I have had an A.E. .15 engine for quite a while now, and most of the time it is an amazing engine, really Fast! But for the second time in 3 months I have blown the connecting rod and the engine has seized both times ruining the piston and sleeve. It has a lifetime warranty so getting it fixed is not that big of a deal. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem with this or another engine. A.E. engines are made by Thunder Tigre, usually a great brand, but I was wondering if I should consider switching to O.S. if this is a common problem with A.E.

99.99% of the time, when a con rod breaks its due to the engine being run too lean. I would recommend richening the HSN your next time around, even if it isnt running hot.

Are you sure about the life-time warranty? I have the TT .15 engine in my RC-10, and I don't recall anything about that. Was it for a specific time period (when the truck was purchased), or what?

I was looking at that engine on The Empire's site, and it appears that almost half of the parts are no longer available; at least, not through Tower.

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Yep had the same problem i just swichted to a different motor got sick of the problem.

The lifetime warranty is not through Thunder Tigre... It is through Associated which is based out of California, they own the name to the engine it is just manufactured by Thunder Tigre. Kind of like buying a Chevrolet, it is Manufactured by General Motors, but the Chevrolet name carries the warranty.

The warranty states that if you send in your crappy old AE engine, they will send you a new one for half of the MSRP.

I dug out my paperwork. The warranty was for 90 days, with the "half-price buy-back" option Skaterdawg mentioned.

I am aware that AE markets the TT-produced engine. I have had good performance from this one, although it is difficult to start when cold; but it runs like a scalded dog.

I'm still wondering about this "life-time warranty" thing; how did I miss out on that?

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THe lifetime part of the warranty is the Engine Replacement Policy... As Skaterdawg said, they will give you a new engine on trade for half the cost of a new one.

Actually you can get new parts for them still. You can get them from rcboyz.com. I saw them 2 days ago. Those motors break con rods because they are small and have the "lube holes" drilled in at an angle which weakens the rod. I put a rod from an ofna motor I had and it ran great for a while but that rod is the least of your problems. You need to get rid of the pull start. That is where the problem is. I have had my motor since the first day Associated started selling the GT RTR. I have blown the motor about 15 times so trust me. There is a bushing inside the side plate that disinagrates when heated up and it falls into the bottom of the crank case and pinches between the block and the rod and thats where you get most of your snaps from. Now that was the first problem...... get the block off plate and elimanate the whole pull start assembly. Second get rid of the wrist pin and the little locking clip on it. That clip will heat up and distort. When this happens the clip breaks off and falls between the piston and the sleave and scars it to hell and locks the motor up. When this happens you must pound the piston to the bottom of the stroke and then crank the motor over to push the sleave out far enough to get the rod off the crank. My greatest fix for this was to get a wrist pin off a ofna .12 that has white teflon on the ends of the pin. It floats back and forth in the piston but when it bumps the sleave wall it dosent scrach or pit it at all. Hope this helps you out and if you really want a real motor just get another on cause that motor is a POS and I have had so many problems with it sence a week after I bought it. Then the nightmares began. It runs fine now and I have the restrictor that was in the carb out (since day 2)..... Im glad I build full size motors cause if it wasnt for that I would probably just thrown it out. But hey Im always up for an engine challange!!!

Okay, well, I guess we have a different understanding of the definition of "lifetime warranty".

R16L,

Sorry to hear you've had so much trouble with your engine. Aside from being a PITA to get started when it is cold, ours has been a very powerful, reliable engine.

I assume that bushing you refer to, in the BACKplate, is the one which supports the extension shaft for the starter? As this bushing is a press fit into the backplate, and is held there by the circular boss of the extension shaft, I'm having trouble seeing how it could "fall into the crankcase", etc.

Whatever; hope you have better luck.

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i have an O.S. 12 cvr blown the con rod just once in 2 months but i have another TT-15
just blown the piston pressure after 2 weeks of buying i still dont know y ??!!??!!??
60$ for another piston what a ripoff.

Yes about 2 years ago when i got my first rc, it had the thunder tiger .15, and it did lock up, well i got it unlocked, and forund out the problem was running it to lean, i richen it up and it is still running strong today with 4 gallons through it.

actually chevorlet is owned by gm. if you want to compare it to a 1/1 car heres an example: the toyota mr2 was assembled and partally designed by yamaha, and i believe mazda helped too. i think the engine though was built by yamaha. Im not 100% sure on this but its an example.

It sounds like those engines in the gt are a big problem. btw, are you guys that break connecting rods and seizing pistons doing this right after taking out the restrictor by chance?

I though that I had said gm own chevy and mazda is actually owned by Ford and has nothing to do with Toyota who in-cahoots with yamaha, but anyhoo.... I did nothing to the engine, I did not remove or modify anything, 100% stock. It is just a poor quality engine. WHen it ran it was lightning fast, but that doesn't make up for the down time I face to get it repaired, I am switching to another brand.

like i said im not 100% sure, i had heard something about mazda(maybe not mazda) helping with the mr2. i do understand that mazda is owned by ford(that kinda bums me out). If your having so much trouble with that engine you should get the replacement and sell it on an auction(list it as new) or to your lhs, and buy a better engine.

ericheller I forgot to post that too. The car stock runs rich with the stock settings with the restrictor in. I did remove the restrictor about 3 tanks later but was smart enough to realize (more air meant you must add fuel). The motors once you get inside of them you figure out the .15s that TT makes just suck. Parts are thin and fragile. Not so smart for a motor turning almost 30k RPMs.

any reccomendations for an egine? I was planning on posting it on ebay once it is fixed.