hi won a monster tornado truck in a raffle,have absolutely no idea what sort of nitro fuel mix i should use dont know anything about these rc.Have a remote and glow plug ignitor,bought some fuel which says 5% but after reading this forum not sure if thats the right fuel can anyone help me out.Glad i got into this forum had no idea you had to run in the engine etheir.i might sound like a goose but have had no dealings with rcs at all,the few dealerships i rang werent much help just tried to sell me poop.The only thing i know about the truck is its 4wd scale 1/8 with a 21 cxp engine.thanks!
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I'm a novice what % of fuel do i use
- Thread starter bradnockj
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drdoom405
RCTalk Champion
Use 15 to 30 % nitro...the 5% u picked up is for planes or helis I think....
Also read the stickys at the top of the forum. Don't rush into anything and take your time. Pay attention to whats happening with the engine and you'll do okay. Its a fun hobby as long as you have an idea what your doing. If not it can get frustrating quick. Have fun!
Also read the stickys at the top of the forum. Don't rush into anything and take your time. Pay attention to whats happening with the engine and you'll do okay. Its a fun hobby as long as you have an idea what your doing. If not it can get frustrating quick. Have fun!
5% is for air vehicles as was stated above, a good all around percentage to use is 20% thats what i run in all my rigs and they run great, but pay CAREFUL attention to your break in and do it by the book, no shortcuts, and make sure that you have a few glow plugs on hand cuz you're gonna go through them especially if you have never tuned a nitro engine before, its not hard to do but after you break it in (run it in) your tuning incriments will be very VERY small turns on your needles(high speed and low speed needle) you high speed needle is generally the on where the fuel line goes into clockwise to lean it out and counter clockwise to richen it up, but during break in you need to leave the needles where they are to get it broken in correctly, after you have it broken in you can start to lean out the High speed needle but make sure you keep an eye on your temps, a good temp gun will be your best friend during your break in and tuning because especially during break in you don't want your temps to go to high and smoke your motor out before you even get a chance to enjoy it, and you said it has a .21 size motor on it, now if any one on here disagrees with what i am about to say please do this is just from my experience, a .21 sized motor is going to turn A LOT of RPM's and its going to sound like it wants to blow up probably somewhere in the neighbor hood of 35,000RPM+ dont get alarmed when it revs up real high for the motor is designed to rev that high. But most importantly keep an eye on your temps and make sure that your Reciever battery is fully charged before you try to break it in because that may cause some issues with the break in I:E: servos not working they way they are supposed too. Now keep in mind everything i have said in here may be subject to some further research but this is all stuff i have done and experienced personally and i just want to help you enjoy this hobby as much as all of us do here. If you have any further questions please feel free to ask and we will do as much as we can to help you out. Hope this info helped you out and
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WELCOME TO THE BROTHERHOOD
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thanks for your help got more information from these two posts then i did from the dealers who sell them.Looking forward to getting it up and running what is a good tempreture to run at and whats to high,from what i gather you have to go threw about three tanks of fuel in the break in is this correct.cheers!
MotoGod
Hardcore RCTalk User
Break in really depends on the motor. Read the manual for your motor and follow the recommended break in procedure. Some motors break in quickly, others can take a gallon or so of fuel to truly be "broken in". By the way, breaking in an engine really just means getting past the tightness of the mechanical pinch of the motor.
You will finds all sorts of different opinions on breaking in an engine. I personally use the heat cycle method. You can do a google search on nitro engine break-in and spend 3 weeks reading it all ;-)
Generally speaking, expect to blow through at least 2 quarts of fuel for break in. That is the first few tanks either heat cycling, or idling...then some slow driving....then some faster driving with random throttle positions...etc etc etc. Do some research and figure out which method to use first, then follow it to a T.
After break in is when you can start tuning it for power, and remember NEVER tune a cold engine. Let it warm up before you start playing with needles after you break it in.
You will finds all sorts of different opinions on breaking in an engine. I personally use the heat cycle method. You can do a google search on nitro engine break-in and spend 3 weeks reading it all ;-)
Generally speaking, expect to blow through at least 2 quarts of fuel for break in. That is the first few tanks either heat cycling, or idling...then some slow driving....then some faster driving with random throttle positions...etc etc etc. Do some research and figure out which method to use first, then follow it to a T.
After break in is when you can start tuning it for power, and remember NEVER tune a cold engine. Let it warm up before you start playing with needles after you break it in.
thanks moto i was in class i couldnt reply, but yeah as moto said follow the break in procedure to a T and temperatures are going vary between engines, for example my Picco .26 likes temps around 255-260 for regular bashing/driving and my buddies Traxxas 3.3 likes temps in the neighborhood of 275-280, so its going to be different from engine to engine, read the manual like moto said and keep the temps in that range
iam realy new to r/c 7 mo. iam not good at tunning. but my idea is you get more out of a nitro engine, by learning how tune more so than the amount of nitro.
