Exhaust Bracket Tips & A quick way to adjust your powerband.
 

1. To save your exhaust from your exhaust-bracket , place fuel tubing around it to prevent vibration and from overtime cutting a hole in your exhaust and rendering it trash.

2. You can trim your header to gain more high end power , but it sacrifices low end power.....which is sometimes wanted for cars that have too much low-end power / traction problems coming out of turns. This is best for on-road race cars. It would be just like adjusting how far the exhaust is from the header with the silicon coupler , the longer the tube the more low-end power and shorter you get higher rpm power.

 

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Gas Tank Tips!  

Cut out some fuel tubing into little rings , and place those between the chassis and gas-tank to help reduce vibrations. Vibrations cause the nitro gas to foam , and then to bunch up and form air bubbles in the line. Then these bubbles will normally get to the engine and cause it to surge for no reason. So if your having these problems , you might want to look into adding these. Or anyway to help damper the vibrations around the tank.

Also on an hpi/or any gas tank with a primer , you will want to upgrade to the racer 2 tank or remove the primer , and seal it , then just prime the motor by covering the exhaust outlet and turning over the engine. Primers , sometimes let air leak....and can cause some major tuning problems. Also a added bonus to the fuel system on a racer2 tank is an In-Line Filter Built into the tank , or if your tank doesnt have one , its good to get one............. this is a much needed component on an r/c , the exhaust sometimes spits dirt into the tan And sand can mess with your carb and hurt your engine. So its sometimes good to get even a filter to block the incoming air as well....or before the tank.

Also sometimes people dont trust these in-tank filters , so they even go ahead and buy another filter for the fuel going to the engine.

*Also Checking the tank for leaks, sometimes their could be other areas for air to leak and for you to get bubbles in your fuel line. The best way to test is get some clean fuel line , then place the lines on the inlet and outlet , seal one end with your finger or just pinch the line real hard and blow into the other line......while the tank is underwater. If you see bubbles , time for a new tank , or some retro-fitting. Of course blowing too hard it will probably push the tank-cap open a bit.

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Drawing in cooler air - Filter tips.

Most engines come with the filter right next to the head/heat-sink , this gives the filter hotter air to draw in thats near the engine and thats bad for performance. To fix this , just move the filter farther away from the engine , the further the better......to a point though. Also if you can fabricate anything out of metal nice and round , possibly mandrel/smooth bends.....like a copper plumbing pipe.....youll most likely want an elbow. There are also plastic/rubber type intake/filter systems that do the same , but the metal will help dissipate heat faster , so the longer the tube the cooler the tip will be and the more the heat it can move away from the engine , acting like a radiator for your carb also cooling fuel down. We doubt it will change the temp of the metal by the engine but your intake air charge will be cooler as well and that results in more power. Because cooler air stores more oxygen (denser air). 

You can also retro-fit to make your filter pop out of your body......the closer the intake is to cooler air the better. (you might not want to try this though , debris could get to your filter easier) Trying to get fresh air to hit the filter/induction system would also do the same thing with cooling effects and it might even ram a little air in there , like forced induction. But most people run with the body on , and the filter inside to keep it away from debris.

Here pictured is a filter that gives you somewhat of the idea , and perhaps what you want to get if you dont like to fabricate stuff. We will have an intake system soon to show and perhaps sell.

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Seized Piston - Tell tale signs and how to get it going again.

 

With a seized piston the best way to check this is to remove the glow-plug (in the case of a flooded engine it will spit out the fuel so beware), if the piston doesnt move then you have a seized piston. Normally this happens during break-in. You Either stopped the engine with it sitting near TDC (TOP of the piston stroke...the highest the piston can go) When you need to immediately move a stopped engine to BDC (The lowest a piston can go in the sleeve and stroke) This prevents the metal from expanding in the tight piston-sleeve during cool-downs.

The first way to try to get things going again is to get a hair-dryer and blow it directly at the head/heat-sink , this will warm the metal and will allow some clearance so you can move it again , you will also want to apply some after-run oil. 

If the hair-dryer doesnt work you probably have a really good seize , so you'll need to remove the head/heat-sink , get a wooden dowl , or anything circular and with as large of surface area as possible.........that wont dent the soft-metal of the piston head. In other words Nothing pointy....something round and big like a quarter or dime size will work...... And place something soft like a paper towel to cushion the blow (we used a paper towel folded over a few times for cushioning) , Then push on it , or tap with something very lightly.......after we freed the piston we went ahead and removed some redish material that was left on the sleeve with a q-tip and raw nitro fuel , just simple rubbing was enough to remove it. Then just put on the head/heat-sink back on and your ready. After that its normally good to run a seized engine instead of letting it sit because their more prone to rust after a seize.

