ORIGINAL: jeffk464
Ok, you guys have me really confused on what I should do. I have a cmp clone p-40 and was planning on putting a st 2300 on it and after reading this thread I'm not sure anymore. I dont like to go crazy on r.c. spending so I was thinking I could get some real power for this plane for not much money. I was planning on running this engine in the stock inverted position on this plane with the stock muffler and fuel tank correctly positioned for the carb. Should I get good reliable power with this setup. The plane is suppose to have a 140 4stroke so I figure I will be spending most of my run time at half throttle or less.
Are most of the problems you guys are having associated with the old italian carb or the new Chinese carb?
Would I be better off running a gms 1.20 instead? I really dont like the giant muffler the gms comes with.
Have you bought an engine yet? If not, I still wouldn't hesitate to get the 2300. Some are good right out of the box, although you need to be patient with them during break in. You never get something for nothing, so as long as you know you may need to replace the carb to get it running well enough for you, there's no issue. Right now Tower has $20 off, so that money could be put towards a better carb. I would recommend the OS 7d, or the Magnum 1.08. The GMS 120 seems to have an even worse reputation that the st2300, so I would definitely stay away from it.
The only difference in the two carbs is the metering slot in the rotor barrel. The Chinese ones are straight, which is supposed to fix the rich midrange. Apparently, there are still some quality control issues at ST, and some carbs are good, while others are not so good. I must say that mine was "good enough", but I wanted it to be perfect, that's why I upgraded.
I don't know what the expected weight of the P-40 is, but this engine pulls my 11 lb Sukhoi very well on a 16-8.
The only issue I had with the stock muffler is that the o-ring came out. It may be that it just wasn't put together tight enough.
Running the engine inverted is not an issue, but the tank MUST be low enough so as not to flood the engine. This should be doable with a P-40 without too much trouble.
If you do get one, forget about the 18" props till it's broken in. A 16-8 or 17-6 would do fine.