Funny you should mention it, I am an expert at deadsticks. I flew 2 meter and slope gliders for many years and since then have had many dead sticks with a tower hobbies .46 and bisson muffler. I always fly with the idea the engine can quit at any time and watch my speed and altitude accordingly.

I have had good luck with other engines with mixed reviews, either I'm good at tuning them or my expectations are low. The tower .46 was only touchy due to the bisson muffler, easily fixed by blocking off one exhaust stack.

My engine history:
Magnum GP .25
Magnum GP .40
tower hobbies .46
gms .47

None of these ran well out of the box except my magnum .25, that engine is unstoppable and still runs perfect at the tender age of 10.

So it sound like this engine will take me a while to get broken in and tuned well, but once I do, it should run fairly well with the occasional hesitation. Does this sound about right or am I off base?