I agree with revo rob however I would keep a close eye on those engine temps for two reasons 1: Keep your engine from meltdown
2: Find out what your best opperating temp is for that engine
Also remember the higher the percentage of Nitro the hotter the burn
2: Find out what your best opperating temp is for that engine
Also remember the higher the percentage of Nitro the hotter the burn
temps are important but in order to really tune an engine for performance you need to basically let the engine tell you what it wants, if it wants more fuel you will be able to tell by the way it sounds, if wants to be leaner it will tell you, i mean yeah you don't want to be running over 300+ degrees but if you have a good tune on the engine it wont reach that temp, but the most important thing to do is to make sure that the engine is broken in properly and completly before you even THINK about tuning for performance, i have made the mistake of "leaning on it" to soon and i ended up popping an engine with less that a half gallon of fuel through it.
Scrogg
Hardcore RCTalk User
More Nitro, less oil makes tuning easier truthfully. You run richer settings with 30% than you do with 20% nitro. The engines, start easier, idle better and require less day to day tuning. Most race fuels are more consistent than the average basher fuel. Fuel with more than 12% oil is worthless IMO. I have tried all the fuels i could get my hands on in the U.S.
Byron's Pro Race and Sidewinder Pro30%'s are my two favorites. TONS of power, very little tuning from day to day, excellent run times too. O'donnell's is great fuel as well. I have a LRP modifed sitting at the house in need of bearings and a rod. The owner, a close friend who I taught how to tune learned the hard way that "If it is not broke don't fix it!" does not apply to engine bearings. 5 gallons of fuel on it at 200-225F, perfectly tuned. Ran like a raped ape. Main bearing got sloppy around 4 gallons and ruined the conrod. surprisingly the front bearing is still good! It is an RB Modded engine, so I guess Rick put one hell of a front bearing in it. He left the stock main in it though!!!:\
i'll have to show some pics of this engine's internals.
The piston is just as clean as the day it was made, no carbon build up at all. no carbon deposits on the sleeve or block either. Piston still stops @ 2/3 of the way up the sleeve, just like a 2 gallon engine!
PaulC
RCTalk Champion
Out of interest, I was taking a look at Nitro fuel and...
Methanol has very little carbon in it for a hydrocarbon-like fuel. Actually 1 carbon atom. Compared with petrol which is a mix of pentane and octane (5 and 8 atoms of carbon and their friendly hydrogen atom hangers on). Diesel is a mix of 9 to 16 carbon atoms and heavy fuel oils and lube the higher chains still.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Chemistry
The higher the carbon atom count the more chance of reactions causing some of the carbon to suit up on the metal and not bond with oxygen (to make CO2). Especially if running rich like most road engines. This is probably one reason why diesel engines or large heavy fuel oil marine diesels emit black smoke.
Interestingly (?) methanol makes up from it's low carbon/hydrogen bond count (the breaking of which releases energy) by having an oxygen atom which helps the combustion along and also should help the reaction be deposit-less. Combustion reactions need a fuel (hydro-carbon chains) and an oxidizer (something containing oxygen, like air).
Remember they sometimes use an alcohol (ethanol probably) flame to sterilize needles etc. In hospitals. So it should be fairly clean when pure.
Also of interest, "Nitromethane" is effectively a molecular bond between methanol and nitrous-oxide. CH3+NO2, so potent stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitromethane
Methanol has very little carbon in it for a hydrocarbon-like fuel. Actually 1 carbon atom. Compared with petrol which is a mix of pentane and octane (5 and 8 atoms of carbon and their friendly hydrogen atom hangers on). Diesel is a mix of 9 to 16 carbon atoms and heavy fuel oils and lube the higher chains still.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Chemistry
The higher the carbon atom count the more chance of reactions causing some of the carbon to suit up on the metal and not bond with oxygen (to make CO2). Especially if running rich like most road engines. This is probably one reason why diesel engines or large heavy fuel oil marine diesels emit black smoke.
Interestingly (?) methanol makes up from it's low carbon/hydrogen bond count (the breaking of which releases energy) by having an oxygen atom which helps the combustion along and also should help the reaction be deposit-less. Combustion reactions need a fuel (hydro-carbon chains) and an oxidizer (something containing oxygen, like air).
Remember they sometimes use an alcohol (ethanol probably) flame to sterilize needles etc. In hospitals. So it should be fairly clean when pure.
Also of interest, "Nitromethane" is effectively a molecular bond between methanol and nitrous-oxide. CH3+NO2, so potent stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitromethane
ok scrogg and paulc. heres a big Q. how much nitro could a traxxas 3.3 engine take, in good shape?
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