ORIGINAL: jjpetro
Ok guys, I am an engine nut. I always seem much more interested in the engine than the plane or the radio. I love looking at web sites or brochures and gathering all the data I can to make comparison charts on rpm range, horsepower, weight, and price. I’m completely anal about getting the most engine for the buck. I’ve owned Enya, Fox, K&B, OS, SuperTiger, GMS, Webra, and Royal. My favorites are the older Fox .45 BB with a Semco muffler, the K&B .61 pumper, and the Webra .61 Blackhead. I’ve been in and out of the hobby for the past 30 years; I started when I was around 17. I love glow two cycles and have never owned a 4C, but that will change in the next few months.
I give all of that wordy and lengthy background to ask the following questions. I regularly see US made engines trounced in the forums. There are those, like me, who love the American made engines. But I see guys nearly ridiculed for extolling the virtues of the US engine. So, help me out here. What’s wrong with the K&B, or Fox? I recently read in a thread where someone wrote, “a true pattern guy wouldn’t be caught dead with a Fox Eagle .61 on his plane” (paraphrased). Why? How about the Jett, Nelson, or other brands of Mecoa? What about the RJL K61? Perhaps my experiences are much more limited than many of those out there. Are the American made engines too “fussy”?
There is no need to compare 4C to 2C, I'm more interested in why American brands are less favored than foreign engines.
So, I have come to the mountain for the wisdom of my peers. What say ye?
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I know kids (and now adults) that won't own an American made car, regardless of how well it runs. It just isn't fashionable. I feel that some of the reason for rejecting American R/C engines/products is based upon peer pressure.
You have to admit, though, that other than a few older modelers, there really isn't much demand for small glow two-strokes these days. By today's standards, that is all that the American manufacturers ever made.
I just bought three brand new old school Rossi engines. Why? Because I couldn't get them back when I originally wanted them. Back in the early eighties, you had to be someone notorious and be on a backorder list. I was neither. I ended up trying to fly OS .61 VF's and FSR's in pattern and paid the consequences for it. My favorite not a Rossi engine was the Webra Speed .61 w/Dykes ring, but it was getting long of tooth by that time and just didn't have the oomph of the Rossi .60.
So now I have a Rossi .45 3D, .53 and a .60 sitting in my inventory.
I like four-stroke engines too. Now I'm also messing with gas engines again. The SPE engines being sold by Brillelli and BCMAE are a nice change. They are light and they fit into most .90 sized models with ease.
Still, my heart lies in flying the old pattern ships. Sigh...<G>