For me, top of the list in 2-strokes is Enya. Bottom of the list in 2-strokes for me is Magnum. Not much 4-stroke experience, but my Saito and OS 4-strokes have been flawless.

I've only ever owned one SK engine - an SK50 I paid $49.77 for a couple years back. The engine proper was worth $49.00 abd the carbureator $0.77 From day one it had rough spots in the throttle arm and would catch as the machining was rough on the carb barrel.

I never did get a very good setting on the low end. Seemed to be sucking air from somewhere. I had 12 consecutive dead sticks with that engine. Luckily my start in R/C was with two channel gliders. ;-)

The last straw was a flight that was going well but the throttle response suddenly stopped. I flew at 3/4 throttle (which this engine did like) until the tank ran dry and then deadsticked again. The throttle arm was held to the barrel with four spot welds (or at least spot pressed dimples) - which all had failed and the throttle arm was loose from the carb barrel.

I put a Perry carb on it and it is twice the engine it ever was before. It's a snotty .50 with that carb. The basics are there, and I know others who like them, but mine truly had a lemon carbureator.

Ah Gizmo, I still have a .58 MDS that I ran almost three tanks through, it was/is the third one sent to me by Horizon plus a new carb. The first two the case broke then they tried to make a better carb. I have one .68 that ran well but it doesn't draw fuel after being in the box for 6 months. I have another one that worked sometimes sitting around in the shop. None of them are worth working on. That was a live and learn lesson. Never seen one that lasted except my one .68, that one was great for quite a while.

It seems that poor throttling is a far too common complaint with a lot of otherwise fine engines. I also have experience with the Perry carb soultion. I have several Perry carbs for testing purposes.

The bad thing about MDS is they disappeared off the face of the earth.

My favorite is the Saito 56

CG I already said it was my mistake on the misquote.

Probably the AX 55 from our emails Jason is what stuck in your mind, it's the $159.99 item. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXNMD1&P=ML I don't know why people pick apart posts, especially in the beginners section. I'm pretty sure there is a cranky old fart thread somewhere! Just kidding.

Best to worse? It's like asking what is the best and worst car. One might say a Mercedes is best, but who wants to pay $80,000 to find out? Another might think a $16,000 Chevy Cobalt is best, but who wants a noisy economy car with 3 kids to take to school? Then comes the loyal Honda owners and Toyota owners to say there is no other car to buy under any circumstances. Why would the model engine business be any different? Same customers!

I wasn't impressed with the user ratings on some engines I was going to try, and took it on faith it wasn't worth my time to add a complaint to the long list. Why not go there and compare some engines? But results vary. Super Tigre tunes differently than OS, and an OS user going to a Super Tigre has to accept a learning curve and longer break in to enjoy the improved results.

At our flying field, more are flying Super Tigres than before. We had to find a lower cost engine for the type of racing that was going to be performed and no one wanted to crash a $114 .46, not to mention a $159.99 AX .55, before coupons and club member fees.

Tower will replace the Super Tigre should it fail within 3 years. You don't have to wait for a rebuild.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/product_gu...m?engine_id=40

Yep, as I mentioned earlier, most mainstream engines will deliver satisfactory performance, with minimal differences, discernible only by some sort of metering, or by a very professional flier.

If you read through a lot of the posts in this (and similar) threads you'll see that reports are almost always incredibly subjective. It's usually either "I own brand A and I love it. I've never owned brand B but I've heard bad things and I don't like it." or "I've owned brands A and B. Brand A's great, but I'm one person who had some problems that I couldn't fix with brand B so I don't like it."

To get a real feeling for good or bad engines you'd want to hear a fairly constant stream of people coming up with more or less the same problem from a given brand & model, and that simply doesn't happen. For example there's many people who dislike Super Tigres (usually because they're fiddly to tune) and at least as many people who rave about them (usually because they're powerful and inexpensive when tuned correctly). The trick when reading these reviews is telling the difference between a poor engine, and an incompetent user (no offense intended toward anyone reading this who may have had problems with any given engine in the past).

Well said.

Note, price increase, $129.99 on the AX .46, so you can almost buy two Super Tigre .45 engines, $74.99. This was an overnight increase in price. Guess Tower gave out too many coupons this month!
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXFMD5&P=ML

The best part of GMS is the muffler, I bolt them on all my OS engines. Some drilling is required for it to fit on a Tigre.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXPTL4&P=7

Never believe advertised HP and peak RPM ratings from manufacturers. Read Towers specs on the AX .46, GMS .47, and FX .61.
All peak at 16,000-17,000rpm. OS states a 1.65ps? rating for the AX .46, whatever ps is. This is not possible to attain with stock mufflers and recommended prop sizes. If you tried, you're engine is fried. I've used a 10X7 prop on a AX 46, 10% nitro, sea level, and hit 12,600rpm properly tuned. I have seen GMS .47 engines perform best with 9X6, 8X7 props on lightweight pylon planes. Advertised HP and max. RPM even with a pipe is not achieved. So what HP are you really getting?

ok.....this is how I settled it. I bought both engines: an OS61 and a Supertiger61 - I am going to try both engines and will give you a beginner's review.
I will report back soon.

It seems to me that OS is the top dog, but those that follow are so close it's not THAT big of a deal if you get something other than OS.

One thing I didn't do was keep the SK.80 as a beginner, I do not want to take the chance. I WILL get one though...just not at this point. Once I become a better trouble shooter and want to adventure out of the safe zone when it comes to engines. Something tells me I the difference will not be HUGE.

You'll find the Super Tigre 61 (ABC or Ringed) takes considerably longer to break in than OS.
You cannot use the same fuel between both engines and get the same tuning results.
Do not use the stock glow plug that comes with the Tigre. Break in the Tigre with at least
5 tanks if ABC, more if it's ringed, and ringed requires a far richer mixture with cool down periods between runs. Use FAI or 5% nitro content fuel. All my Tigres really woke up after the first gallon of fuel. This is the period when some give up. Follow the plan, you'll be delighted you tried one. For $10 more, I like the .75 engine more, personally.

I run all kinds of engines. It's just another part of a rewarding hobby to keep it interesting.

Generally the problem with most engines occurs at the far end of the needle valve.

Bad fuel, cheap fuel, not enough oil in the fuel, dirt in fuel, moisture in fuel, bad tank assembly, low tank installation, hole in fuel lines, and even filters in fuel line can cause untold problems.

Too much prop, props that don't track, crappy spinners, unbalanced props.

Sucking up dirt, running without cleaning after a muffed landing, not running engine dry at the end of the day.

Varnish, running lean, loose backplates and heads.

Did I mention that most problems happen at the needle valve? Quit running your engines so lean. If you need more power, find a better prop or put a bigger one in the plane.

Nitro,
I think you have my shelves and engines,etc. in your shop at least it seems to look familiar? Glad to see you are as sick as I am. BTW are those MDS Boxes?[:@]

This is an old picture, the cancer has spread to many closets!
The MDS .28 is truly one of the strongest engines I've owned.
I wouldn't touch anything over .40, never had success with them.
These were practically given away too when MDS distribution stopped in the US, I'm a sucker for a good deal.
Right now, I've sold all the MDS engines to a local guy who flies combat.

The engine I guess I'd say bad things about is Fox.
I can't stand them. I'd take a Mecoa before a Fox, with the exception of control line versions.
I never could tune them before it got dark outside. Routinely, I replaced the Fox carbs with Perry, long ago.
Engines today have come so far, a .46 has the power of an old .60.

After this recession, any company still afloat next year has a good product!