How good of a motor is the Esskay 400XT

Cant remember.

It a very good value for money motor that has a nice low KV that means decent sized props at lowish power levels.

I'd put up with bent shafts for that.

No. I had one on my very first plane. My moniker on a very popular RC group I frequent was "powered lawn darts '08", and with good reason. I lost count of the number of times I lawn-darted my plane, but I went through 4 fuse's, cut back the aluminum fuse due to bending easily 6 times, probably over 10, and went through a score of props. The shaft is still perfectly straight. In fact, the only reason I'm not still flying that motor is that my plane somehow managed to double in weight (camera, custom LG, A123 packs, etc) and I wanted more power to get up high faster. I went with a 20A monster that's overkill for my setup, but the SK400XT was still working just fine, even hauling my

36oz plane to my visions limit. And, it was used when I got it. It's anybody's guess how many hours are on that beauty at this point, but I'm good for over 100, almost all of which was WOT, and it's as strong now as the day I got it. Great, great motor. I did eventually switch from a collet adapter to a prop saver and cut off the excess shaft, but I'd lawn-darted it a good dozen (likely 20-30) times before I even did that. Some of these were into the pavement. I lost count of how many times I cringed and thought "that's gonna be a new motor". Yet, it's still going strong, and only replaced because I wanted more power. I'm sure I'll use it again on a lighter plane.