Suren Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 (edited) I need some advice here.... Just bought a RTR TT S50 Sledge Hammer received 03/04 and during run in, it started easily and ran. Within 3-4 minutes, even at a slightly higher rev, the engine changed tone to an erratic one and died. I was about to restart when I found that the roto-start backplate was loose with only 2 screws. Found one of the missing screws on the tray near the engine and luckily, the other on my drive. Used Loctite, and replaced all screws without removing the back-plate. The truck started up after that and ran for a further 2 minutes before it stalled again. The engine seemed to be locked or seized and could not start. Loosening the glow-plug did not help. I decided to start fault finding at the initial problem I had and removed the roto-start backing plate. Inside, I found broken bits of piston, liner and con-rod. I believe that this failure could be as a result of the the back-plate coming loose, as I carefully followed the manual's run in procedure and this should not have happened. I am also not unfamiliar with nitro engines as I currently own a Ansmann Virus and a Firestorm 10T. Has anyone had any such problem, and can suggest whether my diagnosis is correct or whether I could have done anything wrong to cause this. I am also unsure about warranty as I have not contacted my supplier yet. Please advise.....! Edited April 5, 2008 by Suren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rckiller Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 i would contact the shop you bought it from has it sounds like a faulty engine from new as just a couple of screw falling out the roto start shouldnt have caused the engine to self destruct Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GingGangGooly Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 I assume the car was new? If so, then yes, it definately sounds like you had a faulty motor. Contact your supplier, UK based I also assume. ps. a mod might want to move this to post to the correct thread, as this are is for selling stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt B Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 A guy down the road from me has one of these, and the backplate is always coming off. Must be a common problem with these, which is a shame really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Terminator Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 Thats surely a Manufacturing fault,cant see it being anything to do with the rotostart plate to be honest,that would'nt cause so much damage cos even if the gears locked the OWB should stop that from happening and it would just spin.My advice would be to get it replaced under warranty,from what i've read from other Sledgehammer owners,its a damn good,strong engine..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suren Posted April 5, 2008 Author Share Posted April 5, 2008 I assume the car was new? If so, then yes, it definately sounds like you had a faulty motor. Contact your supplier, UK based I also assume. ps. a mod might want to move this to post to the correct thread, as this are is for selling stuff Yes M8, I received the car on Wed this week and only started it yesterday. Bought from MSUK. Sorry about the wrong thread...new to this forum..! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suren Posted April 5, 2008 Author Share Posted April 5, 2008 Thats surely a Manufacturing fault,cant see it being anything to do with the rotostart plate to be honest,that would'nt cause so much damage cos even if the gears locked the OWB should stop that from happening and it would just spin.My advice would be to get it replaced under warranty,from what i've read from other Sledgehammer owners,its a damn good,strong engine..... OWB? What is that? Sorry, I'm new to this.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squeek Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 I had a bit of hassle with mine... First thing i did was look for screw settings in the manual and fit an on-board temp gauge... Next i factory set the needles to make sure (i alway's get the friday pm ones!!) And richened them even more... It started easily but within seconds of running i could hear it was running too hot the temp steadily rose until i stopped it as 330 degrees... So i richened it another turn and it still ran so hot that it would start to heat sieze... In the end i turned the high-speed out to nearly 10 turns whilst running it in... So maybe it heat siezed??? Also, does anyone reckon i should complain to MSUK, afetr all i did run it by the book and running at 330 probably didn't do the engine any favours!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suren Posted April 8, 2008 Author Share Posted April 8, 2008 Hey Squeek, You should definitely complain. I myself, do not have a temperature gauge and also do not know what to listen for and identify when it's running hot. Maybe I should get one. Is there one that anyone can recommend? I do not want an onboard one because I have two other cars. I do not think that the engine seized because when I took the top heat sink off, the piston moved easily up and down. If the engine seized, can the piston still move? Also, on the top of the roto-start back-plate, the bit that goes into the engine, the metal surface was pitted and so was the underside of the plate into which the glow plug is screwed into. This seemed like something had broken off and was loose in the engine and was getting blasted around inside until it jammed the piston and the con-rod broke. This all happened within 8 minutes of first starting it. This is how I think the pitting happened. MSUK have received the engine back yesterday but no news yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 hi mate if you got it from modelsport i would drop them a email. it des sound like its a bad engine im affraid some do slip thought the lines.But modelsport is a great shop and im sure they will quikly sort the problem .Ive had one or to probs with bits and bob as they always help me out. hope that helps rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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