Thanks again for all the awesome recommendations. I actually won the Norvel Big-Mig .061 off ebay for around 30 bucks. Looks nice and seems a perfect fit in the little ME-109. I'll keep you guys posted as I will try some engine runs as soon as it is installed hopefully this weekend. The little motor looks mint, and it seems to have nice compression, so we shall see. I will use a 6x4 prop although the Norvel manual claims a 6x3 is the max. I always use 6x4's at this size so I figure what the hey.
ZZ.
PS.>>>
Oh, and I will post some pics as well shortly. I determined my error in this build (at least in targeting it for use with a Surestart) was the wing thickness. Everything else here was spot on and I could find no reason why this machine (I have others this size/span that fly on an .049) would not work with the .049 powerplant. I have a taube that has lots of scale flying wires, dummy motor etc etc. that is the same span....and which should be much more draggy than this clean little 109. Yet the taube flies and climbs well, but the 109....not so much. After reviewing the 109 build and its differences two things stood out as main contributors....slightly higher weight, and the wing thickness that on review, I could've designed 1/4-1/3 thinner in cross section. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I rebuilt this exactly the same, only with the sleeker wing form, that she would work witht he .049. Oh, well. such is the black art of aircraft design....sometimes the little things can add up!!