No worries, Charley. There were already 3 U.S. distributors in place before I started conversing. Didn't know that,did you? Would you buy 16 engines without knowing if they were worth having? Or are you another that would sell poor quality products to people without a care? Worse, are you one that really believes that everyone selling you something is truthful and looking out for your best interests? As it stands the deficiencies I uncovered paved the way for large improvements in product design. I doubt that would have happened had I simply bought a lot of engines and started selling them. It would have been difficult for me to deal with all the returns for repair and charge them back to the customer as improper installations or operation. I think you'll find that's what some U.S. dealers might do in that situation.

BTW, I never "jumped all over the distributors", but I did go directly to the factory since that's where the engines would be coming from. The dealer knew I was going to the factory for the parts before I did so. I bought from a dealer simply because I started conversations with him before I started conversations with the manufacturer. The manufacturer decided to initiate conversation quite some time after I started working with the dealer. I could have just as easily bought directly from the manufacturer (the offer was there) and cut the dealer out of a profitable sale after he spent all his time and effort talking to me about the engine.

My thing now, as it has always been, is to attempt to educate people getting into giant scale and provide information that will assist them to have the best possible experience for the longest period of time. To make the transition from glow to gas as easy as possibe, and to minimize the number of dollars wasted when people start buying new equipment. Also to provide information that will let people be as safe as possible with their methods and equipment in a hobby that can become extremely dangerous when done incorrectly.

I don't get paid for the effort, and never have. A lot of people have benefitted from the way I do things. You might even be one of them. I have a pretty high standard of ethics and I won't compromise them for profit. Evidently I was brought up quite different from the current generation. I've been burned a couple of times when talking highly of products simply because the manufacturer said they were great. I don't buy into a good line of crap or advertising hype anymore, I have the product in my hand and/or work with it directly before anything is said. The original BME sold quite a few 115's because I said they were a great product after long conversations with Keith. Ultimately he lied to me about several items and a lot of people got expensive engines that would not run correctly. I still feel like hell about the way that worked out. Fortunately the new BME is taking care of those issues for owners.

So if you can't understand that the way I set that engine deal up was deliberate to determine how things would or could work for the average person, and determine the level of quality of the product, so be it. If I don't have confidence in a product or the supplier then it isn't going to happen. You don't know anything other that what was written, and much of what transpired was not put to print.

Now, if people want to run out and buy, sight unseen, new products from people they've never heard of before based upon the word of those people and a cheap price, go for it. In the meantime I have a used 1988 Corolla for sale, only 18,000 miles with an engine that's just like new. Going cheap at only $500.00. I'll bet some people actually would believe that as well.