HPI Firestorm

[BurningRain]

Thanks olds97_lss, I'm hoping that because I've been forced in to doing some reading and engine inspection rather than just buying a brand new RTR that I may be better prepared

 

[Rooky78]

I commend you for that line of thinking. A lot of people would have pitched a fit and given up. Goood job, mate!

 

[BurningRain]

Tonight's installment..

My new engine was delivered today and was exactly as described, as new removed from a new car.

After giving it a visual inspection I set about removing the original engine and replacing it with the new one. To get there I had to swap the mounts, clutch, air filter and exhaust.

Before:

After:

Once this was completed I set about installing it into the car, I used a piece of paper between the cogs to set the spacing as was recommended in the manual and then refitted the fuel pipe, vacuum pipe and throttle pinion.

I went through a few basics like setting WOT using the transmitter trim and also set up the failsafe so that the brake gets applied out of range etc.

I've checked that the wheels spin freely until the brake is applied so it looks like it's adjusted correctly.

So.. I can't think of anything else except from starting her up, I didn't do it tonight as the first stage of breaking the engine in is letting it idle through a full tank and given the time of night it's had to wait so I'm not branded an antisocial hooligan!

Have I missed anything?

 

[cbaker65]

Tonight's installment..

My new engine was delivered today and was exactly as described, as new removed from a new car.

After giving it a visual inspection I set about removing the original engine and replacing it with the new one. To get there I had to swap the mounts, clutch, air filter and exhaust.

Before:

After:

Once this was completed I set about installing it into the car, I used a piece of paper between the cogs to set the spacing as was recommended in the manual and then refitted the fuel pipe, vacuum pipe and throttle pinion.

I went through a few basics like setting WOT using the transmitter trim and also set up the failsafe so that the brake gets applied out of range etc.

I've checked that the wheels spin freely until the brake is applied so it looks like it's adjusted correctly.

So.. I can't think of anything else except from starting her up, I didn't do it tonight as the first stage of breaking the engine in is letting it idle through a full tank and given the time of night it's had to wait so I'm not branded an antisocial hooligan!

Have I missed anything?

Suweet ,spoken like a true natural!....

When running the first few tanks,its best to do it with the car on a block of wood or some way off
the ground,so it doesn't take off ,an also its more easier on the clutch shoes.

Its going to be tough at first ,however ,What I do at first,is to loosen up the glo-plug on the first start
up ,this helps relieve some of the pressure off the starter an piston rod ,then once it starts ,pull off the igniter
while its still running ,an tighten the plug back up real quick if you can.

That helps out big time on a new engine start up!

 

[BurningRain]

Hopefully I'll get the chance to start it up tonight, I've always been putting it on my toolbox out of habit which keeps all wheels off the floor, just need to make sure that the flywheel doesn't catch the box for any reason.

Thanks for the advice, I'll see what the HPI guide says and then maybe let the glow plug off slightly.

 

[BurningRain]

The next update;

Well after reading the HPI guide I decided to give it a go with the plug fully seated. After actually priming properly (The first time I didn't pull enough fuel through) it start up! Yay.

Having not had a nitro running properly before it sounded a bit fast to me, using the transmitter throttle trim I brought the rpm down until it sounded like it was going to stall and then notched it up a fraction.

Good news, managed to idle the whole first tank through incident free other than playing with the trim a couple more times.

The second tank I let it idle for a bit longer before putting it down on the ground to run it on minimal throttle (guide suggests half but my garden is too small to risk this).

All was going well until... self inflicted tragedy.. (well maybe an overstatement but it makes a better story)

Ploughed straight into the ladder on my daughters playhouse with the offside front wheel!

So off came the bits to see if I could salvage the situation and continue my breaking in run before it got too late again.

Off the car:

and then in bits:

In true Heath Robinson? fashion I gathered some trusty Loctite and electrical insulation tape, left the car up on a block idling out the rest of tank #2 and voila..



Good as new

and back on the car:

Ran tank #3 successfully before it got too late to run a fourth but needless to say I'm very happy to have a nitro car up and running!

Final thoughts, how do you guys tell if the tank is about to run out whilst using it, do you time it or just let it run out where ever it lands? Also someone said my suspension is wound too far down, what do you guys think? I've not looked at the best settings for this yet.

Thanks for reading!

 

[cbaker65]

As you start tuning an leaning the engine ,your ride will start getting better fuel mileage!...

 

[BurningRain]

I did notice it was rather over fuelling, it spat all over me and the surrounding area

I figured it would be best to leave any tuning until after the break in though.

 

[BurningRain]

So I've run about another 4-5 tanks since the last update, which feels like an age ago!

I've adjusted HSN by 1/8 clockwise and adjusted the camber on the rear wheels as they looked like they were angled too much inwards.

On the most recent I took it on some open space so that I could fully open up the throttle, as far as I can tell (since I've never seen another Nitro car running in person) it seems to be running really well

It did cut out and I was thinking oh no what's happened to it but it had a lot of long grass trimmings caught up in the rear axles causing it to lock up, I guess the car cuts out as a fail safe as after I cleared it out it happened again when it got caught up. I only had time to run one tank and having to keep clearing grass out of it ended up using more time than I'd expected.

