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Hpi savage help!!!!!!

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T

THE BOSS

RCTalk Member
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Location
Where savages can run free
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
  2. Racing
hey, does putting silicone diff oil in my diffs improve power. My friend put diff oil in his lst2 and his truck spins the tires like crazy it runs circles around my truck and he says its because of the silicone diff oil. so i want to know if i should do it and if i should also put it in my transmission. and also the steering on it sucks it turns soooo wide is there any way to fix this. I really want to beat his truck. thanks. please help me.:whhooo::whhooo:
 
The diff oil isn't why he's running around you. It can be used to help equalize traction to each wheel. Do NOT put it in the trans. The stock Savage steering sucks. A stronger/faster servo will help a bunch and there is a mod to tighten the turning radius but I haven't found it. I want it too so maybe someone will point us in the right direction.
 
Diff oil does nothing for power other than change how it is divided between the two tires connected to the diff.

Thicker oil makes the diff react more like 1:1 positraction. The tire in the air (in a corner when all the weight is pushing on the outside tire) running a thick oil will cause power to still be transferred to the outside tire vs loosing all the power to the tire with the least grip (the inside tire).

For bashing, I run 50K oil in my diffs on both my savage and aftershock. Works really well for a basher, but does make it "push" in the corners when in dirt. This is caused due to the thicker oil making the rear diff want to push the truck straight. But, it's good when I get hung up on something or are running in snow. Even if a tire is off the ground, the tire that is on the ground will get quite a bit of power sent to it to get me unstuck.

Oil does not belong in the transmission. It will cause problems if you do.

The LST2 is a truck that is designed for racing, this means on power handling, cornering, braking, generally just all handling.

The savage is designed to jump stuff and take beating after beating without falling apart. Handling is an afterthought.

I don't think anything you do to that savage will ever make it handle as good as a stock LST2. Sure you can improve it, but it's a basher to the bone.

To help the savage be better, run tires with thinner sidewalls than stock, lower the shocks so the arms are sitting level when at rest, put in a bit thicker shock oil and put diff oil in the diffs. I'm not sure what/where, but thicker oil in the front diff hampers steering more than stock grease. On buggies, I believe they use 5K rear and 10K front. On a MT though, you probably need to go higher due to the heavier tires/wheels, like 30K rear 50K front.
 
ok so would you recommend putting the silicone oil in my diffs. I wont put it in my tranny ( dont know what i was thinking) Basically what i want to do is if i was to race the lst2 in a strait line i want to be able to beat it because i think i have the bigger engine.
 
Yes, oil helps with handling, but for a straight line, it's not going to matter much at all since there really isn't any "diff" action. Both output shafts are spinning at the same rate of speed. The only time the diff oil takes effect is in the corners when the tires aren't spinning at the same speed.

Depending on the engine you have, bigger doesn't make it better. It only makes it bigger.

What engine are you running? What engine is your buddy running?
 
just tell your buddy with his LST to follow you aft hitting some big air with your savage all day then see whos still alive at the end of the day. its true the LST was simply designed with racing more in mind rather than durability. But they are both great trucks in their own way... personly i like to stick with a savage.. and if you want you can get a more powerful steering servo and soften the suspension a little to get some improved handling out of your savage .. maybe just put an XL steering servo in it steers it pretty good with the 1200 mah reciever pack..
 
I'm running the 4.6 big block and i think he has the 427cc in his lst its all stock

I'm pretty new to this, sound like you know alot about this stuff. Will stiffining the shocks help in my handling and my wheels shaking for some reason they look asif the are bouncing and shaking when the truck is beggining to drive but when the speed picks up they stop a friend said that is i stiffin the shocks it will help and if i get a thicker or harder foam for the tires. also would changing the spur gear and clutch bell help in speed and what is your recomendation for the size of them ( how many tooth)
 
not quite sure why your wheels would be shaking, unless something is out of balance. or you have aftermarket wheels and tires with really light foam inside. But normally if your savage is off the ground and you are reving it, the tires will sort of shake, stiffining the shocks will make your truck more likely to roll over when cornering, but its good to be set up pretty stiff for big air soo you dont bottom out, as for the gearing. I have a savage XL with a 52 tooth spur an 14 tooth clutch bell! if your running the savage 25 probably need a 47 or 48 tooth spur and 18 bell, the more teeth the more top speed!
 
Just got done putting 5k diff oil in my Savage XL on both ends. Just a little tip when doing so. When removing the bevel gear from the diff housing use a little heat from a heat gun or a hair dryer so you can remove the 4 screws without stripping the heads, mine had a ton of thread lock on them and were a pain in the butt to get out utill I heated them up. Also becarefull when removing the diff seal. I used a hobby knife to gently get under them to scrape them off as they were glued in. I would advise just getting a couple seals just to have incase you rip one as I did, I did reuse the old ones, on the one I ripped I just put a little rv silicone where the tear was. So far so good no leaks. Also when filling the diffs with oil make sure to just fill them to the cross pins. I know 5k is not that heavy but I just thought I would use it as a starting point. I can say it's alot better than the stock grease though.
 
Your wheels are shaking more than likely due to having water in them and they are out of balance.

Drill small holes in the center of each tire at 12'oclock and 6'oclock. Centrifugal force will fling the water out of the holes after a few high speed passes. I use a drill bit just below 1/8" in size. I put it in my dremel and gently apply pressure so it can more or less burn a clean hole vs just puncturing the tire.

