New engine maybe?

[kkipp9]

I have read all of the tuning advice on here. I remembered some from before. My HSN and LSN are set, good take off, nice smoke and good temperatures (about 265 after a WOT run). When it does idle it doesn't lurch and it doesn't bog from a start. The problem is that it will only idle few a few seconds at a time or for a few minutes, no rhyme or reason when it stalls out. I tried a new glow plug and an older glow plug, same thing. I have sealed the motor. It is getting upsetting. I want to run it, not chase the tune every time I take it out. I found a Picco P2 Series .21 MAX engine on flea bay for $210.
Questions:
Am I missing something with this Traxxas 3.3?
Is it time to give up on the Traxxas engine?
Is that Picco a good engine?
Is that a good price?
Thank you in advance.

 

[Rooky78]

I'm.not real sure, but from what I underatand, these engines don't like to idle. They load up and flame out.
That being said I've had 3 TRX 3.3 engines. One I had long enough to break in and I traded it off. One I gave to my brother, he still runs it, I know it has at least 2 gallons on it. It will idle for quite some time, but if it idles more than half a minute or so, you have extension to really ease into it or it will die.
My F4.6 in my Savage, I've heard they don't like to idle either, but mine doesn't really seem to care. I've let it sit and idle for probably 5 minutes while I tend to the kids and thier trucks, and it usually takes right off.
As far as it goes, I've heard a lot of good things about the O.S. engines. There's at least one fella on here that said to hell with the TRX tune and bought an OS. I don't know for sure, but I believe he said he gave $270 for it. I don't know how long ago that was either.

 

[olds97_lss]

Not sure about the picco 21. From what I recall, they require a special mount and lock you into stock gearing only since you can't adjust it. I tried out the OS 21TM. The OS fits the stock mount, so you can gear it as you see fit. It's quite a bit better than the 3.3 so far. Once I got some fuel through it and dealt with transmission issues, as noted in the following thread.

Here's my thread on it: https://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/threads/my-os-21tm-3-3-revo.112093/

I fought with the 3.3 too, but mine was more that I felt it was under powered. With the factory carb, the idle was erratic (also fully sealed the engine/carb). I ended up running my OS 18TM carb in it which had a smaller venturi, but it ran more stable/consistent. Not really worth shelling out $70 on the OS carb, but since I had the 18TM sitting a drawer, figured I'd try it out to see how it did. I ran it that way for a summer. However, my other 2 MT's both have big block LRP28's in them and unless I kept the 3.3 on concrete in my local skate park, it just felt slow and under powered. Would only wheelie if I hit a bump and I had it geared fairly low (lower than stock), so it was pretty slow. I tried the Losi 3.4 carb in it and it really perked the engine up, for 500cc's of fuel, then it started to bind and run badly. Waste of $34...

I was only trying to get the 3.3 good enough to run for winter, but honestly, I'll probably try a dynamite 19 for next winter just so I don't have to run my 21TM in the cold. I like having one RC that I can run in the winter if the bug bites to do so. With $200+ engines, I don't run those in temps lower than 50F. I doubt I'll mess with the 3.3 in the revo anymore. I may put it in my jato at some point, so I won't get rid of it, but I won't put it in anything as heavy as the revo again. Just isn't worth the headache.