ORIGINAL: larry@coyotenet
The nice thing about the Chinese engines is you get the pleasure of replacing them every couple years! A flying buddy just had his DLE 55 break the top of the piston off at the ring groove!! Less than 1 gallon of fuel through it! He has flown gas for years with ZDZ and Zenoah engines with no problems. I am sure that the EVRA will still be running long after the Chinese engines have been remelted and resold, but it isn't nearly as trendy. As you may notice I am not a big fan of the clone engines.
Larry
It's always possible to get a bad engine. I have 3 DLE 55's. Combined more than 200 flights. Of the dozen of more pilots in our club with DLE's none has experience an engine failure. From my experience, DLE is just a reliable as Zenoah, Quadra ( I have a 35 with serveral hundred flights).Again it is always possible to get a bad engine, but I would not condemn all DLE's on the basis of what happened to your friend.