Superior Engines

[boaterbill]

MY two cents worth on copies, We live in a free enterprice system. And you do you think gave the Japanese, China other countries aound the world, the technology. USA. Free competition, if they come out with a better product than we have, then we come out with a better one, who benefits? Us, the consumer, take it for what it's worth

 

[TimD]

Mike G,

How long before you run the Superior Big bore engine?

Tim.

 

[PondSkimmer]

This is an interesting thread, I was just looking at the Zenoah home page and looked around a bit. If you go to zenoah.net, then on the right go to about Zenoah, scroll down to place of operations, they are all in Japan, China, Taiwan, ect... except for one Foreign Subsidiaries & Liaison Office in GA! Could it be that all the zen engines are made over seas and only distributed by this place in GA? Even the superior engine might be manufactured in these same facilities and stamped with a different name and sold as a "knockoff"?

It sounds strange that a manufacturer would go through all the trouble to make/buy all the machinery to manufacture an engine with tolerances so close to another manufacturer's that the parts are interchangeable doesn't it?

I know that this happens a lot in the food industry, just look at all the store brands! Do you really think that KeyFood, Waldbaums, A&P, ect. Have the facilities to manufacture there own cooking spray, butter, milk, bread, the list goes on and on. These food stores have the original manufacturer just re-label the product and sell it as an "Off / No Frills" brand. The original manufacturer sells more products at a lower price but i guess that a fast nickel is just as good as a slow dollar? :blink:

Just some food for thought, no pun intended

 

[_laxmasta2039]

my opinion on superiors is sweet, about time. if they can afford to produce engines almost identical to zenoahs and possibly even better in quality and make a profit at half the price, that should say a lil somthin about zenoah! <_<

they've been getting waay to high of a profit margin on each engine, and with the arrival of superiors they'll no longer have a monopoly on the market and will have to compete for consumers instead of just picking a price of thier choosing. should lead to better engines at better prices, and that's the beauty of our free market system!

those of you that argue that zenoah deserves a monopoly since they did all the R&D...if they've been selling engines at double what they could have, dont you think that's enough of a reward? also, if they truly invented the engine, why didnt they patent it? is it possible that zenoah is itself a knockoff company like superior?

there's my .02, take it as you will

 

[Mike G]

Tim, I'm on the fence as to what I should do with it. I have a couple of RC cases that it would bolt right onto, one is still Aircooled so I could technically run it in less than an hour. I was also thinking of putting it on an old PUM base and making my own hybrid, but this would require both water cooling and machining the case. I have also found out that the piston is rather heavy, just like the 260 pistons are heavy, so I would like to lighten it as much as possible. Then again I am thinking Port job, do I run it stock to get a base line or just dremel the heck out of it and see what it will do? Decisision, decisisions! :lol:

On top of this I have not base-lined my 260 yet so I would not know if it was better or worse, so much testing to do. :unsure:

 

[TimD]

You can always dremel it later - base line it first and run it stock!

How heavy is the piston compared to the stock piston for the bottom end you are thinking of using? According to one of the sites listed on this thread the big bore produced 2,000rpm more than stock??? Could be just a sales pitch tho'.

Run it air cooled in the rigger! Give Disco King a run for his money!

 

[Mike G]

Ahh, more fuel for the fire though, air cooled it has a large fan on the flywheel which seriously limits top end revs, plus the RC case won't fit in the rigger tub. The only way it could get close to the rigger engines revs would be as a hybrid. Not that you have seen it but my rigger engine is a screamer when it goes! I need a Mill to take the RC case down to Pum size and run an exposed flywheel, ultimate set-up? Maybe, If I can figure out how to do it with a hack saw and angle grinder it will get done a lot quicker! h34r:

 

[TimD]

Is the fan required on the air cooled motor? will the airflow over the case be sufficient to keep temps down?

 

[Mike G]

Some sort of fan is reguired, airflow is not sufficient. I have never done any testing to see how little the fan could be but when the RC engine came out the fan is twice the size of the G2D model it replaced, and it revs about 2k higher.

 

[TimD]

So it is "satisfactiry model" then? I Love japlish!

 

[Mike G]

Well you got me thinking again, it may not be as hard as I am making it!

Need to base line the 260, then swap it over at the lake, a couple of break in runs and let her rip. Fan included, at least this way we will know if it is better, although the 260 has been worked already.

 

[TimD]

Sounds like a plan.

 

[DJT]

How would you feel if the owner, CEO, president or whatever, of the company you work for, shipped your job to Mexico, India, China, or a third world country. So now you're out of a job with no pay. And the job you did is being done by unskilled labor, getting paid one tenth what you got paid, not getting health care or benefits. So you did all the hard work getting things going, doing R&D or whatever and now someone is doing it cheaper. Some people would say that sucks. some of you would call that free enterprise. For thoes that do, I hope that there is a 14 year old boy in Mexico working for a bowl of beans and a roll of toilet paper a week doing your job tomorrow.

 

[Mike G]

Derek, it happens everyday.

Cars

Computers

Steel (and other building supplies)

Clothes

Like I said before, I don't know the whole story behind Superior engines, and I'm not going to bash them until I do, mean while they build a bigger cylinder than Zenoah, and I had to have it!

 

[Guest]

Heres' a couple of jore links for the Superior engine for HP parts. Daves motors has the best prices.

www.davesmotors.com

www.adaracing.com

 

[boaterbill]

Opps, forgot to log in.

http://www.davesmotors.com

http://wwwadaracing.com

sorry

 

[boaterbill]

DJT,

I hope you don't think Zenoahs' are made in this country. Read Pondskimmers' post. Zenoah just sells the motors here and send their money overseas, they are certainly not creating a job market here. The term made in America is almost becoming a joke, if you look real close a lot of our products are assembled overseas and shipped back here. So buying Superior or Zenoah motors is certainly not depriving anyone here of any jobs theiy're just taking our money and sendint it overseas, in this particular instance we (boaters) are benefiting. Cheaper, better product. Like our hobby is cheap! Any savings I can make in the need for speed in most of us, I'll definately will go for it.

Bill Heacock

 

[Propjockey]

Not sure what the relevance is here but, anyone looked at a Tower Hobbies radio?

It's made by Futaba. Same radio...different name...different price. Or Tower's "own" airplane engines. Yep, made by OS.

And as for jobs going overseas, guess who is the largest private employer in Ohio, providing over 13,000 jobs? Honda.

These are just examples. My point is this...it goes both ways. That's why it's called "free enterprize".

 

[Don Ferrette]

" Not sure what the relevance is here but, anyone looked at a Tower Hobbies radio?

It's made by Futaba. Same radio...different name...different price."

FYI- Tower is owned by Great Planes. Great Planes now owns Futaba R/C. Built overseas, sold in U.S., money made by U.S. company. It goes many ways......... :huh:

 

[nitrotoys]

Zenoah is TOP ENGINE In the Rc hobby.

Someone comes out with a cheeper engine and hell it even sounds well made.

But I myself and many others have learned, cheepest way isnt always the best way

I have 3 260s, one stock 2 moded. they all have been very good engines.

The stock motors been through hell and back. the dunks and water its drank.

and not a problem, the moded one has been a strong engine for me.

the other moded one, in a few months will let you know.

Tom