cphdrider

My Feedback: (3)

Who hasthe best price/selection of ASP engines? I am looking for an ASP 212-cycle and ASP 91 4-stroke. Would consider a good used one also if price is right. Also, I have run ASPengines for years and for whatever reason they don't seem to be very popular, why? Price is right and I have had no problems with the engines and I run them hard. Comments...

earlwb

Hobbypartz.com usually has the best price on the ASP engines. But they sell them as a generic brand with plain while boxes and no logo on the engines.
HobbyKing.com would be the other source for them with the ASP logo on the engines.
HobbyPeople.net sells the MAGNUM brand engines, also many local hobby shops sell them too.

Why they aren't popular? Quality is the first main reason, people do not trust them. The engines are amazingly cheap and it scares people, being the engines come from a relatively unkown company. You have the luck of the draw as to whether you get a good engine or not.
They make the engines only, no parts, so they are throwway engines. If something is wrong you toss it and get another. Making and stocking parts and storing parts is expensive. Then with a cheap engine, a cylinder and piston may cost more than just buying a new engine.
Now with the low price, there is a reason for the low price, they cut corners on the parts used and quality control suffers as well. Better parts cost more. Quality control is expensive too. Everything is made by the lowest bidder for all the parts used in the engines. A engine company outsources the parts subassemblies to other companys, such as crankshafts, carbs, bearings, etc. So the low bidder wins.

Then the company that manufactures the ASP engines also makes several other brands of engines too. Here in the USA, the engines are sold under the MAGNUM brand. I think that due to various agreements and contracts they cannot sell ASP branded engines in the USA. Hobby Partz got around the issue by selling a Generic No Name brand engine.

Years ago the Chinese couldn't seem to make carburetors that would work OK. Many engines had bad carbs on them. Then if you had a carb that works OK, it may have been too large for the engine and thus had poor fuel draw too. It really sucks to have a engine witha defective carb and the replacement good carb cost more than the engine itself costs. They had other quality issues too. But carbs was the most common issue years ago. Some other issues at the time was swarf left over inside the engines due to inadequate cleaning processes. Then inconsistent hardening of the crankshafts or other parts which leads to early failure. Varying quality of the aluminum alloys used in the crankcase, head and backplate leading to cracks and failures.

Now then, over the years they have improved a lot and the odds are pretty good that you will get a decent engine that runs OK. I have a few that I got and I was pleasantly surprised as to how well they worked. Years ago you would need to put a good carb on one to get it to work, but their carbs are much better now. But as to how long the engine will last is still debatable though. It may run for a long time or may not. The jury is still out on that one. One thing is they still tend to put on larger bore carbs on some of the engines so there may or may not be fuel draw problems in some cases, but it depends on the engine's use at the time too. So if you have experience at running glow engines then this can be a good deal. But if you are a beginner with no experience running glow engines, getting a engine that doesn't work could be a major dissappointment.

An interesting observation, usually the places that do sell the ASP engines sell out pretty quickly, But I still do not see the engines showing up at the flying field. That has me wondering why too. Apparently somewhere folks are using the engines, but just not around here. Now there are groups that use the .15 engines for RC combat flying, but I haven't seen anyone do that yet around here in my locale either.

mikegordon10

http://www.justengines.unseen.org/acatalog/ASP.html

cphdrider

My Feedback: (3)

earlwb, thanks for the enlighting info on ASPengines. I have flown RCplanes since 1980 and it is rare to see an ASP engine and when asked what kind of engine that is and I say ASP, they usually say what is that? I do my own repair work on all my engines glow or gas and I honestly have never had a problem with an ASP and I run them hard. I have an ASP 61 (older model) in a Great Planes P-51 and it screams as good or better with the OS engines. I was at a swap meet last fall and bought a new never run ASP 21 for $20 and a ASP 61 new never run for $30. I run the smallest prop possible and they are usually full throttle from the time I take of until I land. Thanks again for your info... Charlie

earlwb

You are welcome:
I have a couple of earlier model Magnum engines from circa 1990, and they both had bad carbs. I did have a couple of used OS carbs that fit the engines and they then worked quite well. I have a ASP 1.08 engine and it had a bad carb on it as well. I used a Perry carb on it and it worked good up until the rear bearing cage let go, shot peening the insides of the engine thus ruining it.  I had heard of some other people having bearing problems too back then at that time.

A couple of years ago, I got some newer ASP engines, and although they work OK, the carbs have only a single detent clip on them, so the carbs all exhibit false needle settings and can be tricky to adjust like that. Usually putting on a short piece of extra large fuel tubing to help center the needle valve corrects the problem. But a newbie won't know anything about that though.  A couple of ASP .61 four stroke engines work, but the compression is lower so I have to run higher nitro percentage fuel in them. Also the valve guides seem to be a little loose so the engines tend to load up some at idle from some excess oil getting into the combustion chamber.

I also got a couple of GMS 1.20 engines and the carbs and remote needle valves leaked badly. The engines do work fine with Perry carbs on them though.

