armyguy466

My Feedback: (2)

ive had a few os engines in the past and ive known alot of people the had os engines last years. i just but a os engine for a trainer size .46la the first tank of fuel was great no problems tuned up no problems. and put 2 more tanks threw it while flying it nice and easy. the second tank i about lost the plastic back plate so a added some thread locker to it and tighten and check everything else. took it up again for tank 3 and had no problems that i could tell from the ground so after about 8 mins flying i brought it in and landed taxied it back to me and didn't really look it over until it cooled off. once i got it on the table and looked it over i seen the motor viberated the motor mounts out and the screws were put in with heavy duty tread locker so why they came out i couldnt understand why. just to clear it up now the prop WAS balanced and so was the spinner. but is it just me or is anybody else seeing OS going down hill with NOQCon the products.

MetallicaJunkie

This started happening when the FX line came out in the 90s i still like OS engines they just arent the same quaity as they were in the 70s and 80s

armyguy466

My Feedback: (2)

even my fx's i had from the early 2000's they were good it just seems like the last few years they just dropped in to the pooper.

jzrf6c

Not me, my OS .46, .7 and .91 run like a deer (no I don't mean John Deere). Easiest starting and but running. Of course all I have to compare to is A SAITO that the muffler keeps falling of over and a couple of Magnum's that are total ()*&^^%((

TruBlu02

I have had good luck with all my OS motors. I absolutely love my 55AX. It is the easiest little motor to live with and it runs strong. I cant speak for any of the other motors but I really do like the AX line.

rye

My Feedback: (10)

my 3 os 46 fxs have been running for 7 years took a year off of flying but they started rught up ran great but i still but new bearings in them from rcbearings.com great prices about half of what tower sells them for and they run great but if you play with the high or low end they need to be dailed in again start with the factory settings close the low end and then open it 3/4 out high end start at 2 turns out but if you over haeted the motor [] i dont know if it will run right again good luck

armyguy466

My Feedback: (2)

the ax bearing line are still ok its the LA line that are crap but it just seems the quailty of the parts are bad and it would be nice of the to use hex screws and not the stupid phil head screws. to be honest the motor i have best luck with is ASP ya there cheap and they don't come with paper work and they may need to be clean in and out after break in but they can take a beating. i haven't tried any for strokes and ive seen saito muffler fall off in the air.

ameyam

I have gone through 3 55AXs since 2007 when I started flying. Lost the first one when the connecting rod big end shattered inflight. The second developed lines on the side of the cylinder and the 3rd suffered overheating. All three were bought from my LHS and they had some pretty old stock, so I am not sure whether the problem was with that specific batch. It also happened to a 75ax. But I also did not run in them properly so that may have been the problem. Initially, I thought that it was a fuel problem but the last one I ran purely on a synthetic castor blend and I was using 20% oil and even then it kept overheating with all sizes of props. The same fuel ran fine in a FS91 that I had run-in properly. I even tried changing the fuel to a new batch. The FS91 though was bought from Tower. The second and third engines are still operating but they have become very unreliable

Ameyam

Oberst

I noticed no difference. I own a 1983-1984 O.S. FS 120 (before surpass) looks like a Saito. And I own a O.S. 91FX, a O.S. 61FX and the new O.S. 46AX. They all are very good and reliable. The quality is just as good. The newer engines seem to be more powerful and lighter than the old ones. For instance I think the O.S. 55AX puts out the same kind of power as a .61 and much lighter. They use about the same prop sizes.

So if you think O.S. is getting bad, buy a Evolution NX engine and I bet you you'll be back loving O.S. again in no time at all. JMHO

The only thing I hate about O.S. and I make a big stink about it all the time is they come out with a good model and they discontinue it in only a few years. If something works, leave it alone and keep it on the market!

One thing they teach in buisness school is wrong, and businesses wonder why their sales isn't so hot anymore. I bought my Saito FS150GK 3 years ago, the engine has been in production years before I bought it and it is still on the market. No problem finding parts and I don't need to take a part off of one type engine to fit on another.

It's like the car companies, they finally make a good car and fix all the bugs, then they take it off the market. And they usually most often replace the car with another model that isn't as good. More of a degrade than a upgrade.


