Engine break in hell

[Crunkvilletx]

Yep exactly

 

[Meldarion]

Yay that is all good then
Got the new pull start put on now btw
And :O I got the old one fixed aswell, so i can use it as a spare
Turns out the metal ring where the string pulls out of had a serrated edge on the inside that literally shaved away the string until it was thin enough to snap >.<
I have smoothed it off though and put it back together, so i got a spare back plate, pull and one way bearing nao if needs be And then i fitted the new one onto the car
I also figured why i may have had trouble starting it the first time i tried last wednesday (And omg i feel like such a nab)
The temps over here are about 8 degrees celsius atm ^^ And the day i went to run my car in, i had only charged the glow igniter for 2 hours, baring in mind, it has not been charged for over a year, so i reckon it wasn't charged enough to get the glow up to temp and that was why i had the heat the engine block before it will start ^^ It also explains why it was harder to start the 3rd time, because it must have been near dead by that point

Either way, got it on charge atm, gonna charge it for around 20 hours, then get the run in finished tomorrow ;D I will let you know how it goes

 

[cptvkirk]

unless you are entering it in a show n' shine, use a soft brush to knock the loose dirt off.

btw...can't you just re string the pull start? rope should be easy to find and it would seem like something you could pick up from a hardware store and keep handy.
I'm set up with an ez start and have no complaints, but was considering an pull start if it ever went out on me....now i'm reconsidering.

 

[Meldarion]

Well i started running the car in again today, didn't take me very long to get it started once the glow had fully been charged! It did cut when i removed the glow the first time i started it, but the second time i gave it a few revs and it was fine. The idle atm is very good, enough for the engine to keep running but it is able to come to a stop

I have now ran around 2 and a 1/4 tanks of fuel through the engine (I don't know an exact number, because with the heat cycling i have filled up the tank if it gets to around 1/4 full between a cycle, to stop it running dry and leaning out) all of which has been at factory settings (Which you can see in one of my previous posts)

The car itself seems to be running well, it is not so rich that the car is bogged down and spitting fuel out, but it is still rich enough to provide a decent stream of smoke as i drive it around. So far i have been running it in cycles lasting between 3-5 minutes, i started the engine, then drove it around, to begin with i drove it in a figure of 8, keeping the revs at about 1/4 to a half, and then after the first 3 cycles, so after around 9-15 mins of running i began to vary the revs more, running up to full throttle but only for quick 1 second bursts, most of the time i kept the revs at around 1/4-mid (As i heard it can be lethal to hold top throttle for extended periods of time when running in)

After the 3-5 minutes had passed, i drove the car in and stopped it by pressing my finger over the exhaust, then i quickly used small pulls of the pull start to get the piston at bottom dead centre (I have it marked out with a marker pen on my flywheel) Usually it would take me a max of 5 seconds to get it in the right place

The batteries died in my temp gun so i used my hands as a measure of the temp, generally seconds after stopping, the engine head was hot enough to burn my hands after holding it for around 1-2 seconds. I would then leave it to cool for around 8-10 minutes, till the engine head was luke-warm and i was able to hold it in my hand without it burning me

I have ran around 8 cycles now, so the car has ran for roughly 25-30 minutes !

Just a few things i want to check:
1)How many more cycles do you think i should run before i begin to start leaning off the high speed needle? Can i start now or should i break it in for a bit longer? The method i am using says to run for a total time of about 25 minutes before i am ready for track tuning, but i didn't want to rush and thought it would be best if i checked it over first

2) How will i know if i have leaned the high speed needle too much? As i mentioned earlier, the car runs quite well as it is, there is not plumes of smoke pouring out of the exhaust and the manual does say i will most likely only need small adjustments from the factory settings. As far as i am aware, if i lean it off too much, the engine will scream when it is at full throttle or may cut off? But i just wanted to double check (Just in case it is important to know, because of the amount of smoke from the exhaust, i use 16% fuel)- i did think it was 20% but upon inspecting the bottle it turns out it is 16 ^^

3) And finally, can i use WD40 as afterun when i have finished running my car- if so, should i add a small drop of it to the engine each time i finish running, or only if i am not going to use my car for a while ?
Thanks guys
P.s Tires are much cleaner now, manage to ride the dirt off

 

[cptvkirk]

Lots of great articles in the forum for tuning and too lengthy to duplicate here. When all else fails...read. Yes WD40 works for after run.

