First off...Welcome aboard!
Now for your question. Here's my take on it...for years and years K&B was the most popular engine for the outboard market. Parts were plentiful and cheap by comparison.
Thunder Tiger, OS and a couple lesser known companies tried to get a piece of the action, but K&B pretty much had the market cornered considering the number of engines already in service.
But times change. Several years ago K&B sold out to MECOA. The production lines were moved and subsequently had to be retooled (according to MECOA). Engines and parts were backordered, and modelers were given empty promises as to dates of availability. This began to leave a bad taste in the mouths of outboarders, and they started looking toward other power supplies. The use of OS and TT were on the rise, along with the use of exotic powerheads like Rossi mounted on Lawless lowers or modded K&B hardware.
Now MECOA is producing some of the outboards again, but it's almost too little, too late.
Does that answer your question? No, not really. :blink:
It boils down to personal preference. Run what works for you. I like K&Bs in my boats for the power and OS in my planes for reliability. (I'm also cheap!
)
As a side note...Mr Jim Irwin is in the process of producing a new line of outboards that, if all goes as planned, will rival the power of the high $$ engines at a much more reasonable price. Be watching for it!
