Has anyone tried the AP Wasp .061? There's no photo on the Tower website, but there is in the new catalog, and it is a ringer for the now-mostly-unavailable NorVel .061. Apparently available only as an R/C engine.

I guess there may be more than one way to "skin a cat", but this looks very similar to the NorVel. Only obvious difference is that it claims ABC construction rather than AAC.

Probably not, Ray - I have a boxful of mostly new AME .061s and a couple of BIgMigs. I was just wondering if anyone else had . . .

I don't own one but there is a good deal of info on this Half A forum:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_70/tt.htm

The forum is quite active and the folks there very friendly and helpful.
Add to this several are machinists and several have owned and modified a vast variety of  the Half A engines.
 One regular member sells throttle sleeves for the .020 and .010 Cox motors. These are much better than any of the aftermarket throttle sleeves that have been offered.

The Wasp from what I gather is an Asian knock-off of the early Norvels. Some of the parts may interchange...  The most noticeable difference I have heard is that quality control is a big issue with the Wasp engines. Most of these engines are pretty weak in comparison to the Norvels. However there are  a few that have said that it is just as good as the Norvel. Maybe they got a "good" one.

The main thing is that for now it may be the best half A engine easily obtained.

Robert
 

Reliability has not been an issue from what I have read myself, however the quality is the biggest problem not only with powerinconsistancies between individual engines but almost all of these upon dissasembly have had metal shavings or trash in them.
It has been syggested by more than one owner that each new engine be dissasembled and cleaned before ever turning it over.

Aside from this it is not a bad engine, however it has a long way to go to be a really good engine.

The price for them is not bad, just take the above precautions.

Robert