Anyway I was happy with the run! Took it home and cleared out the grass again and had a slow 1/3rd tank around the garden to make sure it was all still working.

I think I lost some of the damper oil out of my 'repaired' shock absorber but hopefully the repair parts should be here next week to fix that properly.

On the subject of spares, I seem to get carried away when looking at spare parts, I bought the shock turrets (pair) to replace the broken one and then I ended up also buying:

Spare OEM shell
Spare complete suspension (4 dampers and springs)
Spare set of screws
Spare rear tyres
Piston sleeve and piston/rod to attempt the repair on the original engine

Does this happen to everyone else?

I don't even know how much the car will end up getting used

 

[Caretaker109]

All I can say is, well done. And welcome to the addiction.

 

[BurningRain]

I'm starting to feel this thread has become more of a project than an introduction. Maybe I should get it moved/split and the thread title changed to HPI Firestorm?

The suspension shock turrets arrived today along with some spare wheel washers as I noticed these were missing from the front when I got it.

 

[BurningRain]

Well, didn't take long to rebuild the shock, refilled the oil and it felt great. In fact it felt much better than the other side so I took that off, emptied it and refilled it with the same oil. Now the front feels great but the back feels like it could do with the same treatment as I'm stiff at the front and loose at the rear to the point it grounds quite easily and I don't have enough oil left for one let alone two

Anyway once done with this and refitted the wheels with the spacers I put it away and had a look at the spare block.

I stripped the carburetor off and the couldn't work out how to get grip on the flywheel to undo the nut. I had a eureka moment and refitted the broken connecting rod into the engine, I cranked it around until it got stuck on the side of the piston sleeve at which point the flywheel stopped spinning and I could undo the nut.

Success this actually hit two birds with one stone as this also pushed the sleeve out of the block which was the next thing on the list. I removed the shaft and now I'm ready to put it back together with new sleeve and piston when they arrive and see if it still works!

The actual engine casing doesn't appear to have suffered any damage and I'd also go as far as to say that the sleeve is also in great condition.

You can see that whatever happened to the engine caused the rod to snap off and shatter the piston on one side. I've had a wipe out of the inside of the engine to remove any debris but I'll probably do this again before putting it back together.

As always thanks for reading

 

[BurningRain]

Over the pond in Florida where my new unnecessary parts have safely arrived.

The car is back home in the UK so hopefully I'll be able to transport them safely back in a couple of weeks.

 

[olds97_lss]

The actual engine casing doesn't appear to have suffered any damage and I'd also go as far as to say that the sleeve is also in great condition.

You can see that whatever happened to the engine caused the rod to snap off and shatter the piston on one side. I've had a wipe out of the inside of the engine to remove any debris but I'll probably do this again before putting it back together.

As always thanks for reading

That's kind of typical when a con-rod breaks that it takes the piston skirt with it. Make sure to rinse the engine out really well with fuel as I'm sure there are aluminum bits floating around in there.

As for spare parts, on a stadium truck, things that are likely to break:
shock towers
front/rear arms
front/rear axle carriers/c-hubs

Basically the parts that stick out and hit things.

Also a good idea to have a spare spur gear and glow plug or two laying around.

 

[BurningRain]

Thanks for the reply

I don't have any arms but I do have all 4 carriers, missed that off my list above! Got two spare plugs but no spare spur.

I took the rear shocks out this weekend to give them a clean up an replace the oil since I hadn't checked this since I mentioned it earlier on.. One was completely empty and the other might as well have been, no wonder the rear was bottoming out (as half expected).

Anyway started it up fine again and it had a slow pootle around the garden, all I need now is the chance to take it out properly

 

[Certified Mike]

Congrats on the save! Looks like you're on a great learning curve. There will always be another casualty. I don't know how experienced you were with the electric cars so I'll throw out the suggestion that as you start breaking things, start looking for upgrades to replace with. I am not familiar with that particular vehicle so I don't have any direct suggestions other than the suspension pieces already mentioned. As an example though, had I snapped a shock body, I would look into a metal body or performance upgrade. It's not necessary, just an example.
You mentioned that there seems to be a lot of rear toe in. I have found that on looking down over most of my rc collection, there is a lot more toe in on the newer cars than older kits. It is about traction vs stability at speed and I believe the rear droop is also tied in. (read up on all that if you're out of practice) A good suspension guide will tell you a lot more about the spring preload settings, shock oil weights etc. So you can match the suspension with your terrain and driving style. (Please forgive me if I'm talking about things you're already familiar with)
I'm glad to hear you were able to work out a deal with your seller. It looks like you picked up a very clean car! Looking forward to hearing about the other motor and if you were able to get it together and get it turning over properly etc... Just as a warning... Nitro has been known to encite houliganism! Good luck!

Oh, and welcome to RCNT!