 

[Meldarion]

=] Well i have had a look around the forums, and from what i can see it just says to start leaning off towards the end of the break in procedure, and somewhere else it says after about the 3rd tank.
So i will run about 2-3 more cycles then i will start the leaning Something tells me i will need a bigger place than my drive to start tuning though ^^ I will take a walk down to the park, luckily it is only across the road from where i live
I also learnt from the same article that you can use your glow plug to tell how rich/lean you are running (Because i was worried i might not have run my engine in rich enough) but i took out the plug to give it a look over and the wire was not at all deformed, it was still a silverish colour but it was starting to fade slightly, so as far as i can gather that means my engine is still slightly rich, but as long as it is not too lean that is all good
Just wanted to double check about the wd40, i didn't think that it could do any harm, but i didn't want to risk it without asking

 

[Crunkvilletx]

I would get some real after run oil, it's not expensive at all and lasts a long time! Post some pics man

 

[powerbar]

ya , post pics

sounds to me like your the one who is going to be giving good nitro advise soon. you seem a good understanding of running in and tuning will not be a problem for ya. good 4 ya:clap: now if the rest of us can do as well...lol ohh ya, i use trans. fluid as after run oil when i park it for awhile , it fights rust

 

[Meldarion]

I have read so many things all over the forum and the net, because i was worried i would mess up the break in or tune it too early that i have managed to pick up loads of info ^^ It would be nice to be able to help out other people I just don't want to tell them the wrong thing! But once i have this car fully run in and tuned and i have a lot more practical experience i will feel more confident

Next time i make an order on modelsport i will pick up some proper after run oil Will have a look in a sec and see if there are any nice accesories for my car

Should pretty much have this car tuned and sorted by the end of sunday all going well, just got to hope the the weather remains dry! High speed tuning sounds easy enough, low speed i am going to read over again because there are quite a few methods to choose from, was going to do the one where you clear out the engine then leave it to idle and see how long the revs hold up for, and then do some idle-full throttle runs and check the acceleration. It doesn't have to be amazing, cus it is only for bashing, but i might aswell get some of the power out of the engine And then i gotta do it all again with the kyosho And the thunder tiger >.> (Not looking forward to that, the .70 engine on it is crazy!)

About the pics, i will get a few pics taken of mah car when i can and then i will aim to make a vid or something and get it up on youtube so you can see it in action

=]

 

[cptvkirk]

first, sorry if my previous post about reading up seemed sarcastic. It wasn't meant to be but after I read it today ...well could have been taken more than one way. I agree with a previous post saying you sound like you are doing your utmost to be well informed before tackling it. My point with reading was....once you have read the manual once, you find that after working on your car and trying to tune reading the manual or even online tips will then make more sense to you and either debunk or reinforce your current techniques.

As far as the low speed needle, yeah it is tricky to get the hang of it. I now use the sound of the engine at idle and throttle response to fine tune the low speed needle to tweak my settings after adjusting the hsn. However, if I mess up settings, or am helping tune someone else's rig, I use the pinch test to get an idea of which way I need to go with about 3 seconds to quit as my base line. runs longer than about 3 seconds i know i need to lean out more and vise versa if it dies quicker. Keep at it and no doubt you'll have your own technique that works in no time.

 

[Meldarion]

Hey again
No need to apologise cptvkirk! I never took your post the wrong way, it was good advice for me to read around on the forums That is how i have managed to learn pretty much all of the stuff i know so far
From looking at the manual and the performance i have from my car, i am really thinking that i am going to need very very little/if any tuning at all. The car itself seems to run really well, it can lift the front wheels of the ground when given a good burst of throttle on the grass, and there is always a nice stream of smoke present Either way i am still going to lean off the HSN a little bit and see if i can get a bit more power out of it, though it does run very well, and even if it is on the rich side a little bit, that will help preserve my engine
I would be happy to say now that the run in is totally complete, must have put at least 6-7 tanks through it from cycling the car, and i can feel the difference in the power as i have progressed!
I am going to take a vid of the car running when i can and i will see whether you guys think it could be tuned any better