ORIGINAL: P-Diddy
Oh wow, I had forgotten about this thread, sorry!
I tried the pump, I tried the large fuel tubing, I tried pinching off one of the exhaust tubes. Eventually, I gave up on the big ST and converted to a 40cc gas engine from BCMA. Now, I was told I would not notice much of a power increase, if any, but that was certainly incorrect!
Sorry, I tried pretty much everything and eventually decided that I would just take a loss and sell the engine on Ebay. I do miss being able to start on one flip, but it's all a trade off... Fuel is much cheaper now =)
Good luck to everyone else out there who has the big ST's. As far as I can tell, if order a ST, you have a 50% chance that you'll get a nice running engine out of the deal. That's been my experience thus far, after having had four of them.
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Now that the Tigres are being made in China with lower labor costs, etc., how difficult can it be to upgrade the entire engine line with carburetors that are better optimized for these engines? Do away with the oversize carbs and provide something that will pull fuel adequately from a normal distance. That extra 300 rpm that is generated with the oversized carb is just false advertising anyway. What good is an engine that spins faster with the nose level, but doesn't have sufficient fuel draw to fly leaned out enough to realize those extra rpm? I would like to see carbs designed for alcohol fuel that have their own built-in diaphragm pum and regulator system. Something smaller and lighter, possibly modular, that can be used on engines as small as a .46 to .53. It can be done and easily at that.
I've been in the hobby for nearly half a century. I remember when Super Tigre engines came with great carbs. The easiest solution would be to abandon the old designs and to rebadge Sanye, or another brand of GOOD carb, Not GMS, and get on with selling these great engines.
Fully half of the folks I've talked to about ST engines have had problems over the past decade or more. All of them cannot be idiots. If the price is increased another $20, so be it. At least folks would have usable engines without having to be an engineer in order to make the present carbs work. It makes no sense to destroy a brand's reputation just to make a few more dollars in the near term.