No offense, Josh, but if your experience with those engines is limited to one sample, I'd say you're jumping the gun a bit. "Never" and "Always" seem a bit strong.

There are a lot of people who will push OS as the only quality engine. They also tend to ignore the fact that OS engines have also had their problems, such as liner peeling (which they say has been fixed, and you don't hear much about anymore, so it likely is fixed).

Anyway, there are a lot of quality engines. OS are, in fact, nice engines, but they are very expensive for what you get. I personally haven't run any ASP engines, but I have 8 Magnums currently in service (3 .15s, 3 .28s, and 2 .25s). I've never run a .52, so I can't comment on it. I also have 2 OS .25FXs, an OS .40LA, a couple of OS .32Fs and a collection of 10+yr old engines in boxes that I haven't gotten around to reconditioning, most of which are older OS.

I have 2 students with Magnum .46 engines, a couple of students with OS .46FX engines, a couple with OS LA engines, and a bunch of students with Evolution .46 engines. Oh, and a Super Tiger and maybe something else I'm forgetting, just for variety.

When it comes to the .46 BB class engines, to be honest, I have to actually look at the engine to tell the difference between them. They all run about the same, I haven't had any problems with any of them deadsticking more than others, or being harder to start. Hide them inside a cowl, and I don't think you could tell one from the other.

If anyting, the Evolution is the easiest starting, and I've had more trouble with the OS FXs than anything. The OS seems to be more picky about glow plug than any of the others, it really wants the shorter OS brand plugs. (OS "long" plugs are shorter than other brands of "long" plug, who knows why). Get the right plug in the OS, and it's a fine working engine though.

Oh, btw, if you do go back 10 or so years, there used to be a much bigger difference between the best quality engines and the "second tier" engines out there. These days, though, everyone has CNC processes and the metalurgy isn't top secret anymore, though there are differences. So the difference in realiability and such that used to make OS "the" quality sport engine just doesn't seem to exist like it used to.