Charming. What is it about this hobby that seems to attract such idiosyncratic people?

I suppose technically you could be accused of stealing from the US Government if those engines hadn't been written-off as a loss yet, but either way there are much bigger fish to fry.

If it were me I would've waited a month, then bought the parts I needed using a new account. No sense letting the guy have more power and control than he deserves.

Considering he charged $70 for a whole carburetor (and I needed two), I was better off using the secondary market anyway. Turns out a fellow enthusiast had two good carburetors that he sent to me for free. So screw Randy Linsalato. He’s a dink.

And FWIW - the RCMAT program was discontinued sometime in the early 1990s. My engines were made in 1991. I’d think they’re “out of the system” by the time I received them about 10 years ago. Leftover RCMAT kits and engines were thrown into the dumpster. People then removed them from the dumpster and proceeded to either sell them or fly them. I have one of the RCMAT planes made by Carl Goldberg. 6’ fuse and 6’ wingspan. Flies very slowly with the K&B .65 and more realistic with a 1.20.

I actually have a pipe for a HB .21 PDP Marine engine, picked it up many moons ago in Germany. Maybe it's a collectors item now.

Those HB .21s are fairly rare these days, so anything made to fit them is a bit rare too. You could probably make a few bucks (or whatever your currency is) selling it on eBay. People routinely pay $400 for $50 engines all the time.

You're probably right, it's just that I would have to find that One person looking for one. I'm just to lazy for that!
Did try it on an old TT .20, thought the damn engine would come apart, otherwise the pipe is as new.

Yeah, it’s tough to find the right buyer in an auction setting..

That's one thing, then you have to deal with the postal service we have here... Shipping will easily be more expensive then the part, if they can decide what to charge!
Most of the time it's a cheaper to buy something from outside the country here, then you just pay the other countrys fee.

Yeah, I can see how that might happen. Ebay’s “Global shipping program” is a bit hokey - most of the time, actual shipping charges are
1/4 or what eBay charges... it’s pretty stupid.

I've never sold anything there, didn't know they had their own shipping program. Many times it's cheaper there when it comes to shipping then ordering from the stores own web page, well at least some of the stores in the US.

Well, with the eBay Global Shipping program, you're paying for an eBay contractor to handle the customs paperwork for you, and then all the items destined for a specific country get put in a crate and loaded onto a cargo airplane all at once. That stuff costs money.

The problem is even the shipping costs for domestic US shipments organized through eBay are priced so stupidly as well. I bought a $75 engine and shipping through ebays global program was $16. When the box arrived, the USPS postage sticker said $7.90. I understand the box and packaging costs money, but $8.10? Not likely.

Well, profit also costs money.

I learned the lesson to only buy from people who don’t use the global shipping program. Life is happier for my limited budget. I’m not willing to throw money at the eBay conglomerate anymore.

eBid has lower fees, but almost nobody uses it. I think I found exactly one part I needed on eBid in the past 5 years.

So, now I have a different-but-related question. My old engines have exhaust ports cut into their cylinder sleeves that are smaller than the exhaust ports in their crankcases, so when you look in through the side of the crankcase you see a rim of exposed cylinder liner. If I understand correctly, this rim would act as a reversion dam to partially-obstruct returning pressure pulses traveling up the exhaust stream. Is there any benefit to this? My newer engines all have port-matched sleeves and crankcases, so I'm inclined to think the exposed rim surrounding the exhaust ports on my old engines are not useful. But I'm asking anyway, because maybe there's something else about the designs of those old engines that makes it beneficial to obstruct returning pressure pulses.

You can see what I'm talking about if you look closely at the exhaust port below:



To be clear, I'm not asking if I should enlarge the exhaust ports in the cylinder liners to match the crankcases. I know that would change the exhaust timing and affect the performance of the engines in ways I might not want. But would it be beneficial to sculpt the outer edges of the exhaust ports to match the crankcases, so returning pressure pulses wouldn't have any hard edges to get hung-up on?