Pete

Desertlakesflying

My Feedback: (28)

Evolution nitro maybe, but not the Evolution gassers

Oberst

Right. Now they have the radials made from a different company in India both for Gas and Nitro. Haven't heard if they are good or not. Hoping that one day Minnflyer does a write up article on it in the near future and like to read his thoughts on them.

Pete

boomerik

I have several old OS engines in one word perfect engines, but also bought a 61FX and a 25FX lately but they are both in the trashbin allready on both of them the cilinder liner came loose and yes i know all kinda stories saying i didn't use the right fuel or not enough oil or not the right kinda oil
but my other engines Webra,MVVS,old OS run on the same fuel and oil and no problems so do i think OS went down in quality YES specially because there are many people that had liners loose there coating for me no more new OS engines i'll rather get a new MVVS or webra (second hand or old stock) or an old OS

Erik

Oberst

Erik,

You should have sold them to me or put them up for sale at RCU Market Place! I would have given you over half price for them and paid for the shipping. Sounds like you didn't break in the engines correctly and ran them on the lean side. I haven't ever had those problems you've mentioned, and I run 10% on my 2-strokes and 15% Synthetic for my 4-strokes.



Pete

ameyam

If they keep the one good product on the market, no one will buy their other products. From a business point of view, they are hedging their bets. If they fix all the bugs in one product and then it becomes their main stay and subsequently there is an non-fixable bug, there can be a lot of commercial damage through recalls etc. Just look at what happened in the automobile world recently. Also, if the product remains unchanged, no one will buy their spares, instead duplicate cheap copies will start showing up on the market.

Secondly, as technology improves, manufacturers upgrade to try and make a better product. Remember, thats how the tried-&-tested product started out in the first place- as a new product with a lot of problems. Everyone agrees that the new alpha line of engines in the FS series from OS are lighter than the earlier Surpass series. This is in more ways than on- the 110A is actually lighter than the older FS91SII.

One way to get around this si to but an outgoing product- I knew that when the FS91SIIP was discontinued and the FS91SII heavily discounted, the clock was ticking for the latter. So I bought another FS91SII and am very happy with the results- you get a tried and tested product for a cheaper rate in such a case. OS will keep the 91's parts available for 5 years and many of them are common to the 70a /82a and FS95

By the way, a number of fellow fliers who started at the same time as me but with the 46ax, never had problems even though their engines are never properly maintained. Somehow, the problems I faced with the 55ax doesnt affect the 46ax

Ameyam

ameyam

Huh? Wasnt even aware of that? Where in India? May be we can make them sell it cheaper to us

Ameyam

Oberst

I'm aware of the philosophy Ameyam, but I've seen it back fire more than it progressing. A downgrade more than a upgrade. Just think of the money companies can save by having only reliable products. Playing chicken with the Bull to many times will eventually get you gored.


Pete

ameyam

I agree, but then change is the only thing that is constant. A product is usually only kept in production till the manufacturer recovers his R&D investment plus targeted profit. As consumers, we need to use the loopholes in the rules to win at the games companies are playing

Ameyam

Oberst

LOL! I'm not going to touch that, too easy to get off topic with that one. I wish we made them here instead. I need a good job now because my last one also got outsourced to India. So it's a very touchy subject for me, and I don't want to go there.

No offence.

Pete

ameyam

OK

Ameyam

2walla

My Feedback: (10)

OS went to chit about 2 years after Magnum got there stuff together Too many guys are willing to go for cheap chit with the perceived value of a warranty and not pay for quality... Look at ENYA - they are probably the best motors ever made but Altech marketing were aXXholes to deal with and had them priced very high.. I never had an enya fail, never needed warranty, and only needed parts a couple of times but Altech couldn't deliver.. I have one that is worn out after hundreds and hundreds of flights and 10 or so more that have never failed me.. The worn out one still runs but the conrod is nearly worn all the way thru... OS started chasing the cheaper price point. If they still made FSR's just like they were made 30 years ago, people would still buy them.. Granted glow in general is dying due to the electrics so I am really amazed that they developing new models.. Course they need to now cause their quality sucks and most of their new offerings get a bad reputation...

