You can add Fox to that list. Surprised it wasn't bashed. Good engine now but they have had carb and quality problems in the past.

Must be a good un. Nobody has bashed Rossi or Novi Rossi. Though they tend to be heavy and too high revving for my applications.

Nova Rossi? Well ... no one hardly use their engines. Also Rossi's are brilliant, seen them perform, great engines.

All:

Some notes from my experiences.

Four stroke engines:

Saito: I have a bunch of them, excellent engines. Powerful, long lived, and not expensive to operate or overhaul.

OS: I have had a bunch of them. Thankfully, they are all gone. Terribly overpriced; the Magnums are the same for a 60% lower cost.

YS: If you want the ultimate 4s engine.

Two stroke engines:

Cox: They've lasted more than 50 years on the market, they have to be good to do that.

Fox: Don't like them. In the old days the 29X was the engine for c/l "B" speed, but you had to take a spare or two to a contest, they didn't last long. The stunt and rat race engines broke cranks with distressing regularity. I understand the later ones are much better, but I'm not going to buy one.

HB: Good engines, but they don't stand up well to a lean run. The rings aren't expensive, that's all it usually takes to get one back to peak, provided it's a 21 or larger. The smaller ones are lapped piston. You cook it, you toss it.

K&B: John Brodbeck is as nice a fellow as you will ever meet, his engines are the same. The old two needle "Block" carb wasn't hard to adjust, but you did have to do it right.

Magnum: Never had a bad one, my C-3/10 has a pair of eight year old XL 46 engines, still run like new. The GP 25 on my Eaglet is still purring after some 20 years. I have several of the XLS engines also, not the first problem.

MDS: Only have one, it has never given me any reason to be sorry for having bought it.

Norvel: There is a pair in my Tiggerkitty, they are just about due for replacement. The left is down several hundred rpm on the right engine. I wont fly it again until either there is an engine change, or I find a reason for the low rpm.

OS: Currently have five. I will not buy any more. The Magnum is a better engine for a lower price. OS has gone to ABN cylinders, they are just not as good as the ABC cylinders in other brands. The "Environmental" excuse horse crap is just that: horse crap. They have deliberately cheapened the engines. I really believe that if Shigeo Ozawa were still alive they would never have gone to ABN. Environmental considerations? No. Saito is still ABC and AAC, OS is the only Jap engine that has gone to ABN.

Rossi: Great engines for fast planes, but heavy for sport planes. I don't have any now, but all I've had have been good.

Webra: An under rated engine. They wont disappoint you.

Bill.

How about OPS, I hear there is one shop in the UK supplying them still! I love my little Cox 049 and 09, they were the cutest little things.

WRT the ABC/ABN issue -- the aluminum piston is the wear item, not the nickel or chrome cylinder liner. Nickel is a very hard material, chrome is harder -- both work just fine.

I agree with Bill except for Fox. I have a bunch of them with no problems.

I never owned a 29x, but remember, that engine was made around a half century ago. I had no problems with my combat or rat Foxes either,(also made in the 50s-60s) but Bill has far more expertise with fast engines than I and I expect he was getting more RPM than I ever did.

As noted by sport-pilot in an earlier post some of the early Fox carbs were a pain. In fact I have a 78 and an early 60 with Perry carbs. (The 60 has dual ignition- I doubt it makes much difference but it looks cool)

I agree wholeheartedly with Bill on K&B. If more people tried them the fields would be full of them.

jess

OS seems to have had a lot of trouble with nickle. Wear is not the problem, peeling is.

jess

I don't know I doubt RJL could keep up, they would probably just go up in price and be almost as expensive as Jett. But I am not worried. I have as little faith in their marketing as their manufacturing capacity.

Jess:

The Fox 29x had to be loosened up to the point it was almost worn out to make it go fast, and after a few runs it was. Part of preparing the engine was honing the crankshaft bearing to get enough freedom of movement to have 1/4"to 5/16 inch fore and aft wobble at the tip of a 7" prop. Yes, high rpm for the day, 21 to 22K in the air. The McCoys and Doolings ran fine at those speeds, but they were designed for it. The Fox was not.

