Well, I will add my "two cents" worth, but only about cantilever cranks and Chinese quality. Cantilever cranks, in a well designed, quality engine, can be totally reliable and safely turn some insane rpm's. I have flown a souped up Homelite 30 cc engine for years now that tachs over 9000 rpm's static. Virtually no problems. I have a friend that regularly flies a hopped up Homelite 25 cc. He refuses to run more than a 15" prop on it, and it tachs 10,000 on the ground. It is probably running well over 11,000 in the air as he is an aggressive flier. In both cases these cantilever crank engines have been flying for years with virtually no problems, and they are not even higher end brands like Stihl and Echo. I don't believe you will ever find this kind of durability with any of the Chinese engines. The only drawback is they weigh a little more. The DLE' s and such have their place due to light weight, easy availability, and low cost, but they aren't what one would really call a "quality" engine I don't think.
This all reminds me of the Korean war and captured Chinese built MIG 15 jets. The engines only had a 50 hour lifespan, after which they had an unfortunate propensity for literally blowing up. Our pilots were afraid to test fly and evaluate the captured enemy planes, because nobody knew if the engine had a "safe" perhaps 25 hours on it, or a potentially lethal 49 hours and 59 minutes!!
AV8TOR
Last edited by av8tor1977; 11-23-2015 at 02:03 PM.