It might, and it might not be. Without going into all the things that take place with engines coming out of China, you need to know PRECISELY what you are getting when you place a manufacturer direct order. That may not be an MT 57, just an engine that looks like one without the performance or quality. This happens quite a bit I'm afraid, and there have been many people that ended up spending far more to fix a copycat engine than it would have cost to buy the original engine. That doesn't allow for all the work and headache that was involved in correcting an engine, if it could be corrected at all.

To protect yourself and your investment I strongly recommend that you buy from a U.S. dealer than is known to provide good product support. I doubt that you will be able to send your engine back and forth to China for service if needed, and a U.S. dealer is well justified in not providing service for an engine they did not sell. The person that services the MT line of engines in the U.S. is the best in the business. You cannot find better! The MT dealer pays close attention to whom he sells to and to whom bought engines elsewhere. If you bought a copycat engine elsewhere, he will not provide free service, if he elects to provide any service at any price.

There are some very good and ethical engine dealers here in the U.S. and supporting them by making your purchases there means they will be there to support YOU when you need it.

Modelers need to become a little more aware of the bigger picture regarding their product purchases. It's not just about the money. If the desire for bigger and better things is larger than the disposable budget you need to step back a bit until funding improves. If you can't afford to buy, build, and crash a larger plane without going into bankruptcy to replace it you should not be flying larger planes. That wasn't meant to be insulting in any way, just factual.

You can buy almost anything cheap, but a $30.00 Rolex is probably worth less than you paid for it.....