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Project 4 banger

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truggy83

RCTalk Talkaholic
Messages
363
Reaction score
1
Points
101
Location
York, Pennsylvania
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
  2. Racing
So I picked up a Traxxas Nitro 4tec in need of some minor work from HPI Killer on here. Thanks again btw. It needs some parts to get it running again. I was leaning towards making a wrx rally car however my ideas were swayed once I saw some of the many bodies I can get for it.

I am torn between several. I am thinking Saleen body, 68 camero, Chevy silverado truck (and make it look like my bagged s-10) corvette, Or Skyline GTR. I have no idea what I want to get yet. They all look awesome and it is hard to choose.

First things first I will definitely be getting a new stock body for it, (the prographix one that is partially painted) and painting the rest myself. I am thinking it will be painted red. I will also be getting a new set of the stock wheels for it. So for right now I will just be getting her back to stock and will run her that way for awhile.

After some time and when I have the extra cash and decide on what body I want to get I will be getting a new body and some new wheels and tires to match. I won't be doing anything crazy with it yet. It will pretty much be stock with everything that breaks being upgraded to RPM. I won't be doing aluminum because I want to save weight. And now for the photos.

I got the wheels and tires off for cleaning and removed the gas tank to clean under there. Rolex may want to cover his eyes.
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Steering servo
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Years of HPI Killers gook and dirt :p:
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Got the tank cleaned up.
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I cleaned the chassis and body up with Chris Chianellies cleaning muixture of simple green, denatured alcohol and wd-40.
grndfx
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steering servo after cleaning
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Out with the old
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In with the new. I got a 2.4 ghz receiver and transmitter on ebay for a decent price.
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Tomorrow is pay day but is also rent is due day so I hope to be able to get some stuff at the hobby shop. Things I will need to get include a hump pack battery pack, traxxas power switch with charging port, stub axle pins, screws and hardware, rear belt, rear hub and bearing. That should get the car running and drivable. Things I will get for cosmetics are tires/wheels and stock 4tec body. Eventually I will get HPI body of some type and wheels and tires. I might start doing some carbon fiber in the far future. Thanks for looking.

Edit. I will try to get the rest of the pictures with my fiancess camera. My video camera takes horrid pictures. :whhooo:.
 
I've had the silverado body the saleen and the wrx and I think I like the silverado the best. It just looks different. I liked it a lot.
 
Hmm so thats what under the tank looked like haha I always just cleaned what I could see but jebus its hard and time consuming. Make sure you get that engine flushed with nitro or something to help free it up, its not frozen but hasnt been started in awhile (4-5 months). But I promise she runs strong :D

I will be keeping an eye on this build. If you are looking to go off-road rally I would reccomend fabbing a rock guard for that main drive belt, I had one mocked up but never cut the alluminum. Also I have a link to convert the 4-tec into a rally car let me find it.

EDIT: Here it is http://www.ultimatetraxxas.com/misc/4tec-rally-conversion/

I was going to use this same conversion because it is really simple
 
Hmm so thats what under the tank looked like haha I always just cleaned what I could see but jebus its hard and time consuming. Make sure you get that engine flushed with nitro or something to help free it up, its not frozen but hasnt been started in awhile (4-5 months). But I promise she runs strong :D

I will be keeping an eye on this build. If you are looking to go off-road rally I would reccomend fabbing a rock guard for that main drive belt, I had one mocked up but never cut the alluminum. Also I have a link to convert the 4-tec into a rally car let me find it.

EDIT: Here it is http://www.ultimatetraxxas.com/misc/4tec-rally-conversion/

I was going to use this same conversion because it is really simple

haha yea they are always dirty under the tank. I got it all together yesterday except I put the one way bearing in backwards and had the ez start wires hooked up backwards. Didn't know it made a difference. Ended up running the engine backwards for a little and scratching my head why the car wouldn't go. Got it figured out and she fired right up. After a little tweaking I took her to the park for some fast passes in the space I was allowed. I got her tuned pretty good and was working on tuning the lsn when the car stopped moving. Engine revs, spur gear and clutch bell and everything else don't move. A quick inspection shows that when I roll the rear tires backwards I here a pop type sound and the wheels stop moving. I am thinking a rock got in there somewhere or one of the gears went bad.

