Tower has an excellent customer service reputation, if they did not, they would not be the largest entity out there in this business like they are.

I can understand the concerns with having to send the engine in, however it is the only way they can investigate the engine and resolve the problem.
If everyone said "hey I need a new piston and liner" and they rushed it out, they would not be in business very long.


I have never tried a Tower motor, I have read some good things and bad things, most of the bad was about Bad o-rings causing air leaks, I may have read that they resolved those issues.
I do own several OS .46 engines and one Thuder Tiger .60, I have not flown the .60 yet but the OS engines are great reliable engines in my opinion. As for the break in I always follow the instructions in the manual.
Some are saying that 4-stroking the engine on break-in does not allow it to get up to temperature and thus will damage the piston and sleeve. I am not saying that this is not true or anything of the sort, my point is that we turn over these engines while trying to start them while the engine is cold. This would lead me to think that each time I start my engine that I am reducing the life a little, or scratching off the liner of the sleeve a bit. What about the times when the engine wont start and we are constantly turning the motor over making adjustments and such. Being cold the engine certainly is not up to running temperature and the sleeve certainly is not expanding.

I wonder if heating up the engine prior to starting would make a difference, especially for break in.

Dbow

That's the only way I'll initially start a new engine. I make sure it is well lubed, then hit it with a heat gun. Works better than a "pure" cold start.

Ed,

What type of heat gun are you using and what are you using to power it?
I would like to try this method on a new engine and see what the outcome is.

I know there are several ways to heat up an engine but I do not have any electrical sources at my field. I do have a small hobby torch but I am not sure that is what I want to use to heat up the engine.

I know tire warmers are available for R/C cars, so maybe I will look into that as a way to heat up the motor.

Dbow

I break-in my engines at the house where I can plug in a heat gun for shrinkng covering. I'd be very careful using any type of torch as you can over-heat too isolated of an area if you're not real careful. Could use a trick I use in very cold weather; place the engine close to your car's tailpipe and let the running car engine warm it up.

That is a good idea ed, thanks


Dbow

If Tower Engines are this fragile that I have to use a heat gun before I start them....I'm sticking with OS.

ABC and AAC engines that are very tight is common with very high performance engines such as Jett and Nelson. K&B and Supertigre's are also very tight. If breaking them in during cold weather then warming the engine up first is a good idea. But just not required after break in. Avoiding a 4 cycle run is only an issue during break in, you could break a rod, especially in cold weather. After the engine is broken in you can 4 cycle as much as you want. Many of the C/L guys run their ABC engines in a rich 4 cycle every time they run them. OS tends to have loose tolerance on their ABN engines. Easier break in but may last a bit less. IMO for many of us they would last a lot longer than the first fatal crash does the engine in.

Ran Tower 46 this season. Engine went bad (wouldn't idle or shut down), sent back to Hobbico & received new engine. Broke it in as instructed, had much trouble setting low end. Put it in plane and have six consecutive dead sticks. I have spent over 6 hours working on this engine. Three different fuels, three different glow plugs, swapped carbs & mufflers, changed compression, nothing works! Two other members of my club also had similar problems with this engine. Tower is a great firm and Hobbico will honor the warranty, but I want to spend my limited time flying not working an engine on the bench. Life is too short and this hobby should be fun, I'll use my tower 46 as a paper weight.

I am using two Tower 46 engines...one on a scratch built Simitar and another on a Sig Fazer.

Both engines are very powerful and start/run very well. It did take a few minutes of patience to set the low speed needle valve. Neither will shut-off completely, but that is not of great concern to me. (I did pack the carbs with RTV)

After 112 flights of about 11 to 13 minutes each, I did replace the cylinder/piston in the Simitar.
The Tower 46 on the Sig Fazer has 23 flights of about 11 to 13 minutes and is still going strong.

Overall, I am well pleased with the Tower 46 and especially Tower's Parts Service.

If you are a Tower Super Saver Club Member, with the $15 November Discount on orders of $150, you can get two(2) Tower 46's for about $67.50 each.

I also have / had a very tight Tower .46 that would not lean into a solid two cycle. I tried smaller props, less nitro, head gaskets and different plugs. It is still a real mystery to me. I sold it to a fellow club member for next to nothing.....hopefully he can figure out the puzzle and have a good engine. Another person in my club had similar problems to mine....he also has rid himself of the engine. If anyone has the magic formula to fix this problem please let me know. I would like to pass it on to others I know having the same problems I did.


Thanx,

Tom

The best 46 out there right now for my money is the Thunder Tiger. I have 4 of them and have had absolutely no problems with any of them. Broken in with only two tanks. The TT 42 is a good one also. I have a Tower Hobbies 61 and 75. They both took quite a while to break in. I had problems getting the low ends adjusted. Many dead sticks at first but both are running fine now.