Hand starting, of course, was just about impossible. Most of us used a modified inertia starter of the "Stearman" type. Some people made electric starters. Big and bulky, nothing like the ones we have now. Automotive starter and battery on a cart, 80 pounds or so. You didn't hold the starter to the plane, you held the plane to the starter.

Never figured out why the cranks broke in the stunt and rat engines without having the same problem in speed, but I never heard of a 29X breaking a crank. On the other hand, I have saved one Fox engine all these years to show why I stopped using them. Well, in addition to an intense dislike of the Duke. See picture attached. It's a 40 from a rat racer. When it let go the c/l plane did a snap roll. On wires, yet.

Sporty:

You are right about RJL's production capability, but I choose to think if Randy got the volume up he'd not raise the prices.

Bill.

The only reason the LA's get bagged-on is people don't know what to bolt them too. Of course they won't pull around these big heavy .40 size ARF's there making now, like an FX or other BB motor. But with there size and weight they are a perfect motor for those who want to hot rod their .25 -.32 size planes. I pulled my .32sx ( a screamer by any measure ) off my Magic for another project. I stuck an old .40LA on it and didn't notice much difference. I also found myself being allot more daring not having to worry about breaking my $120 SX. I could run a bigger prop too, something the .32 didn't like. And you can't buy more dependability for 56 bucks. I just ordered a new one for my 30-size Waco I'm finally getting around to build. I bet it will be a perfect match. It's also the engine I recommend to any newbie to stick on their trainer. Simple+Dependable+Cheap = happy student.

OPS engines are terrible. You spend more time fixing than flying and when you do get to fly it will die and you start the thing all over again. I will never buy another saito again. I have waisted over $300 dollars on them and they run like crap.[sm=punching.gif] How can you say something bad about os????[X(]They are great running engines and are WAY better than magnum engines. Magnum engines are just a piece of junk cheap copy of os.

hardcoreflyer:

I'm glad you are happy with the OS engines. You just go ahead and buy nothing else.

I'll continue getting excellent performance from my Saito engines, and getting three fine Magnum engines for the price of two of your OS branded things.

Bill.

Moki engines are great running engines. they run very hard and put out globs of power.

Saitos are crap? Most interesting revelation ... hahahaaaaaaa ... yeah Mokis can run on zero nitro and over 20% castor! MVVS too ...

os are great engines just stay away from the LAs, there dogs, no power, turn very small props, sound bad, and quit every flight, thats not from running out of gas its from being a bad engine. i bought a used 46 fx and as long as you get the low end needle and highend needle set right (that takes a while) than it will be a great engine, i have had that engine for four years (i fly that engine at least 6 times a week) and who know how long the guy i bought it from had it.

Dollar for Dollar the Tower engines will smoke anything. They are also the most reliable.

Oh I'm sorry the thread said to post the worst enigne. That would have to be JETT, those damm things turn the prop to fast. Why would anybody make an engine that revs so high and makes the competition look so bad. In my opinion you should stay away from these engines. They are just to dangerous to be flying with. hehe

yep tower .46 is crap thanks GMS for a Crappy engine! but my favorite of all time is my fox .46 BB ABC

I could not agree more!
I have an MDS .58 that will out run,idle better,out pull, ANY OS engine in the same catogory!
OS <---------------[sm=thumbdown.gif]

I agree 120%!

does anyone have a pic of a peeled os liner? i own 2 61sfp, 1 61 fsr, 1 46sf. all non ringed. The 46 has by far gotten the most use and is now 14 years old and still runs great. I would like to see what the peels look like..

thanks

Jeff:

Here are four shots for your edification. All OS. All ABN. All peeled. All junk.

It could be argued they were junk before they peeled, too. Else they would not have peeled.

ABN isn't bad in itself, of all the engines that are ABN I've only heard of one peeling that was not OS.

Bill.

I hate to say this been I have seen old TT engines which are also ABN but they are not that abused!

Since everyone has mentioned their favourite .46's, I'll have to mention the engine in my trainer at the moment; the Irvine .46. Great engine, far more powerful than the OS.40 FA, though marginally less powerful than OS.46 FX, but far cheaper than both.

Cracking engine, very reliable, good for any trainer ,or any low winger for that matter