Update......
Bolted on a Macs Products (Part MAC6590) black muffler, #7 GP and a MA 10x7.
Bringing a new plane to the field has that curious magnetism and this one was no different From the distance I heard "Hey! It's an Escapade!" followed by......Q. "What kind of motor is that?"....A. "It's an ASP .52" .. Hell, I may as well have called it a Flux Capacitor.
I ran 1 tank of fuel while on the ground to tune the new setup and was surprised to find that the little motor was very happy where it was. All fasteners at motor and firewall double-checked and are still tight, so lets go!
The Escapade made 2 uneventful flights at a rapid pace and I did what you said.......I ran it hard. I did notice that I would lose my smoke a bit when at WOT exiting a turn. Landing and opening it up 1 click yielded just a whisp more smoke. That 1 click allowed me to see smoke trailing throughout the flight with the exception of the back straightaway. While on the ground she's running quite rich and has good smoke on the high end needle. Low needle looks good because the transition from a few moments (20 seconds approx) idle to wot yields a significant amount of oil blowing on the airframe and no hiccups in the transition. Remembering what you said about running it a bit rich and "Just fly the damn thing" has been rewarding.
Third flight........I was in orbit at 1/2 or lower throttle way into my flight because one of the new guys was having trouble on the runway with his motor stalling. He never could take off and wouldn't get off the runway. I yelled at him that "My plane IS gonna land on the runway whether you are on it or not, so get your shit out of the way.....if I dead-stick I'm putting it down right where you're at and I'm low on fuel as it is waiting for you to move!"
He told his wife to run out there with the "hot stick".......no sooner than she got to him it happened. I ran out of fuel and told him "Dead-stick coming in!.. Dead-stick... coming in!! Get the F off the runway now!!"
He complied and I came in for an uneventful landing absolutely out of fuel. Am I sure?? Cranking of the fueler yielded bubbles. Having experienced that, I wiped down the Escapade and put it away for the day and went and apologized to he and his wife for my vulgarity.
Conclusion....The only motor (of 3) that i have which refuses to flip-prime inexplicably. I still have to bump it with my starter to prime(which it does instantly). I hope one day to break the motor in and gain confidence in the ASP .52 and run a variety of props. I'm just not there yet.
And yes, it is a performer for very little money....how can anyone not like that?
Thank you again for your review and your advice.