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HPI Firestorm 10T tuning problem


Joe Tosh

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Had a look at the vid and it could be the lsn is way to rich and once its cleared it accelarates and when you come off the throttle it overloads the engine again and causes the engine to be way to rich again, other than that its an air leak mate as suggested earlier, if its the front bearing ring hpi and they should send a replacement engine or repair yours.

marty :)

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Had a look at the vid and it could be the lsn is way to rich and once its cleared it accelarates and when you come off the throttle it overloads the engine again and causes the engine to be way to rich again, other than that its an air leak mate as suggested earlier, if its the front bearing ring hpi and they should send a replacement engine or repair yours.

marty :)

Thanks for the thinking! :)

Cleaned it thoroughly today, will buy exhaust gasket and new fuel tubing thursday and go testing this WE.

What do you mean with 'the front bearing ring'?

Can't figure it out... :unsure:

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Thanks for the thinking! :)

Cleaned it thoroughly today, will buy exhaust gasket and new fuel tubing thursday and go testing this WE.

What do you mean with 'the front bearing ring'?

Can't figure it out... :unsure:

Sorry mate i didn't word it very well , i ment to say if its the front crank bearing leaking give hpi a ring and they will tell you what they are going to do about it.

marty :)

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Sorry mate i didn't word it very well , i ment to say if its the front crank bearing leaking give hpi a ring and they will tell you what they are going to do about it.

marty :)

OK, sounds fair! :)

But how in the world am I going to test if it's that bearing that's leaking? :D

Is that a common issue with nitro engines maybe?

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When the engine is running squirt some wd40 around the back of the flywheel and onto the bearing, if the revs drop (wd40 seals the leak for a second or so before the leak takes effect again), you have a leak,

The method i use is take the engine out connect a long piece of fuel tubing to the fuel inlet nipple on the carb, take your exhaust manifold off and air filter, then look into the exhaust port and you want the piston at top dead centre so it is covering the port up, now put your finger over the carb inlet 9where the air filter goes) blow down the long pice of pipe and see if you can hear a leak,

The easiest way to do it is by putting your engine totally in water (sink) and you will see air bubbles and that my freind is your leak, obviously the engine will need clearing out of water and re oiling etc.

marty :)

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When the engine is running squirt some wd40 around the back of the flywheel and onto the bearing, if the revs drop (wd40 seals the leak for a second or so before the leak takes effect again), you have a leak,

The method i use is take the engine out connect a long piece of fuel tubing to the fuel inlet nipple on the carb, take your exhaust manifold off and air filter, then look into the exhaust port and you want the piston at top dead centre so it is covering the port up, now put your finger over the carb inlet 9where the air filter goes) blow down the long pice of pipe and see if you can hear a leak,

The easiest way to do it is by putting your engine totally in water (sink) and you will see air bubbles and that my freind is your leak, obviously the engine will need clearing out of water and re oiling etc.

marty :)

Wow! :) Great howto Marty! Will do that, but not under water :D

Do you think the loose bolt on the exhaust side could have been the leak perhaps? I quote myself:

I did lose the engine bolt on my last run. Could it possibly be, this bolt was loose from the beginning and that the air leak was caused by this loose bolt since the beginning?

Can a nitro engine suck in leaked air on the exhaust side?

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Wow! :) Great howto Marty! Will do that, but not under water :D

Do you think the loose bolt on the exhaust side could have been the leak perhaps? I quote myself:

No it won't create a leak but back pressure would have been lost so it could cause tuning problems, so sort that out and use mild blue loctite so the bolt won't work loose again.

marty :)

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:(

I just cannot get it tuned right...

Did the pressure test, was ok, no leaks as far as I can tell, changed all the tubing, put a new exhaust gasket.

I've changed the glowplug from a 5 to a medium R3, and it's a little better, but it keeps bogging. I did get a little better throttle response, it isn't sounding otfen groggy anymore at low speeds like in the vid. But it keeps bogging when I rev it up full throttle... :( Still sounds like it's short on fuel sometimes... But I've barely leaned it from the factory settings...

Pff, guess I'm gonna have to take it to a decent RC shop and see what they can do with it...

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Hi - and welcome to the forum.

I too have a Firestorm and have had some of the problems you describe. ...

stalling when braking:

first, check your linkages and how open the carb is when brakes are applied. I had to set up the linkages again after a few days running as the servo somehow managed to loosen things.

Next, check your clutch. I had the clutch spring fail which meant that every time the car stopped the engine would too.

My Firestorm had the same problem with the carb, and has had two spring failures in three weeks. The first time, i took it back to the shop and they replaced it then tuned it... and the brake disk disintegrated when he was running it (so i got one of them replaced for free too)! Then the replaced spring went after two runs so i went back again today. They'd had a few more like me and found the groove in the clutch shoes isn't deep enough for the new clutch mech they've put on the 10T, so they machined it out for me... it's run fine so far. They're telling hpi about the problematic clutch, but hpi aren't doing anything about it. Maybe if everyone who has this problem complains, they'll get the message?

