i certainly agree with you on some of the models out there being duds.

my point in this thread is not to raise anyones back hairs, but rather to point out that when someone like Tower (Hobbico or whatever) sells something, they should be held accountable for the mishaps due to a part being defective.
they've been told about this, but choose to advertise as they do and to me that's a crime.

Jody ships the DLE's with genuine NGK plugs.

ValleyViewRC is where i will buy from for now on.
we all know why as well.

in regards to sending the engine to Hobbico, i hold little faith that they would honor the warranty to keep me from paying, but would indeed say the related issue is my fault. i will send it to Jody.
like i said before too, had i known of VVRC, i would have bought from them.
as it is, the DLE 30 i bought from Tower came with 1 carb screw that had a rusted head and turned out to be stripped........they did not help me out at all as they wanted me to send the engine back, but they were at that time out of stock, so i would have had to wait for some time to continue my build.........so i had to buy another carb to fix the issue. my suggestion to them was to simply exchange the carb. they wanted to replace the whole engine.
lesson learned the hard way.