glowplugboy

My Feedback: (17)

Another marketing issue is the fact that Great Planes really doesn't want you to rebuild your OS Max engine. Parts pricing is outrageous. For example: a piston and sleeve for the OS .46 LA is $38.00, and for the .46 AX, its $75.00, roughly half the price of a complete NIB engine. When they went to nickel plating instead of chrome for their ABC engines, plastic back plates instead of cast metal, all of this began the slide down the slippery slope to lesser quality and inconsistency today. High quality seems to continue with certain models however; I have had great success, extreme durability, and consistant performance from the 2.00 pumped four stroke and 1.60 two stroke in pattern competition.

DougV

I own:
3 x OS 91FX
2 x OS 91 Ducted fan engine
2 x OS 61FX
6 x OS 50 Hyper (now this engine had some serious bearing issues in the beginning, my oven had seen more Hyper engines than food)
2 x OS 55AX
1 x OS 50AX
4 x OS 46FX (2 of these guys are more than 7 years old)
2 x OS 25FX
Not one issue with any of them. (Except my Heli engines)

I also own Dub Jett engines (these engines can really take some beating), Saito Engines and Webras. (Lately, I’ve seen lots of bearings failures on new Saito engines).

Treat and tune the engines right and run them by manufactures recommendations and they will last you forever.
The only engines that had really giving me some problems is the evolution engines.

JMO,
Doug.

P.S. to me the OS "LA" line engines, just plain sucks! (sorry, but it is what it is)

378

My Feedback: (4)

My 18 CV-RX and my 46AX run like clockwork. I'm thinking you just either got one of the few duds every factory spits out, or you cheaped out on an engine that's mired in the late 70s and expected it to be better than it was.

dennis

My Feedback: (90)

A few comments on the OS LA 46 series of engine. Granted the backplates and the remote needle valve assemblies are completely useless and should be replaced. We did so immendiately with an OS40FP backplate. OS has discontinued all FP backplates and so has Thunder Tiger on their GP40 which was interchangeable. The Tower 40 likewise as OS probably told them to discontinue it or else.
That said the screws are 3x12 for the head and 3x8 for the backplate You can get them in the car section at the hobby shop or Ace hardware or Micro Fasteners. Metal backplates are available from Curtis Shipp at $12.00 a pop. Expensive, yes but they are milled from solid stock so they do cost machine time. But they are beautifully made. Fuel , my choice is PowerMaster 10/22 half castor and synthetic. No failures in years of running. Prop of choice is an APC 12.25X3.75.
Granted I fly Control line, but consider that I don't have a throttle and the engine has to run perfectly every time and we actually do pull a few more 'G's in some of our maneuvers then you would believe and we are really asking quite a lot from any engine.
Suprisingly this particular engine has endeared itself to the C/L community. It's cheap and once it is converted it's very reliable.Power is exceptional for such a cheap engine and life span is more then reasonable. Actually measured in years with hundreds of flights being recorded for each model.I've put over 100 flights on one so far this year alone on the same airframe.
As to the quality of OS engines. Having had them from the earliest ones imported by Mel Anderson in 1954 to the present, your right they have really dropped the ball in quality. However, and I'm not making any apologies for them. They are stuck competing against the Chinese the same as other manufacturers in the Orient. Imagine a country with no standards, low wages, no pensions, no safety regulations and quality control is iffy at best. I imagine that they are trying to make a product that can compete with them and not succeeding too well. The only problem with OS is that they are never going to admit that their product has some shortcomings and actually make good on it. But I would also say look at their instruction sheet and see what oil content they want and use that amount or your at risk of a non warranted mishap. It's the perfect way out in a market with low oil fuel being the normal and castor in any form is almost an anathama.
Still, their better then a lot of other offerings that seem to have disappeared from the shelves recently. Of course you can still buy a Fox 35 and discover what real pain is.
Dennis

RCShadow

Me tooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'll add a "dammit!" to that. IT guy here. I have a heavy distaste for the H1-B program. STEM workers that are US Citizens are all over the place...unemployed. We just don't like being anyones subserviant or work for 50% of the norm either. Grrrrrrr.

Now, back to the topic at hand