I fired up my China Diesel for the first time today. I had a little problem with air in the fuel line to start, but once that was resolved she fired right up!
I'm amazed at how easy this thing is to kick off by hand. I was thinking I was going to have to crank till I was blue in the face to get enough momentum up, but it's actually quite easy. Maybe about 15 cranks to get up to speed, then release the compression relief lever and away she goes!
LOUD though.....I need to shim the injector to change the timing... it's popping too soon and creating a hellacious knock. From inside the house, it sounds like a Semi-truck is idleing in the street. Fortunately the owners manual specifically addresses this issue....kinda like tuning a carb for different elevations. If I were, say, another 1500-2000 feet in elevation, the thinner air would probbably solve the knock issue. As it is, I'm only about 150 ft above sea level.
I wish I had a viedo camera so I could post a vid I could link to.