We had temps close to 50 both days this weekend, so I packed up the car and took it to my favorite practice spot to finish the break-in. Used an engine warmer to keep the engine temps up. Saturday the engine was still tight as hell (very typical of every OS engine I've ever owned). It was stalling at TDC a few times until I got it hotter and looser. I was running the 20/54 gearing. Eventually after a few more tanks of running around a little harder, I started making 132 ft passes and tuning some. It seemed "ok". No where near the power of the OS .21 tm I took out of it (which I also had with me planted in Incinerator for some comparison since the two cars are similar weights). Pretty sluggish out of the hole really, but it did wind up pretty high. Some of this is obviously the engine still being super tight.
I did about 20 passes, and it felt like by the end it was getting a little faster. Even hot, I could not turn the engine past TDC with my fingers. So still extremely tight.
Sunday, I came back. Same conditions, upper 40's near 50. Kept the engine heater over the engine to keep it hot while I made a bunch more passes. Tried some more tuning, but the tightness of the engine was still holding it back.
One thing that was seemingly positive was that all the chassis changes worked great, the car was hooking up and going straight as an arrow (though the lack of power certainly helped). I decided to try some different gearing too. Went to a 56t spur first. Couldn't tell much difference really. Then went to a 58t. Immediately realized I needed to stiffen the rear springs some, and add some bump stops in the shocks as the gear was hitting the rear arm. Tires were rubbing the body at points as well, so these changes fixed both of those issues perfectly. Seemed a little snappier now. I had a lot of clutch bell choices to try.
Sadly, I could not try the 18t bell as it uses smaller bearings (learn something new every day). I made a bunch of passes with the 20/58 setup. It was a bit quicker it seemed, but still, not really as good as expected. Man, this engine was still tight as a tick. I figure I'm going to have to spend every single warm day I can with this car and running the snot out of it until it loosens up.
Finally, I decided to do some passes using nitrous. I was a little scared to do that with the engine so tight, wasn't sure exactly what might happen. Also, not really sure how this system was going to play out with a much smaller engine that I've tested before. I figured the effect would probably be a bit more dramatic than in a .30 sized engine. I was right! I hit the button 10 feet out, and the car literally exploded in power. It just about tore the tires off. (In fact, inspection showed some rather frayed tires after the hit). Well, that was pretty addicting! So, I did another pass. Same thing. Wow this thing might actually be pretty fast. Set up my phone and recorded a third pass. Again, hitting the bottle at the 10 ft mark.
The launch is still pretty soft, but you can see/hear from the video where I hit the bottle. I'll work on the launch some. I think getting the engine looser will clearly help with low end power, but I also have a new, high torque pipe coming, and the 18t bell to try. I also need to work on the clutch, it definitely engages too soon.
These little .12's heat up quickly from my experience with the .12 tg I have. 
