Twin engine (post crash) rebuild.

[Snook Man]

After a nasty blowover and crash during a test run in March I boxed the twin engine up and forgot about it for a while.
I decided it was time to rebuild it with some modifications and a show body.
I will be doing a full rebuild and polish in the coming months but here it is with a prototype aluminum body I made for a teaser.

 

[sv250]

Pretty cool

 

[Rolex]

That is very slick. Use the gift card wisely.

 

[BamaFan]

Thats awesome man. Very talented.

 

[Greywolf74]

Sweet ride Snook! Those engines able to get enough air under there I'm assuming?

 

[BamaFan]

That would look awesome with a hood scoop to allow the engines to breath.

 

[HPIguy]

Incredible work as always

 

[tothemaxxinnv]

Very nice work - looks like a beast

 

[Nitrotrout]

Count me in, lets do this thing. Any carnage pics you can post, Snook?

 

[Snook Man]

I have a few carnage pics but they are on a PC that decided it was tired, so I retired it…
It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I don’t even know what exactly happened. I was just doing a test run to try out new gearing in the transmission and didn’t even intend to get up to top speed. At approx 70mph or so the front lifted and it did a beautiful back flip instantly.
It almost landed on all 4 wheels but the right front hit 1st and that took out the entire front clip (splitter/canards and aluminum bracing). At least the main chassis plate wasn’t hurt or any of the front suspension. The right front tire was shredded but the wheel was intact. I don’t know if the tire came apart 1st and caused the blowover somehow, or if it happened on the landing.
I’ve been well over 100mph with it several times and never once had the front shown any sign of lifting.
I’m repositioning some parts forward for more weight on the front, and this body will have more front down force on it that the body I was using.
The front wheel wells and chassis side plates with the cutouts allow for all the air I need for the engines to breath. A hood scoop would/does look cool but kills the aerodynamics, I tried it with several other bodies I tested.
I’ll be making 2 aluminum bodies for it this time. I polished (bling bling) and 1 painted.
You can see the chassis side plates in this pic pretty well.

 

[Snook Man]

A little weight moved forward and new splitter design.
I managed to relocate the RX battery and the RX; I just swapped positions and made a few parts for mounting them
I also have a tray to add weight under the new battery location if needed.
My old splitter wasn’t so much a splitter as it was canards. I redesigned the canard mounting and the added aluminum splitter should help stiffen it up and help support the canards at speed.
The old design used a Lambo body that had a curved front which followed the curve on the splitter in this pic.

The new body will be wider and straight across the front which should allow for more front down force (I hope).

The front end and body are just mock ups for now and will be used for templates for the good aluminum that should be here next week.

 

[Greywolf74]

Freakin awesome man!

 

[SMaxxin]

Excellent work Snook, I hope we get a video of this aluminum bodied beast!

 

[Snook Man]

I finally got some time to put towards this rebuild.
I’ll start with the main chassis plate, it’s made from 1/8th inch T6 7075 aluminum (all the custom parts I made are 7075).
I made a few subtle mods from the original layout for a better fit and clearances of a few things but it’s pretty much the same as the original.
Top side is polished, bottom is the brushed look. I learned from the 1st one that the bottom when polished doesn’t look good very long due to it being sandblasted by road debris.

The rear bulks are polished GA 7075 TMaxx bulks, The rear diff is a brushless emaxx/revo diff installed upside down to from a normal Tmaxx install to change the rotational output due to the engines and transmission being installed 180 degrees from normal.
The custom plate attached to the bulk tabs join the chassis braces to the bulks and the bulks sit on a nylon spacer that figures into the rear ride height.
The UE drive cup for the diff input has been bored 1mm larger (not an easy task) to fit a HPI savage wheel axle dogbone which is used as the rear center shaft.

Rear suspension and drive train:
I modified old school TMaxx narrow a-arms to narrow the width of the rear.
Both upper and lower arms are cut shorter to have a better/narrower width ratio of the rear compared to the front.
The axle carriers are also Tmaxx 4910 versions but are also modified with material removed to produce an angle at the outer face to make clearance for the XO-1 wheels.

I customized a couple stock 6mm stub axles to fit UE drive cups for the inner and added threaded inserts to the traxxas 17mm wheel hexes to remove all slop.

Ofna buggy center shafts are used as the rear wheel shafts from diff cup to stub axle.

I should get a chance tomorrow to install the chassis braces and idler block.

 

[Rolex]

Your work is incredible. I'll be watching the build.

 

[MudSlinger33]

I need sunglasses to look at that chassis! Very nice work

 

[SMaxxin]

This is a real work of art, and that chassis....bling bling!

 

[Snook Man]

Thanks for the compliments guy’s. It’s actually difficult to take decent pics without getting major glare.
Got a little more polished and assembled today.
Rear shock tower: Just a simple tower designed to fit a buggy wing mount directly to it.
I reduced the diameter of the shock cap mounting area of some Ofna shock standoffs to fit the shocks/caps I’m using.

Idler block and rear chassis braces:
These were 2 of the most difficult parts of this build to get a perfect fit.
The idler block consists of 3 gears arranged in a triangle pattern. The bottom 2 gears mesh with/are turned by the engine clutch bells. Both the bottom gears are meshed with the top gear which meshes with the spur gear on the transmission.
The gears use flanged bearings which fit on shafts sandwiched between the front and back plates of the idler block. The back plate attaches to the rear chassis braces and the lower plate attaches to the chassis plate.
Lower plate, back plate and bearing shafts.

Fitted to rear chassis braces.

Gears installed on bearing shafts.

The front plate has an attachment bar added for the front chassis brace, and reliefs cut out on the lower portion for clearance of the clutch bells.

The transmission mounts on top of the chassis braces.

The rear braces and idler block mounts on the chassis deck with 8 screws per side and the top rear attaches to the custom bulkhead plate with 2 per side. When assembled there is very little chassis flex from the idler block to the rear bulks.

That’s it for this weekend., I’ll start on the front end after the new year.

 

[MudSlinger33]

Amazing work... lets hope this one stays firmly planted on the ground.

 

[SMaxxin]

Beautiful work! That's a small gear on that tranny....serious top end