problem with engine dying after a while

[El Pirata]

That's interesting. I have a whole quiver of glow plugs collecting dust in my tool box waiting for a glow plug to burn out. I have a friend who's heavily into RC cars and has had the same glow plug in his engine for over a year without problems, however he just recently replaced it since it took a really long time to get started with his bump starter.

 

[Nitroaddict]

holy cow - I'm doing something wrong, lol - i avg about a plug per gallon of fuel, once the mill is broken in. wonder if i am running too rich or too lean, hmmm.

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

Yeah when I break in an engine I go through like 2 plugs. Then I'm cool until I try to run to lean, or sometimes when I let it idle out of gas that can burn an old plug sometime also. I have experienced this with all 7 of the nitro engines I have owned.

 

[El Pirata]

I guess, judging by your replies, that we must be getting lucky with our glow plugs.

 

[PTR4000]

I finally got the car outside today and tried going at full speed but the engine would kind of choke everytime and eventually die. If I slow down while it's choking (the engine sounds like it's struggling to stay running) and then slowly give it some throttle it's ok, but otherwise if I keep going at full speed it just quits.

Any ideas what I should be looking for? I've got the HSN slightly on the lean side.

tc

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

Thats why it is cutting out in the high end as you HSN is too lean, at least thats what it is sounding like to me.

 

[militarymaxx]

The best explanation of glow plug life was when when the guy compared it to a light bulb and it's filament. You could turn a light on and off a gazillion times with no problems and then there's that brand new one that failed the first time you hit the switch. Aside from keeping mine clean and protected when not in use, I don't know what else I can do to make them last like that except make sure the engine is tuned right. Maybe that's it. Those guys who are getting long life have as near to perfect tuned engines as you can get.

 

[SkyMaxx]

I wish that were the case with Pirata...but I can vouch for the fact that that is not entirely the case.

I'll add that I have gone through three break ins on various engines and that each one tore up the glo-plug being used. After the break-in, replacement of the tanked plug, and fine tuning of the engine....my glo-plugs last pretty long. I have three gallons through my Fantom (same plug), a gallon through my Hyper (same plug) and a gallon through a TRX Pro .15 (and it still has the same plug, but the engine is oiled and bagged in storage as my spare).

The light bulb analogy is probably the best one going. It also helps to have a huge lucky star shining down on you...

 

[joneser4u]

proper engine tuning is the life of the plug?? I've run over a gallon through my RS4 3ss and only changed the plug once and that wasn't from a malfunction but just to go from a stocker to a OS#3. I run trinity platinum 30% in my RS4 and my MAXX with the same plug and havent had one let me down yet!!! sounds to me like the engine may be ready for a higher nitro content it sounds like the breakin rick settings is fouling plugs and flooding the engine lean out the low/middle needle settings

 

[El Pirata]

There's also luck of the draw factored in too. Some plugs last only once to start the engine while others last for years. The manufacturer has little to do with the time a plug lasts. I hate to say it but I have been rather lucky with my plugs and that's all there is to that.