Flyboy,
If you can't start a Fox .35 you don't need to be making comments about the quality, maintenance, and performance of engines. I think the Fox .35 is probably the easiest engine to start. Never had one even bite my fingers, never starts backward, low compression ratio and mild timing makes this an easy engine to use. Those K&B C/L engines were fine also, but would not do a 2-4-2 break out of the box, some of them would be worn out after one lean run, and you can't chop the throttle and land in C/L. I have not worn out a Fox C/L engine. Fairly safe bet to buy one on E-Bay, clean it up, and have like new compression, in fact I have done this. The Fox C/L engines have always been popular not because they were cheap but because they had good performance. The Fox Stunt .35 is still their most popular engine, and still the most sold C/L engine today. In fact it is on of the few C/L engines that will do a 4-2-4 break out of the box. You can even get an ABC engine. The latest C/L engine the Brodak .40 has a few quality control issues that Fox just doesn't have. Even for racing engines the Fox's were hard to beat. The Fox Mark series were the combat engine to beat till shortly after Duke died and Nelson's became competitive.

Admittedly the Fox carbs are a bit quirkey, but manageable if you follow his directions, including tapering the needles. This was not a quality control issue but a lack of refinement of design. Outside of the carb the rest of any Fox engine is top quality. They may not look it due to a lack of a fine finish, but the castings are also of good quality, when you don't finish them, or polish the castings in a drum, the flow lines where the metal flowed into the mold are evident. The bead blasted finish's of most engines hide this. Note the newer Fox engine's use the same finishing technique of a weed eater, not a Nova Rossi, or Jett.