I've had it with this engine!

[minmax89]

Hi guys.

I bought a second hand t-maxx 4909. The condition of the 3.3 was of course unknown but I did get it going and it seemed ok. It was a little difficult to get a steady tune at first. Thought it might have been an air leak so replaced fuel tank. fuel lines, fuel filter, stuck a tuned resonator pipe on it, etc. Took it out and my clutch spring went. Oh well, back in the house for another week...

New shoes and spring fitted. Great! Took it out for a spin but soon discovered the front crankshaft bearing leaking too much fuel everywhere. So, back in the house and another week waiting for new bearings and new o-ring set for the carb.

Replaced all that and took it out again. Had a short blast but before we could have any fun, the truck had a sudden change in idle noise (low, unusual sound), wouldn't rev and eventually cut out.

So, I did a bit of internetwork research and thought it might be an air leak so I sealed up the carb and back plate. I also took the cooling head off to give it a good clean to check the glow plug and copper washer were sitting tight. While doing this, I thought I'd check the 'pinch' of the piston/sleve. Wasn't too confident though. Not really any pinch there.

Then, if that wasn't bad enough, putting the carb back together, the brass body of the HSN failed to tighten in the carb house. Stripped thread right?

Now it won't tune or run properly at all. Factory settings all round, turned it ove and it fires but runs real high then cuts out. It's hard to explain...

So, like the title says I've lost all confidence in this second-hand (unknown to me) engine. A new carb and piston & sleeve would be near the cost of a new 3.3. But thinking of a new engine, I started looking into the picco .26

What is the actual difference between the picco .26 and the red dot version?

And what do you guys think I should do??

Adam

 

[rak12]

If you want to save some money and not buy a new engine you may consider Traxxas's engine replacement plan. In the the case of the 3.3 you send Traxxas the old one and $115 then they send you a brand new 3.3 much cheaper than rebuilding your 3.3 and no labor time. I recently was in your situation and was considering just upgrading the engine to a picco but then figured that I am still content with the performance of the 3.3 so sent it to traxxas, if you do upgrade to the more powerful picco, you will probably have to upgrade the drivetrain components as well. The picco has nearly 3 times the rated power! This is where it can become very costly.

 

[olds97_lss]

My LHS honors the traxxas ERP, so you may not have to wait if you want to go that route. Just take the old engine to your LHS and swap it out for a new one using the ERP.

 

[bergoff]

I think that you should get the dynamite mach 2 .19t and let us know how it works out. It's a direct replacement and is cheaper the the 3.3 my 2.5 is still ok or I would have upgraded already.

 

[Riz23]

I agree with rak12. My suggestion would be to take advantage of the Traxxas ERP. You are not gonna find and engine of that quality at that price. Plus it is the simplest of fixes. Good luck!

 

[minmax89]

Problem is guys, I'm based in Ireland so the post back on forth on top of the $115 makes it not cost effective.

 

[bdkanicsar]

i would go with the ofna/picco .26 and the difference between that and the red dot is bout 2000rpm and .2hp.

 

[olds97_lss]

Problem is guys, I'm based in Ireland so the post back on forth on top of the $115 makes it not cost effective.

Gotcha. Would help if you had your location filled out so we could see that kind of stuff.

 

[Blu_boost]

yeah I'm in your same position at the moment. Have a 3.3(unknown past) and its having problems... changed out the bearings and still nothing changed. Rebuilding is a option but i also believe the carb has airleak...ERP all the way.. dont wanna deal with rebuilding and keeping it sealed. The 3.3 seems like one big air leak. Also looked into picco.26 or rb tm523, and there is a some used forsale on ebay. But its a used engine so... btw there about $130

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...86557&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2456wt_1023

http://cgi.ebay.com/RB-Concepts-23-...ccessories&hash=item414f32909f#ht_2439wt_1023

You guys think these are worth it?

 

[Rolex]

Problem is guys, I'm based in Ireland so the post back on forth on top of the $115 makes it not cost effective.

Have you considered moving?