Doggone it!  Thanks, Mark, I was thinking the flameout problem had to do with fuel flow from the tanks, so I was expecting your suggestion to work.

I do have fewer flameouts with the panel changes, but now I usually have ALL 8 engines fail at the same time, instead of 2 or 4.

I am thinking that perhaps the problem, at the developer level, stems from the fact that FSX supports a maximum of 4 engines.  Not that duplicates of each engine can't be made, but it might create a confusing environment for the SIM developers.