The motors are quite tight, but if you read the manual that came with the motor you will see that that is how they are designed. Very tight at the last part of the piston travel. This expands with heat and works well, and then once cool it will be tight again.

The only thing I did differently to the instruction in the manual, is that I used the 'Josh Cyrul' method for the first tank. His method runs the first tank at wide open throttle as rich as possible. After that I went with the varied throttle under load without the engine being overly rich so it made good temperature in short bursts during the running in process.

Having a strong starter box is about the only thing that will help with turning it over when it's new. But once you've gone through a few tanks you'll be sorted. Using heat to help getting it fired initially isn't a bad idea so you were on the right track.

Even after 3/4 of a gallon through my motor it is still hard to get turning at the start of a race/test day when the motor is cold.

Cheers,

Mike.