If I remember right, Sanye is the engine company, and they make SC, ASP, Evolution, Magnum, Generic no name, and several other brands of engines. There is another company and they make numerous brands of engines too, so it is easy to mix them up as to whom makes what.
Their main line of business is making car parts mostly.

blw

My Feedback: (3)

Things have improved out of Sanye. There are still skeptics. Also, prices seem cheap when compared to relatively overpriced mainstream engines and parts. In the end, those cheap prices can just be reasonable prices instead. I look at it like this: does a $200 Jaguar oil change really do more than the $35 anywhere in town oil change? For the most part, a piston and liner is just a piston and liner. I don't know why some should top out at $100, and other high quality ones come in at something around $40.

I think the perception of market share or saturation is based on a persons locality. For instance, I rarely see SuperTigers or Webras. I could easily think these aren't selling and think they are all junk and tossed in the trash long ago. We have a fair amount of Magnums, Evolutions, OS's. Saitos dominate the 4 stroke crowd here. Down the road in Georgia, OS appears to be the main 4 stroke brand. A person can be wrong about all of this too.

jaka

Hi!
All modern engines have only a one detent clip on their high speed needles. Decades ago OS used two...but only one of them had a rachet!
All ASP engines (Kyosho, PH) today are top notch engines!!!! Take the .40 engine for instance, it's more powerfull than the OS .40 FX and it throttle and run extreamly well. In fact it's so powerfull that it can swing 12x6 props with ease (using 15% nitro)!

Sport_Pilot

I don't understand why they are sold under the ASP brand name.  Wasn't that the name from Indy RC?   Horizon continued to sell them by that brand name, and then switched to EVO from the same company.  Why does Horizon put up with the engines sold under their old brand name?

blw

My Feedback: (3)

Sanye apparently has at least 3 individual lines of engines, being ASP, Magnum, and Evolution glow.

I agree that some of the Magnum 4 stroke detent setups are too weak to hold the needle valve firmly.

jimmyjames213

My Feedback: (2)

magnum/asp/evo engines run just fine, they leak more than os engines due to tolerance issues but they run great and throttle well. They run better on smaller props and love castor oil
i have ten or so all run well (two and 4 strokes)

the pope

and sc for the poms mainly from what I can gather . Price for a 91 fs piston , liner and ring about $20 from H.K. How good is that ? I have a mag 25 and 15 both great and a 52 which I have just run in ( no probs ). Also a 91 fs which Ive yet to run . Once u get past the price and the engine snobs its all good . Cheers the pope

earlwb

the_pope.
I just checked and HobbyKing actually has some parts for some of the ASP engines in their store and in stock too. That is pretty neat. Here in the USA no one is selling parts for them. For ages it seems, HobbyKing had a Parts category, but never had any parts in it. I think JustEngines in the UK had parts for some ASP engines too. The HobbyKing prices for the parts is surprisingly low too. But shipping might be a problem in some cases.

I am not that much of a snob, From ASP; I have a AP .06, three, AP 09's, a couple of 12's, a couple of AP .15's, two or three ASP 15's, a .25, a .28, two .36's, a .46, two .52's, three .61's and a 1.08, plus a couple of the .61 four strokes too. Of the engines I have run, they have worked Ok, but I did see some problems with some of them though, mainly the needle valve assembly was allowing the needle to move around a lot and cause false needle settings.

The AP .06 the carb mounting screws would come loose on it, the muffler tip rotates as the engine is running, it ran better without muffler pressure than it did with it.

The .28 and the .36 engines both ran good right out of the box no problems encountered. I sort of like the .36 engines as they run as good as the .40 engines do but are in a .25 size crankcase.
The .61 two stroke engine ran great too, I don't remember any problems with running it. I ran one to see how it worked, but not the other two.

The ASP .61 4 stroke engines both ran well, but they both had problems with the needle valve assembly allowing for false needle settings. Plus the two 4 stroke engines did not like running less than 15% nitromethane fuel either. The valve guides seemed to be a tiny bit loose and allowed it to suck some oil at idle speed.

Years ago I had a ASP 1.08 engine and it needed a better carb on it. But the bearing cage came apart in the air and it destroyed the engine. At the time there were no parts to be found. I have a new 1.08 engine, but I haven't run it yet.

ASP .61 two stroke, 11x7 Zinger prop and 5% nitro glow fuel
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3vf6pZ2IwQ&feature=g-all-u&context=G2fedd39FAAAAAAAAAAA[/youtube]

The AP .06 engine needed some work, the muffler tip is loose, the carb screws would come loose and fall out, and the carb needle adjustments is more coarse. I couldn't lean it out with muffler pressure properly. But without muffler pressure it ran really good then.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hNOYu0hFHo[/youtube]

ASP .36 engine (aka Generic no brand label), 10x6 prop 5% nitro-glow fuel:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYi-t-aFX-E[/youtube]

ASP .28 (aka Generic no name brand):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG6t7W4e0_s[/youtube]

Here is a vid of one of the ASP FS61 four stroke engines when I ran it.
http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/g...h_test_Run.mp4

buzzard bait

I really like the ASP .21 on the test stand, but I have not flown it yet. Really good throttle, light, powerful.

Funny, I could have sworn I posted here already. Anyway, I put the stats on the tach forum a year or so ago.

Jim

HAIDAR

DEAR cphdrider
   I THINK THE PRICES OF  THESE THREE SHOPS ARE THE BEST FOR ASP ENGINES.
WWW.HIMODEL.COM
WWW.NITROPLANES.COM
WWW.HOBBYKING.COM