Newbie first impressions of running nitro

[Burridge]

"It's basically a hot metal teatray with flammable liquid on board"- quote of the day.

If you're having trouble priming it though I've found that opening the throttle slide slightly when the electrics are off and blowing down the pressure line from the exhaust until you hear a slight trickle in the carb works a treat. You'll be able to get a good idea whether your tank is leaking pressure too.

Heat it up good before you try and start it, use a hairdryer or get an engine heater off Modelsport for £17. Makes starting a lot quicker and less painful. Fettle your throttle trim and open it up a little bit when turning it over to get abit more fuel to it.

[m1tch_87]

11 hours ago, Burridge said:

"It's basically a hot metal teatray with flammable liquid on board"- quote of the day.

If you're having trouble priming it though I've found that opening the throttle slide slightly when the electrics are off and blowing down the pressure line from the exhaust until you hear a slight trickle in the carb works a treat. You'll be able to get a good idea whether your tank is leaking pressure too.

Heat it up good before you try and start it, use a hairdryer or get an engine heater off Modelsport for £17. Makes starting a lot quicker and less painful. Fettle your throttle trim and open it up a little bit when turning it over to get abit more fuel to it.

 

Thanks for the advice, I do prime the carb by blowing down the pipe leading from the exhaust to the tank - it doesn't even try and prime at all if I just put my finger over the exhaust and pull the starter - I have a feeling it might be a badly seated tank seal.

 

I will look at heating up the engine as well and will look into adjusting the throttle trim - this was the first run with a new radio setup as I didn't want to risk anything with the old radio setup so the trims could be off.

[Burridge]

 

Thanks for the advice, I do prime the carb by blowing down the pipe leading from the exhaust to the tank - it doesn't even try and prime at all if I just put my finger over the exhaust and pull the starter - I have a feeling it might be a badly seated tank seal.

 

I will look at heating up the engine as well and will look into adjusting the throttle trim - this was the first run with a new radio setup as I didn't want to risk anything with the old radio setup so the trims could be off.

If you can't get it running for a decent period of time it'd be worth trying a new tank, they don't usually cost too much.

And take the airfilter off and adjust the trim so there's a 1mm gap.

If it's primed and still not firing open it up abit more until it fires or try priming it again

[andy_m]

I can't recommend this, but a guy in the shop where I bought my Trophy from said that once the fuel pipe is primed, remove the air filter, pour a small amount of fuel into the air inlet (venturi) of the carb and then replace the air filter.

 

Seems to work... Sometimes

 

To be honest, my Trophy is a complete pain to get going and while everyone else is out bashing I'm still there pulling away at the pullstart... I have started to wear gloves because I keep getting a blister between my first and second finger (I'm so delicate and have super soft hands).

 

 

[m1tch_87]

I will check the thing over later today and perhaps try and start the engine again - will take off the air filter and check the gap for idle etc.

[andy_m]

Well my Trophy made a liar of me today.

 

I was telling my mate this afternoon how difficult it was yesterday to get my Trophy started and today it started, quite literally, on the very first pull of the day.

 

I primed the fuel pipe.

 

I stuck some fuel in the venturi.

 

It was then that I noticed that I had quite a gap in my throttle linkage, meaning that it wouldn't start operating the slide for about a millimetre of travel. Normally this wouldn't matter, but I have a switch on my transmitter called "Throttle Hold" which, when turned on, holds the throttle open at a predetermined position.

 

I sometimes use this throttle hold function just to open the slide valve a little bit more than normal.

 

Anyway, once I made sure that was working okay, all primed up and what have you, I whizzed it up and it burst into life.

 

 

Having said all that, there are still things like needle settings, idle screw and stuff that needs to be just so, as well as a decent glow plug and glow plug battery too, so, yeah, can be a bit of a pain still

 

 

[m1tch_87]

Just had a go again tonight - it fired up and ran well once I added some a thick rubber band to the lid to hold it down, seems that there was a sealing issue with the tank, it had good acceleration and still had smoke when fully open. I will be looking at some of the other settings soon but needed more space, the thing goes like a rocket though. I have a 2 speed box in the post at the moment so will be fitting that soonish plus a different clutch bell. I will be running this stock engine for a while longer to get myself used to the handling and speed of the car. I did rather put a smile on my face as it whizzed across the back garden and some really good revs, I think I might look to either get a new tank or continue to work on sorting out the stock tank - might just need a slight tweak to the spring or seal.

