When I was first introduced to these engines about 9 years ago, I couldn't even get them to start. I was trying to apply the knowledge I gathered using Cox engines. These are entirely different engines. The instructions for starters were pretty vague about the initial break-in of these engines. A friend of mine pointed me towards the now defunct Norvel website. The site gave a terrific description in detail on how to run these engines. The engines that I'm describing are the Revlite engines. The older Norvel engines were just of the ABC style and didn't seem to have the same amount of pinch as the Revlite engines. The instructions are pretty clear that higher usage of nitro may possibly shorten the life of these engines. I haven't experienced this myself and I use a lot of nitro as much as 40% in some of them. I also run them on fuel as low as 10%. I typically use fuel of at least 20-22% oil content usually a 50-50 mix. The initial break in is very critical to these engines. The engines should be cleaned thoroughly to start with. Norvel recommended washing the engines with gasoline first. Later instructions included the use of kerosene or denatured alcohol. I believe this was to flush out the oil that was used to assemble the engine. It was then critical to place the piston at the bottom of the cylinder closing off any intake ports and filling the cylinder to the top with castor oil. This would penetrate the porous cylinder walls and help with initial start up. I myself skipped this process and I feel that my engine is suffering from it. The instructions would then state that with the glow plug removed you were to manually turn the engine in its opposing direction that it runs a minimum of 200 times. I found this to be almost impossible at times as the piston would just lock. Well you do the next best thing and force it over. I'm sure I'm not the only one guilty of this procedure. Well, its literally robbing the life of the piston cylinder fit and placing a lot of stress on the rod and wrist pin. Thats when my father told me to use a hair dryer or heat gun to expand the cylinder. It works and works well. I even found that holding it in your hand would sometimes expand the fits enough. I found the need to turn the engines over an hour manually while keeping the cylinder well oiled. I would always use castor as 3 in 1 is too thin and is not recommended even in the Norvel instructions. After that, I would chuck the crank in my drill press and hold the cylinder steady and let it turn for almost 5-10 minutes. I would keep the heat gun in one hand while holding the case with the other. These procedures were all done prior to putting the plug on and fueling the engine. I found this almost to be a necessity with these engines. All of the above was Norvel's recommendations and not mine. The engine was then run in a wet 2 stroke for short periods of time letting cool down in between runs. I would imagine that in the event that some of these instructions weren't followed, the life would be considerably shortened. I know there is a lot of people that would rather not take the time to follow the instructions to the letter. As for Ray's comment of the pinch diminishing, I found that as well. I also discovered that the engines that feel like they have the least amount of compression currently are also my fastest runners. I have a few with pretty worn crankcase that I use for combat stuff that really turn up the rpm's. I'm well aware that the tighter fits are better, but at least until they self destruct I'm enjoying them. I have a few that have been shaft run, crash damaged, seized up and I've been able to get them all back and working without replacing parts. I'm a big fan of these engines. Ken
Topic: Longevity of Norvel AME Engines? (Read 2032 times)
