tarvma02

My Feedback: (3)

My Thunder Tiger 130 FS with about 20 flights was running perfectly. While on the ground running it up with a tach I heard a horrible metallic noise and then lost 500 RPMs then it sped back up clanking away. I shut it down. There's no compression and the pushrods are bent. Interesting, I pop the backplate off and the engine is filled with metal. The skirt of the piston was destroyed. The engine was always run sloppy rich on 10% nitro/ 20% oil. I hope they send me a new one!

Other than that, it appears to be a nice engine that's well built. Maybe just a defect?

Mike

gkamysz

My Feedback: (19)

I would like to know if there is oil in the cam box.

controlliner

Sounds like a rear bearing failure. The bearings in these engines have cages with folded tabs on the crank and cam. Is there any rust in the crank case or cam box? Keeping a Four stroke glow engine crank case real warm to hot will alleviate rust better than cool. Running a FS glow rich, will promote rust. I've seen the results first hand.

tarvma02

My Feedback: (3)

No Rust anywhere in this engine, it's brand new. Literally the bottom of the piston shattered. Maybe it was a bearing failure that caused that. What a mess! If anything, this engine is over-lubricated, oil is always everywhere in/on this engine. Th piston is incredibly flimsy looking with lightening holes galore. There's the ring at the top of the piston and then the rest of the piston is a skeleton with about 1/8 inch of metal at the bottom of the piston. It was that 1/8 inch of metal that ripped off. I think the piston design is over-lightened and prone to failure.

Any other thoughts?

Mike

tarvma02

My Feedback: (3)

I just checked the cam, it's oiled. The lightened honeycombed piston exploded for no reason! Mike

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

I hope the distributor looks after you.

tarvma02

My Feedback: (3)

I just talked to them and the guy on the phone was slightly obnoxious but I'm shipping the engine back. His attitude was like I did something wrong. They better not try to repair this engine after all that metal has been run through it. I want a new engine!

Mike

ArcticCatRider

My Feedback: (6)

Sounds like a chinsey piston.

I wouldn't go after the bearing or the bearing cage. Even if they're rusty they'll hold together for quite a while...as well as usually give an indication of their imminent failure.

I personally am not a big fan of thunder tiger at all. But I hope they replace your engine for you for free.

CustomPC

I had a TT 1.30 and you can read about my issues with the engine in another thread here. On my engine, a replacement head and several engines owned by others the glow plug thread wasn't cut deep enough, allowing oil to escape around the plug when running. If you try to tighten the plug you inevitably strip the thread and chunks of alloy end up in the cylinder.

I would suggest checking the plug thread closely to see if that might have been the cause.

I found the local TT agents here in Australia to be just as obnoxious and i will not be buying or recommending a TT ever again.

the pope

Maybe all the alu. shavings were there all along.I had a 10 size that had issues and I sent it back to be looked at and they promptly lost it. Anyway I recieved a new one and I took the back plate off to wash out after running it in and to re oil it as i didnt have a use for it anymore and the amount of shavings stuck to the conrod was unbelieveable. Lucky there was no piston or liner damage. So much for there iso advertising bullcrap, it aint worth jack. I have a 54 4 stroke which i like but they aint the holly grail in my oppinion. Cheers the pope

Sport_Pilot

If the engine is under warranty it's probably not a bad idea not to even look. That way they can't blame you for taking it apart and doing a poor job of assembly. Even Hobby Services for OS and SuperTigre can be obnoxious, they were trying to blame a lot of peeled liners on user error.

tarvma02

My Feedback: (3)

My glowplug threads weren't deep enough either and it leaked a lot of oil around the plug. This didn't seem to affect anything though other than making a mess.

Mike.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

Sounds like Thunder Tigers are not what they used to be?

tarvma02

My Feedback: (3)

Despite my VERY specific instructions to send me a new engine they replaced the liner/piston/crank and sent me the "fixed" engine. I'm kinda pissed but once it gets here I'll see how it runs. If it runs crappy then I'm chocking it up to a $266 mistake (not a big deal in the scheme of life) and purchasing a YS 1.40. I've owned 4 YSs and many OSs. The OSs are perfectly reliable and although I had 1 failure with the YS, their service is incredible.

