Nitro Power Rc questions

Hey Guys I Know that alot of you have nitro power R/C cars. And i have a lot of problems, for x-mas my brother is buying all of his boys RC cars off ebay and craigslist and sending them down to me to get ready. to start with one runs 15% nitro and wont idle, and the other two run 20% and 33% nitro so to make it easier I would like to retune all the car to 20% and install kill/safety switch. all the already have diff. chanels. I have played with battery powerd r/c very long ago. So any help would be great thanks guys.

Well first of all I would run them all on 33% nitro. Everything about it is better. Tunes easier, temps are lower, power is slightly increased over 20%. You might here stories to about hat because of the higher nitro the motor wont last long but thats a lie.

I would stay away from ebay and craigslist for buying these cars. What brand are they? Can you easily get replacement parts for when things break? If younger kids are going to operate these I would first upgrade the radio systems in them all to FM. Running an AM radio is just asking for a runaway. Its as simple as the kid down the street on a walkie talky on the same frequency and your car is gone. As for your safety switch, well its a good thought but it wont work. How will it kill the motor? The heat from the motor makes the glow plug glow, theres no electrical equipment on the motor. Theres just no way to do it.

the only way to make a kill switch would be to have a fuel shut off or cover the tailpipe.. Nitro isn't something to learn on, nitro is for intermediate to advance user. or u can set up the controllers so all the way throttle back and trim all the way down will kill it, you would need to adjust linkage for that. To do that you might loose wide open full throttle but u can turn it off. I have that method set up on my airplane. All depends on what u want to do and how your setup is or will be

well I was mistaken I ment failsafe like the ebay link not a kill switch. and I'm not sure of brands they are not all here yet I know one is a traxxas, I was hoping to get basic tuning idea prior to there arrival so I'm not screwing things up badly, and getting it one so what quickley .thanks again for the fast response.



http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Fail-Safe-For-RC-Nitro-Powered-Vehicles-Failsafe_W0QQitemZ200176117632QQihZ010QQcategoryZ34063QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

that fail safe should work, i personally wouldn't run 33%, for the 2-stroke engine 20% will do, also make sure you break it in probally, (idle the motor for about 5 or 6 tanks, then start driveing it on tank 7-8 at half throttle, then tank 9-10 short burst, i have engine last over 3 gallons doing this, my OS .15 got i think about 5 gallons and my ofna has about 2-3gallons on it, but it is collecting dust(been out of the hobby for a few years). (oh yeah 33%+ is good for 4-strokes, but it does help the motor fun cooler)

i cant remember what fuel i was using, but i think it was o'onnells 20%.

try to stay away from blue thunder and other fuel with low oil contents.


any way you going to have to set your engine to factory defualts and tune from there

A fail safe is a must with Nitro. Nothing else gets you running faster than a runaway nitro car at full throttle.

If the engines don't idle. Most likely the carb just needs a little tunning. Most R/C engines have a idle stop screw, low speed needle, and high speed needle. Also use O' Donnell 20% fuel. Stay away from the Blue Thunder if possible. That Blue Thunder dye has a tendce to block the needle ports.

i use traxxas fuel 20%, i have been through 1 1/2 gallons and still running good, probably needs new head, and stuff like that

teach him a bit about maintenance. get some "after run oil" . it should be put in, a couple drops through the glowplug hole,) at the end of the day.

are these all used cars that would be coming with accessories or are they new in box items that people bought but never used?

find out what kinds of cars he is getting them and check out RCUniverse.com it is a forum of almost 350,000 people. the forums are very well traveled. i am/was nitromacguyver on there. havent been on that forum in a while though.

metalmacguyver said:

teach him a bit about maintenance. get some "after run oil" . it should be put in, a couple drops through the glowplug hole,) at the end of the day.

Click to expand...

I also put some in the carb as well, its not needed but i do it anyway for extra protection

Actually 33% does make it run cooler. I raced with some of the traxxas drivers in the rc pro series events. I raced with some of this countries best racers with my revo. I was into this for a good 6 years and endless amounts of money. I would never run a failsafe. Ive seen em fail more people then actually help out. Your best bet for preventing a run away is to always check your linkage before starting you car to make sure its free from binding. If your not running spektrum, then always test out your radio equipment for glitching or any erratic behavior before running your car.

I would suggest not covering the tail pipe for a normal way of turning off your motor. I always just stuck my finger on the flywheel to kill the motor or pinched the fuel line and let the motor run out of fuel. Definatly teach the young ones about maitence. Properly done you end up spending more time wrenching then driving in the end I think. I used to strip my truck down by taking every bearing, nut, bolt, and bearings weekly. Changed all the differential lubes, replaced bearings as needed. For your cases that wont really be needed but definatly show them how to fix things like if the steering comes loose to check all that stuff. Changing bearings needs to be done a lot. A lot of little stuff like that. Bolts and nuts come loose all the time so just regularly checking all the bolts to moving parts will be a good way to go.

For breaking the motor in I would never idle it. I never seen anyone idle there motor for break in out of thousands ive been at races with. I always followed the traxxas method for breaking in my motor. Never had any problem getting close to a dozen gallons on my motor. Always held its tune, always had crips fast throttle response. Easy to tune. That way of breaking in the motor always treated me right.

The only time you need after run oil is if your not going to be driving your truck for a week or more. Its fine if its just gonna sit 2 or 3 days but if its gonna be a week or longer without driving it then I would take the filter off and put some in the carb, and put 3-4 drops in the cylinder by removing the glow plug.

the first thing you need to do is find the nearest dumpster
tower hobbies brand is GARBAGE
even their batteries suck balls

but if you dont want of feel like getting a new car

33 from what iv heard(a frient that has been into rc cars fore 20 yrs.)will make mad powa but will kill your engin faster

nitro rc cars are the most annoying motors in the history of the universe(to me, and i have 1)

i would say
run it on 20 for good power and long life
enjoy

and remember
jumps are more fun with broken plastic involved

33% nitro will not kill your engine faster. The only way it could is if it didnt have enough oil in it to lubricate the parts. But fortunatly for us theres plenty of oil. I think its got like 12% oil in it.

guys thanks for all the great info I got the first truck in the mail today and will start tuning tommorow, so I will probaly have many more questions tomm.

That was my 1st car i have a traxxas now

what truck did you get?