Well, I had the engine in a Yak 54 prior to this plane. Had a bad crash on the maiden flight and broke the engine mounts. I found the mount plate at Brillelli.com which worked out fine. I was able to use the stock lugs and the plate bolted right to the block. Seems to be much stronger this way. I love this plane with the SPE. It weighed in at about 13.5Lbs. I do not have much vertical, but pulls her around really well. She will hover about full throttle or a little less, so I need a little more power. I started with the WT540 carb and will next be buying the better ignition. I am also buying the carbon fiber landing gear and wing tube to drop a little more weight. These planes were built way to heavy how ever long ago it was. I didn’t research enough when I bought it since I love to fly 3D. I can fly her about 13 minutes on a full tank with a little left over. I bet that MDS 2.18 is a gas guzzler. I have High torque Futaba servos for controls and a hitec for throttle up front. I bought some 4.8 2500 volt batteries on ebay that only weigh about 4oz each and are right behind the wing for the correct CG. Currently I am running the 3W 19X8 on Castrol TTS full synthetic and 93 octane. I just switched to that oil at about 40:1, was Craftsman standard two stroke at 32:1. I plan on moving up to the 20X8. Hope this helps......