As for the gearing, I don't know. I've never ran that engine and I don't know what it can pull without overheating or giving poor performance.

Thicker shock oil will help it in the jumps. Lowering the ride height will help it in the turns and make it less likely to traction roll. However, it's never going to handle as good as a LST2. They are completely different machines with completely different purposes.
 
The Mach 427 is a faster engine than the HPI 4.6's are. It has more power on top and revs higher. Plus the LST is much more efficient at putting power to the ground.
 
yah i understand that my savage will never handle like an lst2 i was just trying to make its performance better beause i wasn't 100 percent happy. I think I'm going to put in 50k diff oil, stiffin my shocks and put a bigger spur gear and clutch bell. and as far as the tire shaking I'm pretty sure theres no water in them i never ran it through water but ill see if i can fix the shaking. And does anyone know if i want to adjust how it shifts from 1st to 2nd which screw do i turn and which way? I want it to shift into 2nd later than it does right now. olds97 now i know why you were awarded nitro guru of the year youu definately know your stuff and have been a big help thank you, thank you everyone.
 
The screw to adjust is the second screw that is at a harsh angle. The screw you can see that is straight in is the screw that keeps the two speed hub on the shaft. To get it to shift later, you tighten the screw. I normally adjust mine in 1/4 turn increments. Or is your question more general as you don't know where the screw is at all? If so, I can explain in more detail when needed.

However, if you are changing your gearing (spur/cb), you may want to wait until you run it before you adjust the shift point as it will change as well. Going with a larger spur will lower your top speed which will have the same effect on the two speed as adjusting it to shift later.

I know how you feel about the performance. As much as I like my savage, it handles like a brick compared to my aftershock. I'm currently trying to figure out what to do with the shocks... thinking of 4 HPI big bores... but still on the fence.

If your out of balance isn't due to water, then your foam may have separated and has bunched up inside the wheel. In that case... your kind of boned and have to deglue the tires from the wheels to fix it. Which is not a fun task at all.
 
ok what gear ratio would you recomend i want something thaat will give me a higher top speed. And i do know where the screw is i just wasn't sure which screw to adjust and which way to make it shift later. basically i want to know what will make it faster and is it possible to make it do wheelies. thanks
 
THE BOSS said:
ok what gear ratio would you recomend i want something thaat will give me a higher top speed.basically i want to know what will make it faster and is it possible to make it do wheelies. thanks
Click to expand...

Ok, well, that all depends on a few things. Tire size, engine size and current gearing. Bigger tires generally require more power to get them rolling. A weak engine may not pull a wheelie regardless of gearing. A weak engine definitely won't pull fast top speed times regardless of gearing.

I know your engine is the 4.6, but since I've never ran it, I can't really give you a nudge on anything other than changing your shift point. Shift point is directly relative to where it is shifting now. If you want it later, tighten the screw. If you want it earlier, loosen the screw.

From what I've read, the 4.6 isn't a bad engine, but it's got low peak RPM's and not a "ton" of power. So knowing that, you may more than likely end up with a top speed that is far less than you want. You can change the gearing to make it more responsive (lower gearing) or you can make it "faster" (higher gearing). Keep in mind that a weaker engine won't be able to actually be faster by making the gearing higher due to the engine not having enough torque to use it.

All that said, a LST isn't that "fast" with stock gearing and stock engine. You should be able to at least keep up with it with proper gearing in your truck.

My aftershock is geared +3 on the pinions over stock and it's far faster than I can comfortably drive, but I'm running an engine that can make use of that taller gearing. My savage is currently the same way with a 3-speed trans, 16/49 gearing and old school savage 21 tires (taller than standard MT). When it tops out, I pretty much can't control it because it wanders so bad due to the taller tires and the fact that is a top heavy brick. ;)

Sorry... that was all probably a lot more info than you were seeking...
 
no no the more info the better that way i will learn more about this great hobby. Thats exactly what i thought i should atleast be able to keep up with the lst but he just blew by me. but I'm gonna go ahead and try the diff oil and i might change my gears and i have to stiffen my shocks they are way too soft.
 
i dont know what is going on with your truck but i have the same one and when you get it tuned in it should do wheeles at will. i have a hard time keeping mine down. so i would say it is not shifting properly or you dont have the engine tuned in yet maybe lean it out some
 
I can say the gearing for the LST is pretty close. 1st gear isn't that far off from second. So, you may get him off the line, but once his picks up momentum then hammers in second, he may still loose you.

I forgot how close it was until I ran my aftershock last weekend for the first time in a long time. Even with mine geared tall, the LRP has enough torque to get it rolling very easily off the line. It seems to breeze through the entire RPM range in comparison to the savage. The savage seems to lumber through. I'm running the same engines on both. Hard to explain I guess...
 
i thought id let every one know i finally had some time to play around with my truck all day and so i took it aprt and put the diff oil in and it still wasn't runnin proper and was reving really high so i checked my clutch and is still good so i then cheched my spur gear and my slipper clutch and slipper pad are completely worn out it was almost rubbing on plastic. so i got a a new one and now it flys, it does wheelies and i finally beat my friends lst2 mind you it was after three times but ill still take it. So thank you to everyone who helped.
 

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