O.S. 18CVR Problems

[chris91]

Well more than a problem. She's broke. Bought the car(RS4 3) with the engine on it and didnt really inspect it too much as I was in a hurry(BIG mistake, I know) and paid very little for it so I didnt get ripped too bad. Noticed fuel leaking from between the Heatsink and Crankcase. I grabbed my Allen Key to see if the screws were loose. Hmm, what do we have here? Three of the four screws are stripped from someone using the incorrect SAE Allen Key and not the correct Metric one. So I grab the trusty ol Left Handed Drill Bit and get them out. Also pulled off the Pullstart and find that two of the Phillips Head Screws to be stripped on the backing plate. So now I know this engine has been taken apart before. Pull the Heatsink off and find this carnage. Seems someone rebuilt it and didnt have a clue in wth they were doing. Gouges all over the Sleeve and seems as though they left something behind on top of the Piston when they put it back together. I didnt find the guilty party so I'm assuming he took a one way trip straight out of the Exhaust. Just want to get opinions if this bur is going to cause me more problems after I buy a new piston and sleeve combo. If necessary, I can take my Dremel to it and precisely take just the bur off and not touch anything else. Or should I visit a Machine Shop and have them mill it down as little as possible to ensure a perfectly flat surface. Or will the Copper Shims fill in any small imperfections when the Heatsink it torqued down correctly? Any help on the matter is greatly appreciated guys! Now on to the pics....

 

[chris91]

Okay so I schooled myself. That "bur" as I thought it was is the locating pin for the sleeve. Its crushed down a little bit so it just didnt look right. I'm guessing the moron who rebuilt the engine didnt realize this and tried just torquing the heatsink down on it, thus creating an uneven surface therefore it leaked... I swear, some people shouldnt be messing with things like this in the first place. He also ruined the motor mounts by trying to use a course threaded screw he picked up at the hardware store. I know if I was going to try to rebuild an engine and knew nothing about it that I would be reading every thread and every article I could find before jumping into it. But yeah, I guess Ill be buying a new sleeve and piston combo and putting it back together the right way. Anyone know a cheap place to buy them? Tower wants I think it was $82 for them. I found them on Stormer Hobbies for $60 but wasn't sure if they were a reputable store.

 

[w bill]

The way that piston looks i would even be worried about the conditon of the con rod,bearings and so on if it was mine i would just salvage what i could from it add another$70 to what the parts would cost and buy a new engine from tower. Oh a machine shop is usally 1hr min @$100an hr wouldn't be worth it unless you know someone that can do it as a favor plus i think you will lose to much material as bad as it is then you'll have to shim it for proper clerance.

 

[chris91]

Rod and Bearings and everything else looks fine, everything other than the Sleeve and Piston looks new honestly. Someone that didnt know what the hell they were doing put a new Sleeve and Piston in it the last time. They used Pliers to get the Sleeve into the Crankcase putting gouges in it. And after looking at the Heatsink and there being no marks on it at all, I'm thinking they smacked the piston a couple times trying to get it to go into the sleeve the wrong way, because if something was bouncing off the piston that many times it definitely would have left a mark on the Heatsink too. The part on the Crankcase I was talking about removing is supposed to be there to line up the V in the Sleeve when you install it. Or are you talking about the small scratches in the Crankcase? If so, those wont effect anything anyway since the Sleeve is what the Shims and Heatsink gets torqued down on. Why spend more money when I dont need to? Sleeve and Piston and itll be ready to rip. Found the kit for $60 bucks. Id rather spend $60 as opposed to $140-150 any day.

Notice how the Heatsink doesn't have a mark on it? Yeah I'm strongly believing they tried smacking the piston down into the sleeve instead of pushing it in from the bottom...:\

 

[override]

Holy crap! Talk about someone being an idiot! That is freaking crazy, hope the new piston and sleeve work out for you and everything goes back together good!

Be sure to show us some results on the rebuild and break in!

 

[chris91]

Yeah I know. The guy I bought it from is clueless about Nitro RC's and got it in a parts trade for car parts. The kid that owned and modded the car needs to stay away from RC's all together. Many screws have been replaced with normal screws you buy at a hardware store. The Engine Mounts had course threaded Phillips head screws half way in and all the Ball Shock Mounts have been replaced with small nuts and bolts. I only gave $50 bucks for the car though with all electronics on it. After all is said and done, Ill probably have about $130-140 in it with it fixed and running good.

Awesome thing is, after I bought this one I got a hold of a buddy of mine I used to bash around with and he still had his RS4 3 all stock but came with a Fantom FR12 03 that was only broke in, a brand new unpainted 350z body, and tons of spare parts. He told me to give him $50 and I could have it all. Met up with him a couple days later and now I have this one too. Had to order a new pullstart for it and it should be here anyday now. The Fantom had a broken pullstart too but they stopped making Engines 6 years ago and have since run out of parts. I'm having trouble finding any info on if another manufacture makes one that will work with it.

But yeah, Ill take some pics of the rebuild and some vids of the break in. Should be a fun time!

 

[override]

Sweet man, Looking at the Fantom backplate if its the one like I see on this then I'm thinking a Traxxas 3.3 pullstart will work. A few pages up it has a note to T-Maxx owners about mounting there EZ-Start system to the motor....

 

[chris91]

Well I needed a Pullstart for the HPI engine so I went ahead and ordered that earlier in the week. Got that today and what do ya know, it works on the Fantom also! So, Ill be putting a order in for another one this week. Thats good news to me, means Ill have both cars running sooner than expected. Also means that this OS 18cvr can sit on the back burner for a while. Here are some pics of the Fantom(Looks to be in GREAT shape), the RS4 3 and the RS4 2. Ill have the RS4 3 running tomorrow, just needs a lil tuning and the tires need re-glued(have to run to the store and get some more glue.)The RS4 2 needs some work, I know. But I'm not afraid, been there, done that. Not bad at all for having a grand total of $120 in everything!

 

[Rewired]

That old sleeve is carnage haha

 

[chris91]

Dont forget the Piston that looks like someone used for target practice with a pellet gun! lol