Ok, I looked at the MT10 ESC manual and it doesn't appear to be very programmable but it does have proportional breaking which means the harder you push the trigger forward the harder its going to brake so you may just need to be lighter on the breaks when applying them
I'm not very familiar with the Rival MT10 but it appears to be a brushless 1/10 scale MT so for the breaking issue You can go in to the ESC programming options and set the max breaking power. Depending on how programmable the ESC you may even be able to set braking curves.
You want the back to...
Thats actually a good recommendation for a new user. Id prolly go with Turbos suggestion until you feel like your ready for a bigger engine :)
Sometimes I get stuck in my mindsets :)
If it were me, and you like the traxxas, Id buy it and then immediately yank the new 3.3 engine and sell it. Then you can use that money to buy a .28 from Losi, Dynamite, LRP, Picco or SH to pop in that bad boy. You'll notice quite a difference going from a .20in³ (or a 3.3cm³) to a .28in³ (or...
I've never changed a con rod and probably never would unless it actually broke. I've got an old Mach .26 engine that probably has 15+ gallons through it and it still runs to this day. i still have it in my OFNA MBX9.5 buggy.
Most people generally recommend somewhere between 8-12% oil in your...