What brand of .40 or higher moter should i buy for a trainer airplane?

How much do you want to spend? And are you sure you want just a .40? OS LA series are cheapest, hands down, but while good and reliable runners and nicely machined they are down on power. Tower hobbies, thunder tiger, magnum all sell good inexpensive engines, OS, Evolution and Super Tigre are a little more expensive. Set a budget, search your engine choice here on RCU. You'll find good and bad experiences with EVERY make of engine out there, but some do seem to be better than others. I have a super tigre and two OS's, one la 40 and one 46AX. Both the OS engines ran great right out of the box, while the ST took a little fiddling around to get running right. All of them are two or three flip starters, idle well, run great and make enough power for me. Actually, unless you pick some no-name made in China bargin basement clunker, you really can't go wrong.

Then again, you could pay a visit to your local flying field and see what people are flying with. You'll probablly get just as many opinions there as you will here.

Whatever you get, search around RCU for safety tips and read some of the prop strike stories before you try starting and running it. Or better yet ask for some help from your LHS or local flying club.... <off soapbox>


Andy

There are lots and lots of good .40 and .46 size engines out there, and everyone has their favorate. There really aren't any absolutly horrible engines in that class out there right now, as far as I know.

For beginners, I happen to like the Evolution line of engines. Very good power, inexpensive, and easy to get running right.

OS is widely thought of as one of the best engine makes out there. You'll hear mixed reviews of the LA line. They don't produce as much power as most engines in their class, but they are easy to run and reliable. The OS FX/AX lines are powerful, reliable, but expensive.

Thunder Tiger Pro series is a good engine in that size. I don't see them much at my field, but the guys I know who have them love them.

There are a lot more out there. Assuming you are going to learn with an instructor, it would pay to check out your local field and ask what most guys there are running. Most engines have some quirks, so using an engine no one at the field has seen before could be an issue.

Loaded question...

what car would be best to haul my planes to the feild!?

No, serioulsy..

the best engine is the one that is the right price, and that fits your airplane. the second most important thing, shoudl be 'familiarity' for both you, and your instructor / club mates. If you have a wierd Swahili engine, no one will have a clue as to why it won't run, but if it's a common OS brand engine, most will have a clue.

Ask all teh club mates, and see what they say. Chances are, 75% will reccomend OS.

As a beginner, you're best bet is probably an OS brand engine, as they are one of the indsutry leaders. MDS is a 50/50 choice, as well as Magnum or Super Tiger..

the new 'evolution' engines are supposed to be good as well, but not quite as popular as some others, such as Magnum, MDS, Pico, etc.. but their name is building...

What plane? Plan for the next one too. You can always cut power, you can't add if you don't have enough. If you spend the money on a good .46, you will be good for the next couple. OS FX is good, Super tigre is good, TT, and others. Even the tower .46 is a pretty good engine from what my friends running them say. Just depends on what you want

O.S. LA.46 is the second engine I have ever decided I HATE. You get a good one... ts a good engine. You get a bad one its a POS. You can't see the difference until you start feeding it fuel. Out of 5 LA's I have had dealings with... 3 were POS. Thats not good odds.

The first was a McCoy .19... How many people remamber the pot metal monstrosities of the late 1970's/early 80's? a .19 that outweighed most .40's... (and these signaled the end of McCoy in making engines... When they HAD a good reputation before that series.) Hmm... an engine maker puts an unpredictable product on the market... and suddenly the reputation turns around... wonder why?

My recommendation is the Thunder Tiger Pro series... or an OS FX series, if you can find one on the hobby shop shelf. Jury is out on the new AX series, they are too new and have a new technology piston liner. Magnum XL series s OK... GP series isn't so great. The Tower ball bearing .46 is supposed to be good... (but I haven't SEEN one...)

Enya used to have a solid reputation. I haven't seen a new Enya since 1985. The last Enya III series I had I ran some un-natural amount of hours... and sold it to soeone who ran it for 4 more years before he sold it... and last I heard it was sold AGAIN and still going strong. I Think Enya is up to the V or VI series... I have NEVER heard one complaint about Enya....

I am liking the new Irvine engines. A little pricy, but good power and reliability. I also like MVVS, awsome power and good reliability. Heck I like most kinds of engines. Except LEO, what a POS. I have had good luck with all my engines especially my Saito 4 strokers.

I would stay away from the no-namers. Some of the Chineese engines are decent but some of them are not. I have heard enough good and bad to stay away from MDS. Basicly if you buy a name brand engine you will be fine.

Mark Shuman

For a trainer....just about any 46 BB true ABC motor (not OS) would be ok.

The few (sport motors) I would recommend: (in no particular order)

Magnum 46 XL or the new 52 XLS
Super Tigre 45
TT 46 Pro
GMS 47
Tower 46
OS 46 FX (FX...not AX)

One of the above would also allow you to re-use the motor, once you've mastered the "trainer" and want to take the next step up.

Lot'sa choices, eh?

Gary

When I have a student ask about a good engine in this range I usually steer them towards the TT 46 Pro. I do not know what is phread59's hang up about the Leo/Megatech version of this size engine but the ones that I seen all run well and make good power. And there are quite a few in my club. They also have a true chrome liner. Really you can not go wrong with any well known brand of this size engine. That might not be true with MDS though.

