Fox .46

Depends on who you talk to. I love Fox engines. Others hate them. They are heavier than most but then they are some stump pulling mofos. They take a long time to break in as well. I couldn't get a real low tick-over idle on my .46 until I had 2 gallons of fuel through it.

You should be able to find a muffler for it here:

Thanks

How many are in use at the flying field has nothing to do with how good an engine is. Too mayn newbies are introduced to the "OS is the best" and continue to believe it to the exclusion of all other engines. I am not saying that you have done this.

Look around the flying field. How many Irvines do you see? How many Jetts do you see. How many Supertigres do you see? How many MVVS do you see? How many Enyas do you see? All of these are great engines but get pushed aside by the OS-is-best crowd.

I have owned several Fox engines and all of them were real powerful and reliable once I realized that they have to be tuned in accordance with Fox's procedure, not OS' procedure.

Well put! I think the secret to OS's success is a combination of good quality, massive advertising, and an effort to make their engines as close to "plug and play" as possible. I'm sure that was what prompted the development of the new Chinese Evolution engines that come already broken in, with preset needles. I'm betting that they'll sell a zillion of 'em!

Yes, but NOISY!!! Fox sells a quiet muffler, but it's not suplied as standard, as it should be nowadays. The previously mentioned Flightline Solutions website shows an effective mousse can after-muffler that's effective if you don't want to pay Fox extra for what they should have supplied in the first place.

As for power, keep in mind that in Dave Gierke's recent test of .60-sized engines, the old Fox .60 was the torquiest of the bunch, exceeding the power of all but one of the much more recent designs. So, while one might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, a smart modeler might just discover that the old dog already has some tricks that most people don't know about!

Geoff Sanders

The lion share of my engines are Fox, from .15 to the old .78rc...never had any problems with any of them. My favorites were the .45bb and the .25bb, both little monsters. The .45 took some PIA dial-in time, but once I found the sweet spot that engine was the most reliable in my lineup, and that included the Enya, OS, and others...

I also have a Fox .15, .45 & .60 w/Davis Diesel heads on them that I'll likely never get around to using, but the .45 was bench run once and almost pulled the bench over!!

I've gotten into four-strokes in the last couple years, and I really wish that Fox would get into that arena.

It all comes down to marketing, and that was never one of Fox's strong points...

Unfortunately, Fox doesn't sell the quiet muffler anymore. It worked great, reducing exhaust noise to a point where prop noise was clearly dominant, and increased power to boot. The Achilles's heel was too little metal on the stack/flange to support the added cantilevered weight of the muffler, so they broke easily. Apparently it wasn't a great seller, as Fox quit making them altogether, rather than tooling up to make them stronger. FWIW, MVVS mufflers will fit the Fox engines, and are much more robust, though not much better in the noise reduction performance.

Abel

I have to agree with Paul 80 % of what I here at the field is why don't you dump that super tiger and get an os on that thing. that way you won't have to fiddle with it. My answer is I like fiddling with it now go get your os fired up and lets see it it can out pull this super tiger before I get it broken in the rest of the way. Most engines aren't broken in till they have at least two gallon of fuel through them, even the os's.

tomb

Oh, well...

Hmmmm..... Verry interesting! However, for my own Fox .45, I removed the aft part of the muffler (which isn't easy, BTW!) and mounted a mousse can to it using the existing screws and some JB-Weld. I haven't flown it yet, but it IS quiet.

For some time I've toyed with the idea of building an adaptor flange to mount a bolt-through muffler. That's the one big gripe I have with Fox: The bolt-on muffler.

Geoff

User friendliness and reliability are mainly what appeal to the average modeller. In this context, when someone asks me whether they should buy a Fox or OS, I would invariably recommend the latter. Your defence of the Fox is admirable and Duke would undoubtedly smile down on you. You are quite right though, that other considerations (especially cost) influence what you see at the field. For example, to follow your line of thought, how many Mokis or Webras do you see? I can only speak from my limited experience with the only Fox engine I'll ever own.