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My Firestorm had the same problem with the carb, and has had two spring failures in three weeks. The first time, i took it back to the shop and they replaced it then tuned it... and the brake disk disintegrated when he was running it (so i got one of them replaced for free too)! Then the replaced spring went after two runs so i went back again today. They'd had a few more like me and found the groove in the clutch shoes isn't deep enough for the new clutch mech they've put on the 10T, so they machined it out for me... it's run fine so far. They're telling hpi about the problematic clutch, but hpi aren't doing anything about it. Maybe if everyone who has this problem complains, they'll get the message?

Well, let's touch wood, but I haven't got any clutch-problems yet...

Would love to enjoy driving it normally though... :(

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OK, new update today.

I drove it for 5-6 tanks on tarmac today and it's improving (with the Rossi R3 glowplug instead of the stock HPI R5). I've learned something too, instead of tuning the needles in 1/4 increments like it says in the manual, I did this in 1/16 and even 1/32 increments. The tiniest bit of tuning changes the throttle response I've noticed.

So today it ran pretty fine, but it's is sometimes still bogging, especially at high speeds and full throttle, but that's not all the time...

Needles HSN as well as LSN are quite flush, so it is running pretty rich (lots of smoke and oil spillage out of exhaust). Throttle response is ok, but I've said it before and now again:

In high revs it does not get enough fuel, once above 20-25 mph appprox, it's too lean and it starts sounding very lean too. This is confirmed by the temp gun: When I made a few high speed passes I measured values reaching up till 139 °C, which is 282 °F :o

That's not good I suppose? :helpsmilie: Could I have damaged the engine? Any other hints?

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OK, new update today.

I drove it for 5-6 tanks on tarmac today and it's improving (with the Rossi R3 glowplug instead of the stock HPI R5). I've learned something too, instead of tuning the needles in 1/4 increments like it says in the manual, I did this in 1/16 and even 1/32 increments. The tiniest bit of tuning changes the throttle response I've noticed.

So today it ran pretty fine, but it's is sometimes still bogging, especially at high speeds and full throttle, but that's not all the time...

Needles HSN as well as LSN are quite flush, so it is running pretty rich (lots of smoke and oil spillage out of exhaust). Throttle response is ok, but I've said it before and now again:

In high revs it does not get enough fuel, once above 20-25 mph appprox, it's too lean and it starts sounding very lean too. This is confirmed by the temp gun: When I made a few high speed passes I measured values reaching up till 139 °C, which is 282 °F :o

That's not good I suppose? :helpsmilie: Could I have damaged the engine? Any other hints?

Sounds way too hot and lean to me but i am sure someone with more experience will be along to confirm in a minute :blush:

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No there isn't... :confused:

Why don't you just go richer than base settings on the hsn and see what it does (nowt to lose mate).

Also is the fuel tank spring and seal ok on the tank (that will cause lean issues)

That engine i read in a mag once, they didn't even touch the needles and it ran fine, the only worrying thing is it must of been run in on the lean side.

As i said go beyond the base setting on the hsn and turn it anti clockwise 1/16 of a turn at a time i think that will sort the lean bogging at hi speed.

marty :)

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Why don't you just go richer than base settings on the hsn and see what it does (nowt to lose mate).

Also is the fuel tank spring and seal ok on the tank (that will cause lean issues)

That engine i read in a mag once, they didn't even touch the needles and it ran fine, the only worrying thing is it must of been run in on the lean side.

As i said go beyond the base setting on the hsn and turn it anti clockwise 1/16 of a turn at a time i think that will sort the lean bogging at hi speed.

marty :)

Thanks for yer efforts Marty! :)

Yeah the fuel tank seems ok, it does make the "plop" noise when I open it! :D

Ah allright, I haven't even considered turning it richer than base settings, will try that next time I go out! Thanks! :)

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If its stalling at high revs then your HSN is too lean and you must richen it now before you do any further damage to your engine!!!

Damo

Well it's not stalling really, just bogging down a while... but thanks will try to richen it, even above factory settings.

Strange car I've got after all... :rolleyes:

Edited by Joe Tosh
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Stalling/bogging its all gravy lol

If you are unsure whether to lean or richen then ALWAYS try richening first in 1/8 turn increments and make sure you run the car for about 20 seconds in between adjustments to be sure it has had it affect on the engine before adjusting again.

The reason being if it is already too lean then if you lean it even more then you may aswell start saving for a new engine. The way you have described it sounds like the HSN is too lean. Richening it too much wont hurt it, it just wont run smoothly.

Damo

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