Okay. .no bashing going on here. . just some clarifications from experience.

My first gas engine was a BME 5.8. . I've owned 10 BME engines, in 6 years. . 7 twins and 3 singles. . as well as a DA150 and about 8 3W's (DAMN. . THAT'S why I don't have any money. . . ).. . I've worked on more than a few BME twins at Meets across this country, including the Nats, JR Challenge, and Joe Nall. EVERY problem I've seen with a BME was USER INDUCED, including some pretty silly problems that experienced flyers shot themselves in the foot with. There is nothing magic about making a BME run properly. . . .

I've burned up TWO engines in my RC career. One I accidentally mixed the 50:1 oil at 128:1 (don't ask . .extreme brain fade that day) Even so, it ran fine and flew for 8-10 minutes before it started to seize. That's a LONG time. It was a BME 5.8. The other was a 3W 150TS, that had a lot of flights on it, but got VERY hot one day for now apparent reason. It, too, took 7-8 minutes in the air to start showing problems.

3 minutes run time to a failure points to one thing to me. . Oil-gas ratio problem. If the engine was being run at idle and occasionally accelerated in an attempt to set mixture, it would have been extremely difficult to overheat. This would also account for the anemic power output. 6600-6700 is what all my 110's have turned, right out of the box, with a Mejzlik 28-10, HOT, after 4-5 minutes of run time.

Secondly, the timing on a BME engine is adjustable. The timing ring has a set screw. You loosen the screw and rotate the ring. It is VERY hard to move the ring because the tolerances are very tight. I've never had to reset the timing on one from the factory, though I did change the timing on two motors so that they would run backwards in a pusher configuration. Simple to do, easy to align and get right, IMO. I can't imagine BME putting an engine out the door with the timing THAT far off. . . .

Stripping props. . . if you get the timing ring more than .005 inches away from the Hall Effect pickup, you can run into sporadic timing from the CH ignition, because the signal is not very accurate. I did this once by accident. . the engine was properly timed but it kept popping back and MAN did my fingers hurt from that!!! About the 4th time it popped back I stepped back and took a look at things, then figured out what I had done wrong and moved the ring closer to the pickup. . .Problem solved. Adjusting the timing on this engine can lead to running nightmares because if you ever get the magnet too far away from the pickup you will start getting backfires, popping back and a murderously BAD idle. Imagine being at full advance at idle. . YIKES!!! I would not expect any wooden prop to go through that unscathed. It also KILLS the power and can make the engine run very hot no matter how the mxture is set. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. . . . . .. .let's think about that one for a minute or two. . . . ..

The timing on a 3W or DA engine is set in the 10-14 degrees BTDC range. .NOT 30 degrees. 3W and DA engines ADVANCE the timing from a set point, by about 14 degrees total additional advance at 4500 rpm. CH Ignitions Retard the timing using a Sunchro-spark timing module then back off the retard curve as the engine speed increases. Below 1500-1800 rpm they have a set amount of time they are retarded, which enables you to start the engine easily.

Carb problems. . An engine is run, then set on a shelf or spends 6 weeks in a box. Think perhaps a little oil might gun up the works a little bit? It's happened to me a few times, but once I unstuck the needle things worked fine. What happens if the novice user tries to free things up by pressing the pressure diaphragm with a screwdrive or piece of rod?? None of us was there to babysit this engine, so none of us knows what went on. But, from my own perspective, and with the number of engines I've owned. I've torn down dozens of carburetors and NEVER replaced one part besides the carb-reed block gaskets (carb mounting blocks is another story altogether). I've NEVER seen, personally, a damaged regulator diaphragm, though I've heard of it happening. It's an extremely rare occurence. And from a brand new carburetor? Unheard of. Were the needles taken out of the carburetor and reinstalled in the wrong holes? It CAN happen. Or perhaps seated hard enough to damage something inside, so that nothing worked quite like it should?? Perhaps the regulator needle lever got slightly bent, so that it would never come off the seat properly?? This would surely kill your high end mixture, no matter how far you turned the needles. The list of possibilities is almost endless. . . .

There are a ton of things that could have happened, inadvertantly, that neither the owner, BME, nor we, can find out about until the engine is returned to BME for PROPER disassembly and checkout. This is one time where the Buyer needs to bite the bullet and ship the engine back for inspection and repair. Given the multitude of things that "went wrong", that seems to be the only feasible alternative.

As for warranty issues. . personally, if I was as meticulous as Keith Baker is in building an engine, and then this sort of thing happened, I'd be VERY hard pressed to warranty the engine. Keith does, though, time and again, and the horror stories (like the guy with a BME 50 who could NEVER get it to run properly so after3-4 trips back and forth Keith refunded his money. . and the engine runs perfectly fine to this day. . . . ) would make you wonder why ANYONE builds engines for this hobby.

In the end, sending the motor back for a look-see is the only prudent option. . . .