Tower engine question

Does anyone have experience with the tower .46 ABC BB engine. According to the specs it is lighter and puts out slightly more H.P. than the OS .46 FX and at $79.99 might very well be my next engine. Thanks, Steve

Reply to
Steve Boucher
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| Does anyone have experience with the tower .46 ABC BB engine. | According to the specs it is lighter and puts out slightly more H.P. | than the OS .46 FX and at $79.99 might very well be my next engine.

Yes. Many people have one, including myself. Google will find you lots of comments on them.

It does have lots of power, and the price is right, but many people have reported that they can't get it to shut off from the radio, no matter how it's adjusted. Apparantly it leaks some air somewhere and it just won't quite die.

Also, they're a bit tricky to adjust. Perhaps for the same reason.

In short, they're ok. Not great, not bad, but ok. Perhaps a bit better than ok.

However, you might want to look into the Thunder Tiger Pro 46 instead. Same $80 price, just slightly less power, but everybody seems to like them, myself included. No adjustment problems, and no shutoff problems.

Reply to
Doug McLaren

Unless they have fixed the carb adjustment problems, I won't buy another. Set it just right on the ground and it goes lean in the air. Richen it up a little more and it stays too rich. Never could get a decent run with mine.

For the same price you can get two other excellent engines. Thunder Tiger

46 Pro and GMS 47 are both very good engines for the price and are similar in power with the GMS slightly more powerful.
Reply to
Paul McIntosh

Do yourself a favor and get a TT Pro 46. A GREAT engine.

Don

Reply to
Don and Marion

Steve, I have several Tower 46s and they are good engines but are difficult to get adjusted correctly as Paul mentioned. I don't have a TT 46 but I have a GMS 47 and just love it. Seems easy to adjust and just screems. I have found that with an expansion chamber muffler as Tower has and that I have on the GMS and a Rossi 45 that using too much prop can cause difficulty in adjustment. It can't get "on the pipe" as it were. I use a 11 x 5 on these engines. Even with a 11 x 6, the engines have trouble revving up full. Some of the guys use a 12 x 4 but I haven't tried that. Having said that, a Tower is still a good engine. They did fix the carb leak and so did GMS with a second "O" ring at the bottom of the carb. Good luck Gene

Reply to
Gene

All those problems (4 posts after yours) go away with the replacement of that Tower "Performance Muffler" with an old ASP or OS that will bolt on there. Just like some engine mfgers. in their race for another 100 RPM have carb throats too big for even muffler pressure to provide adequate fuel flow, that prop restricts the engine to certain RPM ranges. Then people under-prop the engine so as to get greater dynamic pressure in the carb throat while reducing the STATIC pressure to obtain better fuel flow.

Now Tower has to use a "pipe" muffler for the same reason and the lesser experienced have problems. Personally I don't care if tower or great pains ever sell another thing, yet it, IMO, is rather sad to see a good piece of equipment be kicked for something D-A marketers do.

With an all-around muffler that little engine is just a fine little sport performer. If it ain't 'nuff "BRUTE" fer ye, then use a .60. NBFD

Reply to
CainHD

Yup. I pulled the carb and backplate and put a SMALL amount of silicon sealer on the O-rings and all of the tuning/idle/shutdown problems went away.

--- Rich

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Reply to
Rich Lockyer

Ah!, I left out the fact that I would be bolting on a "Pitts" style muffler to this beastie. Any thoughts on that? Thanks, Steve

Ca>>Does anyone have experience with the tower .46 ABC BB engine.

Reply to
Steve Boucher

Gastronom,

The Tower should be SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than the OS. In all the tests done, the Tower (and Raptor from which it was derived) would turn most props 1000RPM faster or more.

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Reply to
Paul McIntosh

Cain,

That is simply not true. GMS and the Raptor had the same muffler (all made by GMS) and they did not have any of the problems associated with the Tower engine. As a matter of fact, most engines in this size class perform BETTER overall with the Tower/GMS muffler installed.

Reply to
Paul McIntosh

Many Pitts style mufflers do not have enough internal volume and can cause erratic performance. Look for the muffler with the largest internal volume to minimise this problem.

Reply to
Paul McIntosh

Right you are Paul, I have an OS 40 SF. I was very dissapointed in it's performance. Not much better, if any, than a OS FP and it is suppose to be a high performance engine. Some time ago, I discovered that the Tower muffler would fit. I tried it and the performance increased 1500 RPMs. Instant throttle response and perfect idle. Tower muffer is now advertised in their catalog as fitting the 40/46 size OS (and other) engines. Regards Gene

Reply to
Gene

What part isn't true, McIntosh?

There are no claims in the post that state the engine performs more powerfully with another muffler, but on the contrary, "...just a fine little sport performer." I have done this, It works. Some of the engines do very well with the performance muff. and for me, I would have no real problems. OTOH the change has made several engines much more reliable albeit a bit more docile for the "...lesser experienced..." as I stated.

I like reliability in engines. Even in warbird racing, I prefer reliability over brute speed that I am looking to flame out before I get into landing position. Way back when I did Q-500 I wanted the plug to blow on the later part of the 9th lap as I was only after fast time.

With newbies etc. I do NOT ADVISE THAT.

Now SIR when you say "Cain, that is simply not true." Then you have called me a liar when my statement simply gives some techniques to obtain reliability. You go on to speak of performance and your groupie, Gene, yells "Me too". If you two are unable to comprehend and manage the skills required in Basic Primer Reading 101, that does NOT make me a liar. However it is your head and you can store it as you wish.

Horrace D. Cain

************************ "A Liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money." -- G. Gordon Liddy
Reply to
CainHD

No, you said the muffler made the engine unreliable and difficult to tune which is not true. It also does not make the engine more peaky or difficult to manage. This muffler is no more "tuned" than a MCP and, in fact, is very similar in performance to the MCP. This muffler simply presents a much more optimum volume for the exhaust to expand into. The standard mufflers stifle most engines to the point that they are not performing to their potential. This is the same problem reported by many people who use tiny pitts style mufflers. Witness the fact that NO ONE reports their OS or TT engines being harder to tune or less reliable with the GMS muffler but all report that their engines run better. Except you, that is. I have personally run dozens of GMS and Raptor engines with this muffler and there have been NO reliability problems or tuning issues with them. I have also witnessed many people trying the GMS muffler on their OS and TT engines and none of them cared to switch back. Most of these were just plain sport fliers not racers. Besides, when I want reliability in my warbird racers, I use my trusty YS.

If you want to stretch that into calling you a liar, then you will have to live with it.

reliability

Reply to
Paul McIntosh

NOW you are getting it!

Reply to
Paul McIntosh

Thank you, PM, for agreeing that you made a bad diagnosis, but refused to check anything else. Several years ago, in an emergency, my wife had a doctor like that. Fortunately, he did call in another opinion when I fully explained his immediate future. The second opinion saved her life, and prolonged his future. Send all your bad Tower engines with those terrible carbs to me. I will properly "dispose" of them for you free of charge.

Oh the price of stubbornness and stupidity!!!!!

Reply to
CainHD

I prefer to buy engines that run properly out of the box. I don't buy Tower engines.

Reply to
Paul McIntosh

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