I tried and tested the ASP/SC engines. A lot cheaper than the Magnum and TT but works very reliably. Go for them rather than your OS LAs if the difference in price is not much. MVVS are nice too from what I have been told and in Malaysia they cost about the same as a TT but you get more kick.

This may be going against the grain here, but if you are looking for your first .40 size motor I would suggest the Evo Trainer. Just about everyone at my club has something good to say about mine. It has decent power for a trainer. It is very easy to start. Never died on me except for twice when I had trash in the needle valve that was probaby from a bad noseover on landing. It has the weighted flywheel that makes idling reliable. The Evos are pretty good price wise compared to anything else. Anyway, this could be a good engine for a beginner that lets you worry about the flying stuff so you won't spend your time with a finicky engine. I'm not saying the Evo .40 trainer is the best one out there, but it is a good one for a new guy. I have a second plane now with a TT .46 and most of my flying time is spent tinkering with the **#$ thing. When you are new to RC you want to be flying all you can and the Evo Trainer lets you do just that with no worries or hassles.

This is starting to sound like my club members out at the field. The club president swears by Super Tigre. The club safety officer is also the manager of the LHS. When he found out that Tower was selling Super Tigres for $5 above his cost, he put the last 4 that he had (and has been unable to sell) out on the counter, marked them at his cost and sold them. Now the Super Tigres that he has, he doesn't have to pay for them until he sells them. Apparently Great Planes is having trouble selling them anyway.

Not to knock the Super Tigres. I have not had one. I have a 40LA, 46FX and 46AX. My point is that asking someone what their favorite or best engine is usually ends up like a religious discussion. Everyone has their favorites. A die-hard Super Tigre person will not have their mind changed by a die-hard OS person. These discussions are like the "what's the best trainer" discussion.

A quick note about MDS engines. For a while, the MDS engines came with a carb that flat out just didn't work. The engines ran poorly and were unreliable. But MDS fixed the problem with the carb, and anyone who has the old carb can send it in and they will ship a replacement carb that will fix the engine. New MDS engines, of course, have the new carb, and the ones I've seen at the field run fine. However, MDS's reputation hasn't fully recovered.

You'll find a lot of guys in the hobby who swear by OS engines. Years ago, OS was one of the first engine makes to adopt CNC equipment, and before CNC, their tolerances and quality control were noticeably better than many other engine makes. However, these days, just about all the engines out there are made with CNC equipment. While the quality control still varies more with some of the cheaper engines, the quality of the engine designs and manufacturing tolerances on most of these engines are all more than good enough. The gap between the top engine makes and the "bargain" engines has really closed in last few years.

When I started out RC 20 years ago I would not have bothered to look at a TT engine. Enya's were unreliable then. OS set the standards and OPS were great engines. Now I still believe in OS engines but do not own one anymore. I have found out that the so called 'cheapo' engines are actually good stuff, very "value for money". I mean I was shocked by the SC/ASP engines. For me I just wanna try them out and see if they work. I am lucky that they superceeded the expectations. Next on the menu are the MVVS!

Magnum has great customer service. They shipped me a carb with an unremovable needle valve. They replaed it for me free!

PS Sanye is a no name Chinese bargain engine maunfacturer, but your Magnum/ASP's are all made by them.

I would recommend a ball bearing 46.

OS, Thunder Tiger Pro and Evolution are excellent engines and, IMHO, the most user friendly, especially for a beginner.

Sport 10, I had a LEO 46. It was an earler one. I had nothing but trouble with it. I will state that I am a professional mechanic by trade. So figuring out how to make an engine run is fairly easy for me. I have gotten some real stinkers to run.

The carburetor was that bad it could not be tutned even with pliers. It had to be replaced. It was under warranty. The second carb still stuck. I had to polish the barrel and the bore to get it to work. It does work great now, I keep it for a spare. The engine just could not be tuned worth a damn. It only had about 25 flights on it before I got mad at it and pulled it from my Tiger II. I finally dissasembled it and inspected it. I did find the problem. The pin on the crank that the lower connecting rod attatches to the crank was shot. The bronze bushing was fine. The pin was just eroded, scored away. Allowing the piston/rod to have the timing go out with the porting. basicly it flopped up and down enough the engine's vacume and timing were way out. I could not get a crank for it. The crank had been changed in subsequent runs and would not fit. That was what I was told when asking about it. The pin's heat treatment was either botched, or not done. Several other fliers in my area also had similar Quality control issues. mine was not a single case.

I Will admit several people had good luck with thiers. But the amount of problems with others lead me to my conclusion. I hope that the QC has gotten better. I hope they have. So if anyone has good stories to tell please prove me wrong. I would not mind if LEO got it's act together. It would be nice to have yet another low cost decent option.

So guys go ahead, tell the stories of your good expieriences with these engines. I would like to know how things are now.

Mark Shuman

I'll ditto what blwblw and campy said.

The Evolution trainer system is excellent, at a very good price. I did the review on them for RCU Magazine, and I was VERY impressed:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=153

TT and Magnum are good also.