"SPAD" Simple Plastic Aircraft Design

[Celwin]

I'm too scared to buy a FX. My very flying experience was with my brand new 46FX. I was using castor (I was told it was the only thing that mixed with methanol) and methanol. Ran it in as per the instructions and it flew for many tanks. It started to get tricky to start and wouldn't idle. Pulled it apart and found the chrome had flaked off the cylinder. Borrowed a mate's engine (he bought exactly the same gear as I did at the same time) and ran it in according to the instructions. Same thing happened. In hindsight, I should have taken them back to the shop, but was too naive to push for it and had doubts about my tuning. Sounds like they all did it, as aftermarket pistons and cylinders were available for them back then. Bought a liner & piston for $185 (new engines were $165ish) and it was a rocket! Lighter and more power than the original!

Apparently it was only the first batch that had this problem, as the design was brand new at the time and OS had a perfect reputation but they were beginning to cut corners. They had that reputation dented again when they released the LA series of engines...
If they're well used and compression is still good, it's unlikely to be a problem Gbar, but I wouldn't buy one off RC Trader. Dennis' mate could be trusted.