On the Mantra, which way does the button go. One side a 1 dot, the other has 1 dot and a arrow.?

It is a full symetric part so actually it does not matter how it is placed. But the arrow is a mark to face the exhaust and if there is no arrow than the dotes will be the mark to face the exhaust.

I'd love to know this too!! How come its so quiet with these engines? Seems to be a better deal than a stock novarossi

DANIELE IELASI is guy that modifies or does custom build of Novaorossi engines. They are great engines I have a GT 5 port engine and an 7 Port On road engine and .12 onroad engine. They are fast and get great fuel consumption. I have not bough any off road engine. But I would not hesitate doing so. I have turned to on road playing. Very much worth the money.
wallacemotorsports.net/ and I am not a sells man either.

To answer your question Yes easy to tune. They are just screamers.

Alright so decided to give this nitro thing a full go. Ended up with a 1/8 buggy and bought the paloma engine since it was on sale and i am used to how the 1/8 E buggies hit hard on the low end. And again, it was on sale :)

Anyway, the break-in was really tough using Adam Drake's method (not saying his method was tough, just the overall break-in experience was tough). The engines factory needle settings were not the ones mentioned on the website. The engine would not fire with those out of the box settings and was really tough to get through break-in with the recommended factory settings. Now, part of this may be that I was using break in fuel which maybe its make up needed leaner needles (this is what I saw) as when I went to the regular race fuel (2 tanks) it seemed much easier after break in getting it to fire.

I also had a glow plug from the factory (the one installed in the engine) that would have air bubbles and fuel come out of it. With one fresh one and no issues, break-in was still tough, but we got through it

Is there some trick in the future concerning these engines to watch for (or just novarossi in general) for break -in?

I am new to the nitro world so if there are any guides I can print to have on hand for tuning feel free to post.

I find Novarossi engines pretty easy to run and operate - including breaking them in. The needle settings out of the box are too rich. They almost always need to be leaned out to get the engine to idle and get it to run clean (and not 4-stroke) on the top end - oily fuel or not. I break in with 14% oil and drop 1% for each quart until I get to -1% where I stay. Not a single issue getting the engines running or tuning. Heck, I have 2 gallons on the stock OEM plug in my Legend 28-8RT.

Inexperience usually involves some struggle. The learning curve is steep without any prior knowledge.

search the forums, there is one for engine break in and one for engine tuning. Something like nitro tuning Bible, or similar. Very helpful.

The problem with those guides is that the information is a bit inaccurate. Not to mention the fact so many guys think the factory settings are break-in settings - which they are NOT. Lean the damn needles down so the engine will run. If it is hard to start, floods, etc. Lean it down! I’m not saying lean it so it is too lean, but just *JUST* lean enough so it will idle on its own and start easy.

And don’t idle it more than needed. Idling isn’t good for them despite popular belief.

The tuning Bible is a sticky at the top of the off road nitro engine forum

Hey man thanks for the input. Can you compare these to other modified engines you have run in the past?

yeah right now it seems to go good with the regular fuel.

So here is a question then, on the nova engines what do you recommend leaning out first for break-in?

Being new with the 3 needles just want to make sure I am looking at the right one to start with.

Also, any of you had an glow plugs from the factory that seem to want to let in air? I had this with the factory one, but a replacement one was fine so curious if there something to look for on the plug itself to know you got a bad one.

All of my fresh engines do start and run with factory setting and were always on the rich side. My experience is that with a tight pinch the idle need to be raised

With a preheated engine, the taper is relaxed. I’ve never needed to raise the idle gap significantly to get an engine to idle. Every engine I’ve ever owned were set too rich from the factory. I would preheat to 200F and after running a 1/4 tank find the head temp dropped to 150-170F - which is too cold IMO. I am not one of those guys that wraps the head to artificially hold heat in. I run an oilier fuel initially and adjust the needles to get the engine to run at operating temperature. This has served me well for 20 years. But like everything Nitro related, everyone will have different experiences and advices. I advise based solely on my own experience and what has worked for me. I haven’t had an engine fail on me yet and most of the engines I’ve had were cheap RTR jobs.

thanks, got this paloma due to the cheap price, nice power delivery, hoping nitro this time around goes well!