 

Here is my 'mod' to keep the lid down, its a plastic stock exhaust but seems to work ok for testing:

 

[m1tch_87]

I have also found out why the car pinned the throttle open as it tried to do the same earlier this evening - seems to have been a battery pack issue, guessing 1 of the AA batteries was loosing power - odd that it would pin the throttle open though.

[Burridge]

Glad to see you've got it running! Try and find a new o-ring for the tank seal, if not then http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/351249281704?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=122&chn=ps&googleloc=9045999&poi=&campaignid=207297426&device=m&adgroupid=13585920426&rlsatarget=aud-133395220866%3Apla-146652022866&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=122&ul_ref=http%253A%252F%252Frover.ebay.com%252Frover%252F1%252F710-134428-41853-0%252F2%253Fipn%253Dicep%2526icep_id%253D67%2526mtid%253D1673%2526kwid%253D1%2526crlp%253D50600204586_563391%2526icep_item_id%253D351249281704%2526itemid%253D351249281704%2526icep_meta_categ_id%253D220%2526icep_etrs%253DY%2526icep_epid%253D-999%2526icep_ctlg%253D-999%2526icep_cond%253DNew%2526targetid%253D146652022866%2526rpc%253D0.14%2526rpc_upld_id%253D64943%2526device%253Dm%2526icep_msku_flag%253Dn%2526icep_cbt%253Dn%2526adtype%253Dpla%2526googleloc%253D9045999%2526poi%253D%2526campaignid%253D207297426%2526adgroupid%253D13585920426%2526rlsatarget%253Daud-133395220866%253Apla-146652022866%2526gclid%253DCNOK1Zv8vssCFQ4TGwoduWEG8Q%2526srcrot%253D710-134428-41853-0%2526rvr_id%253D996982975455&ul_noapp=true [emoji14]

[m1tch_87]

6 hours ago, Burridge said:

Glad to see you've got it running! Try and find a new o-ring for the tank seal, if not then http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/351249281704?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=122&chn=ps&googleloc=9045999&poi=&campaignid=207297426&device=m&adgroupid=13585920426&rlsatarget=aud-133395220866%3Apla-146652022866&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=122&ul_ref=http%253A%252F%252Frover.ebay.com%252Frover%252F1%252F710-134428-41853-0%252F2%253Fipn%253Dicep%2526icep_id%253D67%2526mtid%253D1673%2526kwid%253D1%2526crlp%253D50600204586_563391%2526icep_item_id%253D351249281704%2526itemid%253D351249281704%2526icep_meta_categ_id%253D220%2526icep_etrs%253DY%2526icep_epid%253D-999%2526icep_ctlg%253D-999%2526icep_cond%253DNew%2526targetid%253D146652022866%2526rpc%253D0.14%2526rpc_upld_id%253D64943%2526device%253Dm%2526icep_msku_flag%253Dn%2526icep_cbt%253Dn%2526adtype%253Dpla%2526googleloc%253D9045999%2526poi%253D%2526campaignid%253D207297426%2526adgroupid%253D13585920426%2526rlsatarget%253Daud-133395220866%253Apla-146652022866%2526gclid%253DCNOK1Zv8vssCFQ4TGwoduWEG8Q%2526srcrot%253D710-134428-41853-0%2526rvr_id%253D996982975455&ul_noapp=true

 

A brand new fuel tank, upper deck and replacement metal chassis is something like £18, might look to just get the set so I have spares, especially the chassis etc as I need to mod it to be able to fit the other engine. I will double check the current tank though, I have a feeling it might be incorrectly put together.

[Anthoop]

On 13 March 2016 at 21:53, m1tch_87 said:

I have also found out why the car pinned the throttle open as it tried to do the same earlier this evening - seems to have been a battery pack issue, guessing 1 of the AA batteries was loosing power - odd that it would pin the throttle open though.

Ditch the AA batteries and get a 6v nimh pack and charger. Is the radio system 2.4ghz...if so I would expect it to have a built in failsafe that would work for signal loss and low voltage- it may need setting to work. If not 2.4 then get a failsafe.