So far, Thunder Tiger is exactly that, "you get what you pay for".

Mike

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

Please post a thread on your experiences with the Y-S 140 when you get one . . . .

Broken Wings

My Feedback: (20)

I’m a Tower “Super Saver� member, it’s like $10 a year and I get email’s with savings codes.

I saved $159.84 over the last membership period, just by taking advantage of special club prices and free shipping.

When you figure it out with the code and free shipping , the O.S. FS-120S-E Surpass is less than $50 bucks more than the Thunder Tiger 130.

It seems like there are more and more posts with "Discount" engine stories.

In my opinion I just don't think they've got a handle on it yet.

It's either a carburetor problem due to poorly machined parts, brittle internals due to improper heat treatment, lubrication issues, parts fit, etc.

I'm glad it didn't grenade while you were flying your model. Good luck with it.

Sport_Pilot

I'm not sure the OS's are that much better. I know of a 4 stroke that broke in a bad way a couple of months ago. But with more of them sold, maybe they are. The new TT four strokes are brand new and may have not ironed out all of the bugs. There are very few issues on the older models, the 54 and 91. But I recall a problem with the .91 when it first came out.

Pippin

...I do not like to go to the flying field with a engine that has not seen the iron yet.

The problem with the TT brand is that it can not price its engines at the same price as O.S.
Thus, why should TT produce quality engines as O.S. does if the market does not reward it? Right, TT doesn´t.

Sport_Pilot

IMO OS is not a quality engine. Magnum is the worst, TT may be slightly better or worse, not sure, but service is bad, their two strokes are definately better. For four strokes go to Saito or YS for a quality four stroke, not OS with their cheap liners, bearings, and rings.

estradajae

In my opinion, with my experience there are things to be improved in the design on my engine (75 4 stroke) but the machining quality is far superior from Sanye engines.

It is clear that the TT F 75s has a cam lube prob...
the F130s had some heads with unproperly threaded glow plug hole...

I don't think that makes TT engines crappy engines...BUT their service is not good at all! they don't even answer mails anymore, and they don't try to understand the problems....

The engine runs very good also...

gkamysz

My Feedback: (19)

What kind of problems have you seen with these parts in OS four strokes? Saito have had a poor reputation with bearings lately.

Sport_Pilot

I thought OS had worse problems with bearings than Saito. I had an OS .91 Surpass that I bought used and the bearings had rusted, fortunately I got my money back. Others at our club had both an OS four stroke and a two stroke with rusted out bearings. One said that hobby services told them it was the owners fault because there was no after run oil inthe engine. The owner replied that they used it but did not notice the rusty bearing till after flying and saw no reason to add after run oil to a rusty bearing. I think they did get hobby services to repair it under warranty after that reply. I have heard of Saito engines with bad bearings, but I don't think the postings are as common, just more recent. I have been out of the hobby several years due to kids in school (high school and college), hopfully I'll be able to afford one soon.

Broken Wings

My Feedback: (20)

What engines are you currently using in your models?

Sport_Pilot

I am currently out of the hobby. But when I get back in the first plane I would get back to flying has a Fox .50. The second a Magnum .30 FS. The third K&B .40. The fourth a HP .61 GC, or TT .91 FS depending on the model I chose. These are not the order of my value of the quality of the engines however, but how easy it is to get the plane back in the air.

togatoga

My Feedback: (42)

I had metal flashings in the carb and a plug thread that wasn't deep enough in my 130.Power was more than the saito 125 although it was happier with a smaller prop. The engine somehow wasn't comfortable in the same position as a 125 inverted and i had numerous issues of it dying in negative G maneuvers.
The engine started backfiring after 5 flights and I figured I had had enough! Took it out and installed a crrc 26cc gasser and the plane has never been better.