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The Care & Feeding of 2-Stroke Motors

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N523SK

Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2020
Messages
13
Hi, Everyone:
  1. I'm a student pilot.
  2. I bought an airplane with one of the famous/infamous Rotax 670 motors (with the HO exhaust and the Ducati ignition) last year.
  3. The motor was installed and configured by an A&P in late 2018.
  4. The previous owner only put approximately 15 hours on the motor before he lost interest in aviation.*
  5. The airplane had been sitting, idle for most of 2019.
  6. The only recent use that the airplane has gotten has been the 2-hour flight from Antelope, OK to Wichita, KS (STOL Creek Avaition) and the use that it got when Michael Busenitz performed the annual, made some tuning changes to the motor, and re-pitched the propeller.
  7. The airplane has been in the hangar since I bought it.
* Some pilots that I spoke to during the inspection/purchase process expressed their opinion that maybe, that motor, in a pusher configuration, may have been too much for an inexperienced pilot such as the previous owner - But that's neither Here nor There. But it certainly indicates to me that I'll need to be very careful with this aircraft until I have more experience - much more experience!

Anyhow; I have questions about the care & feeding of this motor and 2-stroke motors in general:
  • How to maintain it.
  • How not to maintain it.
  • How to operate it.
  • How not to operate it.
  • How to store it.
  • How to take it out of storage and get it ready for the Season.
This might seem a little silly. But after reading the posts on this forum and others it's become clear to me that 2-stroke motors have their own unique set of needs. e.g.,
Because this is all new to me and the airplane is going to be sitting for a while longer while I finish my training: I'd like to ask what steps should be taken...
  1. to preserve the motor while I'm unable to operate it and then
  2. to prepare the motor for use once I find a pilot friend to exercise that motor for me. Or once I complete my training and I'm ready to fly it myself! (Very few of my pilot friends fly LSA's. None of my pilot friends fly pushers. And none of them fly LSA pushers!)
TIA,
Eric P.
N523SK
 
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