I have the original Novarossi RS12 (circa 2001). Haven't run it in about three years. I'm having a heck of a time getting it to work correctly again.

There are a few issues.

#1: Won't restart. It has to cool down. WAY down (<100 degrees) for it to start up again.

#2: Fuel is coming out of the air intake. Not a whole lot, but enough for the air filter to get pretty saturated with fuel after a while. Once the filter gets too saturated, it starves the engine and makes it quit.

#3: Runs hot. Once I lean it out enough so it's not spewing out fuel from the pipe, it starts running in the 290 range.

Is it shot? There is still good compression to it, and although it's an old engine, I really didn't run it for very long and always at decent temps. I think the default is four turns out for the lsn, five out for the hsn, so I've tried that to no avail (also tried 3 and 4).

Any tips would be appreciated.

Do you use three years old fuel?

hahah, no. O'donnel 20%. Just a few days old.

maybe check the pressure line, mine wasnt long enough the other day and it was drawing fuel from the tank and spewing it out.

#1: Won't restart. It has to cool down. WAY down (<100 degrees) for it to start up again.

Carburetor over heat. It usual happened when the LSN too lean.

#2: Fuel is coming out of the air intake. Not a whole lot, but enough for the air filter to get pretty saturated with fuel after a while. Once the filter gets too saturated, it starves the engine and makes it quit.

HSN too rich.

#3: Runs hot. Once I lean it out enough so it's not spewing out fuel from the pipe, it starts running in the 290 range.

When the LSN on leaning side it will cause your engine running hot too. But when you rich the main needle to cool down,then the engine will become weak.

Rich the LSN and lean the HSN. Try to find the balance point.

Your carb might be gummed up with the old fuel residue. A good cleaning might be in order after 3 years on the shelf.

if only it's as easy as you make it seems to. I'm still working on it, too!

Too simple or too hard?

Update: I leaned and riched upwards and downwards to no avail. Started looking for more air leaks. I had already sealed up the carb with more gasket sealant than a real car would ever need, so I knew that wasn't leaking. Then I noticed the front bearing was shot. Got me a new one of those.

So then I put the engine together and it wouldn't start. Not even close. Messed with the lsn/hsn for what seemed like hours (maybe an hour), and no luck. Started trying out different glowplugs. Finally got it to start with the red novarossi plug (hot).

With the leak sealed and with this new plug, it seems to be running well. It idles nicely and it even started up when it was hot (first time in forever). Tomorrow I'm heading to the track to test it out.