I've put them in the oven to melt the old castor goop. I don't recall the exact temp but I would guess the 200 degree range would suffice.

Jim

I don't recall there being a hole there.

I have a good runner!!  She turns 19.5K with a Cox 5x3 3 blade prop.  25 % fuel and a balloon tank.  Started instantly and ran the hole 3/4 oz fuel steady as a rock.  This one will become the front engine for DO-335.  I paid $10 for this one.  Rollin Keszier picked it up at a swap meet for me.  Wow - thanks Rollin!!          

              I have a few of the TD's with the oil hole as you describe. This is usually with the earlier thin walled cylinders. Ken

Ken,  Is this a good thing?  It seem to run strong.

           While I do like having the oil hole, I don't feel this is where the TD needs help. I've had a few break cranks at the square cutout and I also have had the entire web of the crank break off right where it meets the smaller portion of the crank. I've seen a few of the crank pins break off as well. This generally happens when the rpm's are about 23K. Seeing that my engines were being used for combat, I always wondered if some of the abrupt ground pounding was responsible for the breakage. The cranks never broke during a hit to the ground as it always happened when running. The later TD's don't have this oil hole and I never had a rod seize on the pin. I would like to think this is due to it receiving enough lubrication while running. The ball socket though is a very poor design in my opinion .  I've had several failures with the ball socket. Many of my engines have had the ball socket break through the top of the piston. This happened even with resetting. If it doesn't punch through the top it breaks on the underside. Ken