Will have some pictures soon.......Read below so you can prevent your engine from seizing.

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Get your piston to BDC FAST - And EASY - Everytime :  Saving your Engine From seizing on cool-down.

Ok there are 2 ways to do this:

One you simply rotate the engine via the flywheel or pull-start until you hear or feel full compression. Some engines let out a tap sound. Some get the full compressed feel either way just listen and feel around for a bit.......then rotate it for full-compress and try a tad more and you might hear a click as it goes a bit tighter......you have found TDC. Now what you do is simply get a black marker of any kind , i try not to use permanent since the flywheel might be removed and a new mark will need to be made....so i use a water based marker. And go directly under your r/c and make a mark right in the center at the very bottom. You then rotate the flywheel over and when you see that mark at top , that means the piston is now @ BDC....which is where you always want an engine when cooling down. I also like the mark this way since you dont have to look under your vehicle to see if its at bdc , even though the filter is kinda blocking the view , looking at it from an angle you can easily distinguish if you've got it set at bdc for cool-down. This prevents your engine from getting seized as the skirt constricts on cool-down.

Or two ....which is kinda more work , but could be more exact if you dont know the tell-tale sounds and feeling of TDC. But just remove the head / heat-sink and simply eyeball it , once the piston goes as high as it can , go underneath , mark the flywheel right at the center....and your done. Then back on goes the heat-sink and your ready to run.

Then when you shut off your r/c engine, basically get down and start eyeballing and moving it towards bdc, i normally just slowly move it after tdc , cause sometimes it can spin right back up into the skirt. And once the mark is at the very top.....im done for the day.

This makes it real easy to keep track of , and you dont have to worry if you got it right. Also you want to make sure you immediately move the engine to bdc right after shutting off , the engine will start to cool the instant you shut it off. As to why this is a good thing to do , so you can quickly and easy place the piston as far away from the skirt as possible.

EXTRA TIP: This tip also is a great way to tell if your flywheel is slipping , just watch for tdc , and if the mark isnt centered at the bottom anymore....then you know youve got flywheel slip.

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Keeping the gas-tank clean , and making it more aero dynamic. Gas Tank Tips Part II

 

A simple ballon or plastic covering from any spare or used battery type plastic containers work great. Cut a slit to allow the fuel nozzle to get in there , and you wont have to worry about opening the tank and dropping in a bunch of sand , you can even set it up to where you just squeeze the plastic and it opens. Very effective and it makes the tank more aerodynamic allowing the head/heat-sink more air.

 

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Storing your R/C & R/C Equipment- Tips to save your r/c while its sitting around.

 

While your storing your r/c , for really any amount of time. You need to either take off the wheels , or support the car in the air with a stand , or anything that gets the chassis off the ground....which will then suspend the wheels in air. This will help keep the weight of the rc from warping/compressing your tires and foam inserts.

Also for a nitro engine you will want to squirt some extra after-run oil in the carb and in through the glow plug area. If you know your not going to run it for awhile. To help prevent corrosion since nitro fuel turns turns into water and will corrode your engine if you dont do this. People use quite a few different kinds of after run oils , both home-made blends of oils. Some half marvels mystery oil and a combo of other things.

You also want to watch out for nitro cleaners , they clean well of course , but they also take away the natural oils that need to be there to help prevent corrosion. So get some WD-40 (WD stands for water displacement) and use a q-tip and hit any rust prone areas........since you dont want to get any wd-40 on plastic since it will make it not as stiff and wont perform as well.

You also want to drain all fuel from the gas-tank , and fuel lines to also prevent that from sending any water vapors into the engine or pipe......again trying to prevent corrosion.

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Don't ruin your radio - go easy on the antenna and retract it the right way

Always remember when you drop your antenna to grab from the bottom and pull down each section , dont push from the top or you can easily bend it. A quick and easy to remember tip that will save you a headache.

 

How to use your same frequency in your Radio? 

If you have a AM radio, but you operate at the same frequency of your buddy, you can simply change your TX crystal into RX and your RX to your TX with no frequency inference at all.

 

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Cutting Body Holes - Get yourself a body reamer!

Save yourself some time when making those bodies. Stop using odd tools that really dont get the job done right. Get yourself a body reamer. Shown above is the AE body reamer its sharp , durable , has a nice cap and is of course oh so nice looking. Some prefer to use dremels which are nice , but you need a certain bit and sometimes things can get out of hand when trying to get the hole into place. With these you just stab a hole and twist away....Holes come out perfect , even those hard to control areas.