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nitro in th snow?

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F

flipskatter6

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Location
coatesville Pa
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
the local hobbie shop informed me that it is not a good thing too run nitro engines under 50* farenheight? anybody know anything about this because as far as i know if its running the proper temperature whats it gunna hurt?
 
at 40 or lower the fuel CAN gum up and cause damage. but iv ran in the cold alot and dont hasve problems. i keep it inside until its time to run
 
yah i head of the fuel problem but i store mine in a heat controled garage until I'm ready like this 50 weather we are having in PA my savage loves it.........i just run it a little bit rich to keep it lubricated through the snow and waterproffed my electronics =....its 4x4n so ima use the 4wd when i can i made a plow for it ill post pics
 
here is my home made plow
 

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When you get below those temps what you need to do is just insolate the engines heat sink. I suggest buying some basket ball wrist sweat bands and putting them around the heat sink so theres no ice cold air passing through the engine head.

Other things you want to worry about is sealing your servos or if you have water proof ones. and water proofing your air filter.
 
I don't run good engines in the winter, I run old tired engines that I don't care about. The constant fast fluctuation of temps isn't good on them in general. No matter what you do, you will end up with snow/slush/water hitting the engine a quickly cooling it.

That said... will be buying some studded tires for my baja for this winter! 1/5 scale is definitely a better way to run in the cold months. Easier to start, tune and holds up better to the constant temp changes as water hits it.
 
1st time i ran my t maxx in the snow was the last due to engine failure , ie conrod went .but tat was because i didnt heat the engine cover it or anything like that. like TRXADDICT says cover it up to keep temps up if its really cold.,
 
Yah like I know I have to insulate the motor but like I run the he'll out of that big blOck and my motor love the cold weather but I have the 5.9 motor in my savage x4.6 I put the 4.6 in for winter and 5.9 in the summer because that's my better engine
 
I ran my 3.3 t-maxx in the winter all winter almost everyday. kept it inside untill i was already to run and as soon as it was done it came in so it didnt cool to kwick.. all 3 redcats were ran in the winter aswell and the only one that had a problem was my sons because he thought it looked cool barreling through a deep deep puddle. I hit it with my maxx and thought the engine would be done but the water was displaced before my engine could get wet.. The only thing wrong with my sons redcat is the screws are now alittle rusty since he hasnt used it in a while and I had to replace an on/off switch.. and my maxx was flipped so many times into deep snow slush and everything (cause I was gettin used to drivin an mt at the time aswell) As long as you take care of everything and make a habbit of washing it down when you caome inside.. I use a cover to a toat to set the rig on to let the snow fall off and then i spray it down in the sink and let it set on the toat lid and face a fan on it and a half hour or so it is dry and ready for after run procedure...

I was running trinity monster horsepower in the winter and no problems!!!( knock on wood l.o.l.) I tried traxxas top fuel in the winter and all I can say is haaaa junk even more in the winter!!!! some advice get some soft rubber agressive tires!!!! or make a set with studs, or you will just blow donoughts alot... I was driving mine in 10 degrees and alittle under, The one good thing about working on the coast in the winter is when I get back home it never feels as cold as by the ocean!!
 
Well for the people leaving their trucks in garages its kind of hard on the engine and everything else if you live in an area that snows in the winter... when it gets down to those freezing temps at night the engine is constricting soooo tight and then when you heat it up or start it to let it warm up its expanding soo fast.

Your gonna end up wearing out your engine out sooo fast and its just better for the truck and ll electronics if you have your truck in the house since its climate controlled it will never reach freezing temps in the first place when not running. But yeah like some others said if you have n extra engine thats the best thing to do because either way winter will shorten your engines life almost no matter what you do.

But if you simply can't handle not driving in the winter and dont have an extra motor do your best to insolate the head and air filter... if you do follow up with insolating your motor also make sure it does not fall off.. if it does and you dont notice it would cause even more damage considering the engine is first nice and warm and loosened up and then suddenly freezing air passing through and cooling it down it would take off about a gallon of life off your engine.

*EDIT* forgot to mention warming your fuel may help aswell.. not trying to heat it up hot but just alittle warm like have some in your fuel filler bottle and maybe just next to your heater vent but not for too too long just enough to raise the temp alittle cuz you want to focus on making the fuel atleast alittle warm too.. anything to keep it at proper operating temps.
 
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i keep mine ina temperature controlled garage so it stays at a stedy temp.. i warm it up in the garage by lettinging it idle then take it out.
 
Ohhh ok thats good then its not dramatically changing from freezing to + 100 degrees
 

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