[m1tch_87]

3 hours ago, Anthoop said:

Ditch the AA batteries and get a 6v nimh pack and charger. Is the radio system 2.4ghz...if so I would expect it to have a built in failsafe that would work for signal loss and low voltage- it may need setting to work. If not 2.4 then get a failsafe.

 

I have a 6v hump pack, the issue is that it doesn't fit in the battery box, the receiver does indeed have a failsafe which I have set to go full brake if there is a signal loss, the issue is that the loss of power doesn't trigger the failsafe as there is still a signal from the transmitter.

[locky]

Ypu need a carb return spring to force the carb shut if rx battery fails. Electronic fail safe works when tx signal lost. 

[m1tch_87]

3 hours ago, locky said:

Ypu need a carb return spring to force the carb shut if rx battery fails. Electronic fail safe works when tx signal lost. 

 

I had never thought about adding on a spring, the servo seems to be pretty strong though as in its powering open rather than it just losing power.

[spannermonkey]

I have one of these and to be honest its a very budget set up, I got it dirt cheap BNIB and it lives in my work van for bashing in empty car parks and the likes for when Im working away. The standard radio gear is very poor, it suffered from servo jitter out the box. I simply threw in a spare receiver and use my flysky which solved all thoses issues. I have also totally sealed the engine but the front and rear bearings leak like sieves. Its ok for what I use it for at the price I paid but really its not very good.

[m1tch_87]

15 hours ago, spannermonkey said:

I have one of these and to be honest its a very budget set up, I got it dirt cheap BNIB and it lives in my work van for bashing in empty car parks and the likes for when Im working away. The standard radio gear is very poor, it suffered from servo jitter out the box. I simply threw in a spare receiver and use my flysky which solved all thoses issues. I have also totally sealed the engine but the front and rear bearings leak like sieves. Its ok for what I use it for at the price I paid but really its not very good.

 

Yeah I swapped out the stock receiver and it seems much better, to be fair this is my first RC so I just wanted something to have a go with, I will probably look to get a decent car next year but wanted to see what I can do with this quite budget model. Although saying that I think this is probably a pretty good budget model as there are quite a few metal parts and spares are easy to find and cheap.

 

I am just using the stock GO18 engine as a test bed, just playing with gearing on it and have just fitted a 2 speed box plus upped the clutch bell teeth, it will now theoretically run 43mph in 1st and 61mph in second. I do have my TT-02 electric build going on at the moment and I can see by just looking at all of the possible motor and ESC combos I might find electric more fun in terms of run time.

[spannermonkey]

There are better budget models out there, mainly buggy. I would never recommend the FTX to a newbie knowing what I do know. I have a enough experience to get round its many problems and dont mind spending on my hobby. A newbie wouldnt see it the same way.

[m1tch_87]

2 hours ago, spannermonkey said:

There are better budget models out there, mainly buggy. I would never recommend the FTX to a newbie knowing what I do know. I have a enough experience to get round its many problems and dont mind spending on my hobby. A newbie wouldnt see it the same way.

 

I will consider my options moving forward, which budget models would you suggest also looking at? The on road nitro cars are rather expensive and I am guessing fairly top end, I guess I could look at a buggy and fit an onroad shell or something if I need the aero.

[HellaFlush]

7 minutes ago, m1tch_87 said:

 

I will consider my options moving forward, which budget models would you suggest also looking at? The on road nitro cars are rather expensive and I am guessing fairly top end, I guess I could look at a buggy and fit an onroad shell or something if I need the aero.

 

I've got a Hyper 7 roller for sale, all you need is radio gear, steering servo and an engine. They are renowned for their reliability and performance for their price 

[m1tch_87]

1 minute ago, HellaFlush said:

 

I've got a Hyper 7 roller for sale, all you need is radio gear, steering servo and an engine. They are renowned for their reliability and performance for their price 

 

I need to have a think about the next course of action, the Hyper 7 brand new is over twice the cost of the FTX (aware that its much much better) - I am just working out what I want to do with regards to RC. I am still looking at some of the electric buggies as well, I will keep the FTX until something major breaks on it, it's holding together ok at the moment though.

[spannermonkey]

As above, hyper 7 is a good solid platform, hpi firestorm is good and part supply plentiful. Just look a little more mainstream, I have had good results with the Acme condor but many havent.