My first plane is a trainer with a tower hobbies .46 engine. When I tried to start the engine for the first time, fuel would visibly go into the carb, but I could see it get sucked back into the fuel tank. Do you have any idea why the fuel would get sucked back into the tank? The fuel line was connected correctly to both the carb line and the muffler. Could it be that the motor was flooded?

This is not what you want to hear but I would send it back now for a full refund. In fact I did. I spent a lot of time trying to get mine running. (on and off 2 months) and sent it back and tower gave me a full refund. I guess these engines have a lot of problems with air leaks. But I hear they scream if you get a good one.

It's not "if you get a good one", it's if you "know how to tune one". I have done lots and lots of tune jobs on Tower engines, all are perfect once properly tuned.

Find someone to help you tune the low-end needle and you will be happy you kept it.

I do admit I am inexperienced but I saw enough negative comments on this message board on the TH .46 to realize I wanted nothing to do with it.

The problems don't always lie in the bottom end tuning --- that part is dead easy. Not all of these engines run well, as they are highly variable in quality. They are essentially the same engine as the GMS .47 (identical?) except that Tower doesn't offer a front NV (like it should). The GMS quality level is slightly higher, but not great. The Tower varient is built down to the last half of the last penny & they generally suck.

Proper tuning helps, but doesn't fix junk.

Well I didn't mean to offend anyone, sorry if I did.

I guess I haven't seen a junk Tower yet because they all seem to come around with a cooler plug and a low-end tuning.

No offense taken. I have owned 3 Tower 46 Engines, and not a single good one in the batch. I did everything under the sun to try and make them run reliably, and ended up baffling myself, and anyone at my club who thought they were better at tuning an engine then me. I have heard it all regarding this engine about how you just need to do this, or if you do this it is great, and gobs of other suggestions from High Needle to Low needle, various Glow Plugs, to tank placement, to air leakage,etc. etc. etc. etc., and have tried just about every suggestion I ever heard no matter how wrong I may have thought a suggestion was. I own 3 Magnum 4 strokes, 2 Saito 4 Strokes, 3 different O.S 2 strokes, 1 Evolution 2 stroke, 1 Thunder Tiger 2 Stroke, 1 K&B 2 stroke, 1 GMS 2 stroke, and even the GMS, and K&B believe it or not are better than them Tower Engines even though they are made by GMS. I got rid of all 3 of mine, and wouldn't take another Tower Engine as a FREE gift. Unless you don't mind "DEADSTICKS", I would suggest you send it back to Tower, and trade it for any other motor they sell. O.S, Thunder Tiger, Super Tiger will save you alot of greif over that Tower Engine. You will find people in here that claim that they can turn their TIMEX watch into an airplane engine, and make it run great, but do a search on this engine, and I think you will find what the general feeling is about this engine, and it is not all comming from people who don't know how to tune an engine. All the other engines I own run great, and I have learned to use what works good, and not spend my time trying to make chicken salad out of chicken sh**!

Sadly, as you have already found out, TH engines leave "something to be desired".

As was suggested above, I would return the engine and get something else.

Although it may cost a few extra dollars, you will not go wrong with any of these engines:
OS FX/AX, Thunder Tiger Pro or the Evolution 46 engines. 99%+ of these engines run great right out of the box.

If it is any consolation, I made the same "mistake" several years ago when I got back into the hobby. I USED TO consider myself pretty good with engines (actually I am pretty good with them), but the TH 46 engine just kept having problems. I would correct one problem and another would pop up. I finally gave up on it and the engine is now used as a paper weight and a "reminder".

I would also suggest avoiding AT ALL COSTS, MDS and MegaTech engines. While I have not owned any of them, everything I have heard and read about them make the TH engines seem like a Cadillac compared to MDS/MegaTech, which seem like a trouble plagued Yugo.

I purchased a starter, and it fired up on the first time. I ran for break in, now I can't wait to learn to fly!

I would definitley consider returning that engine for a different brand. I have seen several of these engines that ran great, however they are a major pain to tune. Seeing that you are new to the hobby, you don't want to risk any dead-sticks and get discouraged over a bad engine.

In my personal experience I have had two of the tower .46 engines and neither one of them were worth keeping. I am not the type of person to give up on things easily and spent 5 months trying to get them to run right and they never did. I read all of the forums and tried everything people suggested and could not keep them running. I recently purchased a Super Tigre .51 and could not be happier.