Originally Posted by
jeromerc
Yes, I have tried everything I can think of accept for checking all the parts with precision measuring tools. I have sealed the engine, changed o-rings in the carb, replaced the carb with one from a different Orion, new fuel system from tank to lines, new exhaust, different mills, fuel cooler, no fuel cooler, extra fuel filter no extra fuel filter, taken out shims added shims, new glow plugs, different fuel, different flywheels, collets, new clutch springs, new shoes. Hell I even changed the head button out with the new one from my 2012 Orion CRF 5 port. The only thing that seemed to work but it still isn't reliable was what Monty told me to do and take the carb out, blow through the fuel line, then take the needles out and blow through the line again, and then to clean all the needles and reassemble it. After doing this I was able to get my first tank of fuel through the engine, however shortly after the first tank the same problem all over again. I once again did what he said but this time I put an entirely new fuel system on the car, new tank and lines. Sometimes it can run about 5 minutes or half a tank, other times hardly at all. I have never checked my temp and found it over 250, I think the highest was like 248. When it dies it usually starts right back up no problem. The saddest thing in the world is that this engine is awesome when it is running. It is wicked fast on the straights, tons of low end power and literally pulls away from all the other engines on the track, even the new OS Speed's and 7 port Novarossi's
Hi Jerome: you may have tried this already... I am/was having the same issues with my Team Orion, sounds identical really, I did some of the things you mentioned and got some run time then went back to flame outs. Here is what I did recently and got about 20 full tanks through. I did this because I was fed up with the motor and didn't care about it, I would try anything.
I was fed up with flame outs after 2mins too, I was trying to tune low end to .5-1mm idle gap but no longer cared just wanted to run. A friend suggested to run it at a higher idle speed and rich-en up the LSN. Did this to run a full tank with out flame outs.
I made sure it was spitting fuel at high idle had some 1.1 clutch springs and O'Donnell 77t Hot plug on the car, so idle is pretty high. I started with LSN 5 1/2 turns out and HSN at 4 1/2 turns out from bottom (LSN looks flush) and rich-end LSN from there (about 1 1/2 - 2 turns out) Because it was so rich, it was hard to get the engine to 180 deg, but I ran it and it didn't flame out, I ran it a lot and ran it hard to get the temp up to 208. Also, as I got the temp up to 200 I would re-tune to that temp so it idled high but not as high as it was at lower temp, now it wasn't ideal but it didn't flame out which was what I was trying to do. Oh fuel mileage was poor as you can guess, had thick blue smoke everywhere, I ran it for about 20 tanks. Had some fun finally.
Now, it would load up with fuel pretty quickly and had to feather the throttle to clear and get to some power; it was there, had to work at getting to it. I thought this is where it had to live.
Not settled yesterday, I got motivated to try tuning again just not so rich and not as high a idle, just to try and get better fuel mileage. It was time to change glow plug this time O'Donnell 97t medium. Again, I set LSN 5 1/2 turns out and HSN at 4 1/2 turns out from bottom, this time closed the idle gap down a bit (don't know the gap looks like 1mm),
Goal:
*a med-high idle speed
*use less fuel than before.
In both cases used HSN to keep temp around 210-220. (turned in about 1/2 - 3/4) Still surprised at how far out the needles are. Well I ran 5 tanks yesterday in a not so rich state, got longer run times, and it did not flame out! Still loads up but not nearly as fast and more power with out all the feathering! Starting to run more predictably.
I had a little over 1.5 gallons through it, I think what happened here is that it was still dropping it's nuts. (I think mine has 3 of them and one had not dropped yet) The continued running is helping it drop them more. I will keep running it and let you know if it starts to flame out again. Maybe the something to do with the densities of the alloys and making it break-in abnormally.
Good luck!