I didn't get a body or new tires for her yet. I will upload the pictures of the progress whenever I get some time. The car did run great and was fast as balls. I may tear it apart when I get home and see what is causing the problem. It didn't happen suddenly though. On one of the runs when I turned it around and hit the gas it wouldn't move. I picked it up and the wheels started spinning like they should. It did this two or three times before the car stopped all together. I initially thought the break was hanging up but that isn't the case. Engine runs great though. It was running 240 ish without the body on. I am gonna get a new stock body and paint it red till I can figure which other bodies I want to get. Also what was with the flat head screw in the back of the exhaust pipe? Was that there for a purpose?
 
Also what was with the flat head screw in the back of the exhaust pipe? Was that there for a purpose?

Yeah, when I first got the car I was avid on making a rear exhaust to look more realistic and prevent oil/nitro from getting on the tires to prevent tire failure resultung in spinouts and when I rigged it the pipe was not draining the exess liquid, so I drilled it but could never get it to tune right with the exhaust I made so I said forget it and tapped/screwed the hole, lol oops:hehe:
 
Yeah, when I first got the car I was avid on making a rear exhaust to look more realistic and prevent oil/nitro from getting on the tires to prevent tire failure resultung in spinouts and when I rigged it the pipe was not draining the exess liquid, so I drilled it but could never get it to tune right with the exhaust I made so I said forget it and tapped/screwed the hole, lol oops:hehe:

Haha I thought it was an exhaust mod gone wrong. I just put some gasket maker over the hole and it seems to work.
 
Found out the problem today with it not moving. A tiny pebble wedged into the spur gear. Got a throttle return spring installed and got my 2.4 ghz transmitter dialed in. It's ready to go.
 
Found out the problem today with it not moving. A tiny pebble wedged into the spur gear. Got a throttle return spring installed and got my 2.4 ghz transmitter dialed in. It's ready to go.

The reason why I was turned off by that rig is because if you dont somehow rock-proof the main drive belt and the rear, your bound to catch a rock, never imagined catching in the spur though thats crazy lol
 
I got to take it to a place where I could really get up to speed with it yesterday. I was using the wrx body that you gave me. I cut some holes in the windshield and the rear windows to allow air to get to the engine better. I noticed that if you turn the car even slightly while running at high speeds that it flips over. Not sure if is because the tires are shot or what. The left front tire had the insert break and come out the tire on the last run.
 
Ok it has been awhile since I posted and update on this, however the car has been done for some time now.

2.4 ghz receiver is mounted in
Zi6_7124.webp


I made a trip to the hobby store to get everything I needed
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New rear belt installed
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Got the shocks mounted and new rear hub and tie rod assembly mounted

Zi6_7136.webp


Engine in place

Zi6_7137.webp


I cut some ventilation holes in the body and cut an exhaust hole as well

Zi6_7142.webp


My new rims

Zi6_7144.webp


Tires mounted on rims. I am running HPI Pirellie Rally tires on HPI rims

Zi6_7148.webp


The color of the new Supra body I got for it is gunmetal
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Rims and Tires mounted on car
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Toyata Supra body by HPI
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Body is masked and painted

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Body trimmed, decals installed and body mounted on car

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I found out the hard way.....Hpi bodies come with double sided tape to mount the headlight and tailights to the body. I didn't see this and tried using CA glue to glue them to the inside of the body. I nearly cried as I watched my beautiful barely dry paint get eaten away by the glue. You can see the damage around the head lights and tail lights :(

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Side view
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Well thats it for now, I do plan on getting some different bodies for this and hopefully not messing them up like I did the supra body :( . Thanks for looking.
 
I made a video of the 4tec running with the older wrx body that came on it. Not sure yet whether I want to run it with the supra body on it or not.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just as fast as I remember haha and the subaru lid looks funny cause it was hacked up for a SCX10 scaler haha but lookin good glad shes back to life
 
Yea she's doing good, I am taking good care of her. It had some nasty wrecks but has yet to break anything. It did blow a Proline Perelli tire which caused it to cartwheel across the asphalt in a spectacular fashion. the spoiler came off but it attaches back on pretty easy. It really does do well at high speeds but once it wrecks, it wrecks hard. With any of my other r/c's, while they are wrecking I am grinning cause I know they will be alright but with the 4tec I close my eyes and pray cause at those speeds a lot of damage can happen. I am pretty happy with it the way it is so don't have any mods coming yet but I am definitely getting a hump pack for it maybe this week or next.
 
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