We bought an HPI Firestorm back in October and it's been nothing but a pain since then. The first problem we encountered was a biggie. We read through the manual, (we're new to the nitro scene), following directions we proceeded to follow the directions to initate the break in. Third or fourth pull on the starter it started, ran for no more than 20 seconds and stopped. Tried to pull again and it wouldn't budge, called LHS and they told me about hydro lock, I removed the glow plug and still it would not pull over. Took it to the LHS which is a half hour drive from me, they had the truck for a week called me back and said that the connecting rod snapped and continued to rotate a few more times and drove itself into piston wall and also twisting the rod. They said they'd order an engine. Week later there was still no engine, they had the truck still and they called and said that they'd make things right and to come down. We got there and they replaced the entire truck with a new one.
Get home, start the break in procedure again and get it to go through one whole tank. On the second tank the directions say to have it on the ground doing circles. As I was lowering the truck down to the ground the engine quit once again. I tried to restart it and again it would not pull over. Fearing the worst I pulled the plug to clear it of nitro and it still wouldn't pull over. Back to the shop! The owner was pretty pissed at me it seems. I told him I followed the directions, he asked if it was free-wheeling at the time (the wheels not making contact with the ground), I told him they weren't, he was really pissed then and told me that I had to put the nose of the truck into the wall in order to do the break in. I thought he was nuts. He said he'd have the tech go over the truck.
Turns out the connecting rod snapped again, this time they replaced the piston, sleeve and rod. They put 2 tanks of fuel through it and said it was good to go. We took it home and it fired right up, the tech said to run as much fuel as possible through it, so I put it nose first into the wall where it proceeded to strip the spur gear out of it.
So in it's stock form it runs a 50T spur and a 19T bell. I've phoned both LHS's for parts and ordered them only to have waited 2 weeks and be told that they're on back order. I've phoned the big city as well and they don't have the 50T in stock. Is there any other combo that would work guys? Even something from another brand?
My dad is in the beginning stages of alzheimers and he used to be into cars and engines in any form, we bought the truck for something for him to tinker around with and actually run. He's pretty dissapointed and so am I. ANY help would be appreciated. He bought a Savage like mine and is running it almost daily which is great but I'd like to see the Firestorm get going because I know he would too.:bow:
Get home, start the break in procedure again and get it to go through one whole tank. On the second tank the directions say to have it on the ground doing circles. As I was lowering the truck down to the ground the engine quit once again. I tried to restart it and again it would not pull over. Fearing the worst I pulled the plug to clear it of nitro and it still wouldn't pull over. Back to the shop! The owner was pretty pissed at me it seems. I told him I followed the directions, he asked if it was free-wheeling at the time (the wheels not making contact with the ground), I told him they weren't, he was really pissed then and told me that I had to put the nose of the truck into the wall in order to do the break in. I thought he was nuts. He said he'd have the tech go over the truck.
Turns out the connecting rod snapped again, this time they replaced the piston, sleeve and rod. They put 2 tanks of fuel through it and said it was good to go. We took it home and it fired right up, the tech said to run as much fuel as possible through it, so I put it nose first into the wall where it proceeded to strip the spur gear out of it.
So in it's stock form it runs a 50T spur and a 19T bell. I've phoned both LHS's for parts and ordered them only to have waited 2 weeks and be told that they're on back order. I've phoned the big city as well and they don't have the 50T in stock. Is there any other combo that would work guys? Even something from another brand?
My dad is in the beginning stages of alzheimers and he used to be into cars and engines in any form, we bought the truck for something for him to tinker around with and actually run. He's pretty dissapointed and so am I. ANY help would be appreciated. He bought a Savage like mine and is running it almost daily which is great but I'd like to see the Firestorm get going because I know he would too.:bow: