kevin burns

Built the Mattera M1, a true builders kit. Drilling, grinding, filing etc.

2023 I'm still burning nitro. Why? Because 1/8 scale nitro cars, buggies are strong. If I buy an electric anything in 3 months it's trashed. I just found a few new era retro 2wd 1/8 scale pan cars. Adorable too. So I guess 2wd nitro is on the way back. Not many can afford 700 for just a kit for on road but 400 is doable for a light 3.5cc pan car. Serpent and Mugen really killed the hobby by not offering anything affordable. Sure beautiful cars but not everyone needs a race spec car. Now running a old Ofna Ultra MBX R2 Dumas hawk hydroplane I simply hate electric except for scale crawlers.

Old post but so am I. I am old school so i'll say it this way. The materials our engines are manufactured from have not changed, the tolerances have not changed either, the only thing that has changed is the number of ports. I break in my engines the old school way. I run them 1/16th richer than optimal and run the car on the ground. This takes about IDK (1 tank of fuel) I break in my engines using the fuel I will use all the time for that particular engine. Why do I do it this way? Good question. Well in the 80's and 90's our engines operation manuals stated this was how to break the engine in. What happens when you break the engine in, this way, is the engine is being broke-in under the weight of the car (Creating heat) and how it will be run. Breaking in a engine too rich wont let the engine get hot enough for the parts expand and seat properly. I also don't use a temp meter. Ok what happens when you bring the car in to check the temp? lets say your engine is running at 220* "That's a good thing"but when you bring the car in to check the temp with a meter the meter says 260/270-ish? Your tricked into turning that valve richer to bring down the temps thinking the engine was running lean. Why this happens: As the car is running air is cooling the engine, the cool air and fuel is drawing the heat out of the engine as it burns and the car runs at 220* but when you bring the car in you slow down the car "The slower the car is going, the less air flow around the cooling head, less cool air intake, less fresh cool fuel intake", equaling less heat removed from the engine, the engine gets the hotter 260/280ish, and it's making you think the engine is running leaner/hotter than it really is so you richen it up even more because of the wrong heat temp, never allowing the parts to get hot enough to expand and seat together. "It takes little heat to expand the alloy piston but it takes a lot of heat to expand the more dense brass sleeve", running to rich from a bad temp reading will not let the sleeve expand and thus the soft alloy of the piston wears down. LOL Bench break in: Yeah lets put a huge prop on our engine to cool it even more...hahaha. I always break my engines in the way they will be run just 1/16th rich for one tank. After that ready for race settings. PS I have engines that have and are still are running for 30 years. Guys saying gallons of fuel before the engine is toast, I am getting decades from my engines. Those guys toasted their engines by following today's "designed to make money" break in procedures. Repeat sales is always good to a manufacture, I guess. Think about it.

Hello all, glad to meet ya all. A bit about me. I started in the 80's with the full line of Tamiya SRB's and one metal pan Lamborghini Countach. After a while I switched to nitro RC 300 and 500 and a Kyosho USA 1. And a lot of other brands too, to much to list. In the 90's I joined the IMPBA district "4" and began racing 3.5cc Mono, Outboard Tunnel, and then the fastest, the Outrigger Hydros. While I was racing the nitro boats I learned a lot from the record holders (Record holders in the IMPBA actually build from scratch, machine their own parts and design engines and pipes) I learned a lot about throttle exhaust, pipe sliding, 3rd channel needle valves, after run maintenance, flow meters, sleeve mods, squish band height, etc. and I do carry this knowledge over to my nitro car engines as well, so if I post something and your at a loss or never heard of it just ask questions but please don't try to belittle me, because you never heard of it. I like to go fast. Not race track fast where quick out of the turns matter "I'm talking oval with super long straights fast" So the things I am into don't really go hand in hand with race tracks unless it is oval. I am not afraid to run my engines on the edge of blowing elements, although my elements don't blow but they do get pulled from the glow plug, right on the edge. I run RED MAX 30% to 60% Drag race Fuel. The smaller the engine the higher the nitro with proper squish band height. So, a lot of things I talk about or reply to is stuff I don't usually hear from nitro car guys, I think it is because they are more for race tracks with a lot of turns and such. I also don't drool over sponsored drivers as they are drivers, I could care less about them. My downfall and I am not afraid to say is suspension, not toe in, camber, ride height, or caster but shock tension is my downfall (Springs and shock oil v's rebound, really) But I get by. One last thing, I know how to take apart a servo and center it and set the throw of my servos so expensive radios I laugh at. I use bare bones Spectrum, and I still use AM/FM/PCM radios too "with or without the gold update sticker" hahaha. (They worked fine for us in the 80's and 90's but now all the sudden everyone thinks magicly they don't work, I guess the atmosphere changed or something) I have a sense of humor too. "It takes knowledge to go fast not money". Like it, don't like it, that's who I am. I don't really like 1/8th scale, but I do love .15 to .18 on road, and scale crawlers RC4WD to be exact.