving me a spark but I wasn't seeing it in the daylight. Felling stupid I put everything back together and noticed that the engine was not choking all the way. I had changed the choke from a switch to a slider and I had reduced the endpoints too much. DUGH...The previous owner told me I would need to tweak the needles because he had ran out of fuel at his last contest and switched from 40-1 penzoil(break-in) to 80-1 synthetic, and when he did this he tweaked the needles. Anyway the titilson did not have h and l lables like a warbro so when i tried to tweak the needle to set the high end 200rpm below peak i was tweaking the wrong needle and changed it a lot, a call to a friend tought me which needle was what. now i tweaked the other needle a little. Now the top end and idle was good but the transistion sucked. 2 hours later the transision was ok and the top and bottom end seemed ok so i decided to give it a try. With everything reassembled I took off but the engine was really bogged down. I landed and was only making 4100 rpm. Another Hour on the needles I gave up.
I think the progression of events, I got my needles all out of whack. Can somebody give me some advice on where to start the needles at and the best way to adjust them from there.

Frestrated,

Dan

High is 1 1/4 turns. Low is 1 1/2 turns. I set my low speed just close and set the high end first. Then go back and do the final adjustment of the low.

Thanks I will start there.

when you set your high, What incriments do you turn the needles, and how do you set it?

How do you set the low end?

Set the needles to stock. I find most 3ws the sweet spot on the low end is when you first start it, and the motor is cold, if you transition the throttle quickly just after starting and it stumbles like its lean, wait 30 sec to warm up or so and after warming up it now takes the throttle perfectly, thats a good spot for the low end. High end I set by temping the motor. Since yours has painted heads 220-240 is a good place to set them, then back up check I check the color of the spark plug, and also make sure it does not sag going vertical at all. I typically only move the needles between 1/16 and 1/8th at the most initially.

What he said. If you can't temp the engine, use a good tach and lean until you think you aren't going to gain anymore rpm. Check the plugs after a run and look for the plugs to be a tan color. After you've done this, and the engine is warm, fly the airplane and see how it transitions in the air. You can tweak the low end a little bit if you need. On the first flight of the day next time out, as soon as you get it running, advance the throttle and see what happens. It should stumble until it warms up. After 30 seconds or so, you should have good transition.



Dan

I think she is 90% there. I set the needles back to factory then tweaked just a little. After warming up the transition was beautiful.

I noticed that if I transition from a low Idle extremly quickly(as fast as I can move the stick) she will sometimes Die, but if I transition quick, but not too quick she transitions beautiful. The first flight she seemed a little rich so I leaned the high in a tiny bit and it seems better now. It was 100% humidity and I was flying in a drizzle.

What should my low end RPM be? I have an Idle down programmed to a slider for landing. This engine will idle under 1000 RPM. On flight 2 I did a few spins and the engine died on the second one, I was wondering if i need to bump up my Idle or tweak some more. Next time I fly I will check the plugs color. On the ground the engine is turning 5600--5700 with a fukes 33x10 and cans.

Dan

Did you temp it?

No I do not have a temp gun. I can borrow one next time I fly.
When should I check it, On the ground before flying, or after landing? When I check it should it be after I land and kill the engine? What would the optimal temp be?

Fly it how you would normally fly it for about 10 min or so and land, as soon as you land walk out to the runway and shut the engine down. Check it as soon as you can after touching down and killing it. With painted heads I would look for 220-250.