I must admit that the two Tower .46's that I have were broken in by W8YE. Even given the fact that they were ready to fly by his standards I was concerned with how tight they both were. I adjusted the needles slightly to compensate for altitude etc. I tried a few different props. and the one I have flown the most has been running with an APC 9x7. That's after about 200 ounces of fuel burned with a 9 1/2 x7N. I usually run a 10 ounce tank mostly at full throttle just letting it scream. It will run at any rpm range indefinitely and transition nearly as fast as the servo can move the throttle, that is you can do anything you want with the throttle at any attitude and it will not quit. It also shuts off instantly. It is still "squeaky" tight when it's cold. I can't believe that I am doing anything that different with mine. I haven't changed a needle since I changed props. and the ambient temp. here has changed 40 degrees in like two weeks.

I wonder if they changed tolerances somewhere or had a bad lot of carburetors or something on that order. I think members of the club where I fly are as skeptical as any group. At first people who were attracted to the way my plane ran puckered up when they found it was a Tower. Since then, last Spring, a lot more have surfaced and they are all great that I know of.

I have been repairing a lot of engines and rebuilding a lot of old Super Tigres. I would like to inspect your .46 for you to see if I can find the flaw. Even if it needs parts they are very reasonable. Besides that you need to keep the paperweight option open for your family...Christmas is approaching.

Take care, Cliff

There are quite a few negative testimonials for the Tower 46. I was planning on purchasing a tower 46 but I was also debating the GMS 47....currently, I'm real hesitant on the Tower engine because it has been flogged severly by this thread.

[&:] Dag Poteety that sound's messed up ,I've had some TH in the past recently had a .46TH wich I gave the break'in just like the manuel said, but I noticed the piston when it would stop top dead center it would get a little stuck< I ran about a gallon of cool power 15% with a MA 10x6, I wrote Bill Bax and asked him about how long would it take before my engine would loosen up some he said that the TDC thing is part of the of the process that with out that TDC where it get's a little locked that the engine wouldn't run properly, so took his advise ran it a little rich and it work's just fine, now I have another example of the tower hobbies engine I crashed this .60 nose first on a rock,(failed clevis on elevator)the crank case was cracked, the carb. was bent, the muffler ripped off the piston is broken and would you belive that after I fixed it a little with the same part's not buying any new crank case or anything else for that matter the engine is still runing with a nice low idle and a MA 12x6 Prop. no airleaks no nothin,I'm actualy flying the engine on my trainer and it run's very well.

Have not seen a bad 46 or 75 Tower at out field.

I have a Tower Hobbies .46 which I have had for about four months. After triing the suggested break in procedure, I had numerous problems. It would not idle correctly, It would not stay running regardless of the glow plug I used or what I did. So finally after spending a little money (7.55) I sent my engine to Hobby Service. on a Tuesday and they recieved it on Friday mourning and discovered that the problem was an air leak. That same day they sent me another engine. They said I would get it by Wensday of next week. Hopefully after this the engine will work fine. The reason why I posted this message was to let every body out there new. How fast and responsive Hobby Services has been. So they are willing to help and will. Good luck with your TH .46 and happy flying.

....99% of the problems with Tower engines are due mostly to the carb not
being seated down tight on the o-ring. This causes the air leak, and the engine
won't shut off. The back plate is provided with an o-ring to seal it. This arrangement
is better than a gasket....air leaks are rare at the back-plate.

The GMS and Tower engines are the same....just a different logo cast into the side.

Dave.

I would like to remind everyone that the Tower engines are made by GMS. The Tower 46 has 1mm less bore than the GMS 47 which in some cases doesn't have the remote needle valve assembly. The bigger Towers are ABC whereas the GMS's are Dykes ring engines. Other than that, they are the same engine.

Hobbsy and I were talking with Randy L. of MECOA at the Toledo show and they have lost the distributorship of the GMS engines which was picked up by Great Planes. I don't know if this will have anything to do with with the Tower/Hobbico 46's?

Enjoy,

Jim

I have a Tower 46 and I'm quite happy with it. Carburetion is perfect from low speed to high speed, plenty of power for unlimited vertical in my 4* 40.

I get more positive comments on my tower 46 than I have any other engine. People see it on my desk with a prop on and always ask if it's a real engine. I say "yeah sort of...." They usually come back with "That's the neatest paper weight I've ever seen"

A paperweight made out of inferior "sand-casted" aluminum and non-exacting tolerances...?

Uh......yeah that would be the one I'm talking about.

[:@][:@][:@]Well I got my new TH .46. It still runs like crap. I really dont know what to do. The last one had an air leak they said. Any good ideas on how to check and fix an air leak? Let me know because it is either that or this stupid thing is getting traded for something else. Happy Flying.[:@][:@][:@]

I had one with the same problem. I sent it in and they said it had an air leak and sent me a new one. I called tower and told them what had happened and they took it back as trade on a new TT46.

Two guys that I fly with both bought Tower 46's. Both had bad air leaks and poor transition. Both were sent back and and Hobbico returned brand new engines pretty quick. Good service. But the new engines ran as bad or worse than the first so they were returned and Tower let then both trade up to OS 46 FX's which ran great right out of the box. They both lost many good weeks of flying ,paid for return shipping twice,wasted fuel breaking in 3 engines instead of just one and paid a little more money and got a good running engine. These guys will never try another Tower engine. In the same price range Thunder Tiger looks the best to me.