You know, there's something very satifying in taking a discarded machine and bringing it back to life.
I gotta tell ya: I'm feeling mighty satisfied right about now.
Burned much midnight oil last night without realizing it in my attempt to fully free up the crank and carb of a really old and completely gummed up Veco 19 that a gentleman had given me.
Once assembled with a glow plug, the compression felt like that of a new engine. Lots of bite.
So, I used my .25 combat plane fuselage as a test bench this morning, fueled it up, fired up the glow plug...and darned if it didn't run even without a pressurized tank.
FYI, the tank had to have some sort of ventilation. Woudn't run at all when I plugged off the line I normally use for pressure.
It doesn't like being run lean, it really doesn't like to idle (although it may be because the exhaust port is closing too far) and it's sputtering a bit on the top end. It also wants to flame out after about half a minute; I suspect that the carb gasket is contributing. That missing carb setscrew might be contributing as well. I couldn't really adjust the mixture screw when it was running since it happens to be on the same side as the exhaust port. Owie.
I didn't pull the pressure line off of the tank, so the engine might have been "sucking through a straw," as it were.
What I do know is this: An engine that likely dates back to the Kennedy administration (or earlier) and which languished in a box of junk for heaven knows how many years (or decades) is a viable, operating machine once more.
There may very well be a vintage project in that engine's near future.