Hey great post , let me share my opinion with you , for years as I stood on the sign line of RC i watched many RCs swear about OS max , "the best ", nothing else around , only buy Os ect ect ect . So as a newbe I bought OS . Great engines with relatively no problem .
Then one day I met a great local hobby shop owner who traveled overseas and knew where the engines are made . We had a discussion about engines . Found out magnum was made by an X os person , .So I tried one , saved about $100 bucks and the rest was history .
I now use OS, Magnum, and ready ...... super tiger .You can find great deals if you look and with proper care , oil ect they all run great .Yes I have had RCs snobs approach me and say "I will give $25 for that engine , funny considering I am a very nice person with an even tempermant I just laught . The same goes for servos , only used futaba , then tried Hitec , competition is great and quality is better . Now dont get me wrong i think there is the high end in every field but when I looked into it I found in 4 cycles Y&S is the very high end but with research also found they need extreme care in set up and tweeking. Well I am in this hobby for fun , I dont have time to tweek, and maintaining .So on this subject put your hard hat on , people take it so serious , let them , lol , put your money in the bank and learn what works from variuos opinions and not just one and you will be very happy in the end .