John, let me tell you that I've crashed my four stroke driven planes, a lot. I have destroyed, beyond repair four planes. I have had many crashes requireing major repairs. In only two of them did I cause any damage to the engine other than having to replace the spinner. On was when I went in nose first in my trainer and pushed the firewall back (ARF Quality). The needle valve extended through the fuselage side and it cracked the carb mount on the back plate. The second, wel, I did do some major damage to the engine. First contact with the ground was on the head and the engine came apart.

I see the guys at the field havine similuar crashes and bashing up the carb the intake port on their 2 strokes. Lets face it, a crash that is going to damage an engine doesn't care if it is a two stroke or a four stroke. The biggest difference in my mind is replacement cost if you do destroy an engine. The four stroke is going to cost you a bit more.

The first photo is the first time I damaged and engnie. The was the broken back plate. I had the plane repaired by the time the replacement back plate arrived. The next to are photos of the trainer after hitting a 2x6 board fence and the last is of my four star 60 after a full throttle nose first crash. In both of those totals, a quick cleanup of the engine and it was ready to go in the replacement plane.

I am biased to the four strokes. When I get it tuned, I fuel and fly, for days before I need to touch the needles again. I watch the 2 stroke guys and it every flight ritual to tweek and tune. Dead sticks are rare. I do have a couple planes with two strokes and they do have a place. Mainly flat out speed. Four strokes are what I like to fly though.

Don