Nitro RC Car Repairs And Servicing
Call On 0418 118 998 For Help
Repairs
All car repairs from broken gearboxes, suspension changes, diffs to engine rebuilds and complete engine overhauls.
Diagnostics
Engine diagnostic service. From rough idle, unresponsive tuning, engine cutting out under under acceleration, raised revs to maintain ideal, we find the cause of your concerns
After Run Service
Just finished racing ? Don’t have time for an after run clean ? We can clean your entire RC including internal cleaning of the engine and chassis and dress for your stand ready for your next race.
Engine Tuning
From new engine tuning, standard tuning and custom tuning to suit a style of track, we can help tune your car for best performance.
Professional RC Repairs
In All Gearbox, Diff, Engine, Suspension, Steering and Braking Systems
Most nitro RC cars can tend to get very dirty after racing at the track or just bashing the life out of it through serious dirt or even mud. As a Nitro RC Expert, the first port of call after a run is a thorough car and engine clean.
Rc nitro engine repairs depending on the brand can be expensive if not maintained properly.
You can avoid costly Nitro RC car repairs if you take basic steps in just keeping your car clean after every run.
Having raced these cars in the past with a whole day’s racing and fanging around a dirt track , you know just how dirty nitro cars can get and why RC Car servicing whether it is road or dirt is necessary.
Nitro or electric RC Cars need maintenance and after care when coming off the track.
Proper cleaning of the chassis from mud, dirt and other track debris is vital for the life span of the car and continued success in racing whether off road or on road.
Why Must You Clean And Maintain RC Cars ?
Nitro exhaust fumes contain oil for lubrication of nitro engines and this oil gets basically everywhere on a car.
Usually most prevalent on one side of the car but boy it gets dirty.This oil sticks with dirt all over components when racing and just make a mess out of any gas car and must be cleaned after racing.
This dirt if allowed to sit on bearings or gears or sliding components like shocks or ball joints and other moving parts can rapidly accelerate wear and tare and creates far more friction
Nitro engines and electric engines are highly powerful machines given their scale. Power to weight on some of today’s RC cars is phenomenal. Back in my own hey day of my early beginnings with having modified RC engines and setting up normal RC road cars for drag racing, one of the cars I had at the time actually pulled 3.8 seconds down the 40 metres in its time and this was a green buggy which was set up for road going action.
This was back in 1993. I was in my early 20’s. Now I am nearing 60. Real dragsters are only now starting to break the high 4 seconds to mid 5 seconds down the quarter.
Back in my day they were into the 6’s and 7’s and that was with an average of 5000 odd horsepower. So you can imagine that if dragsters put out 10K plus horsepower to pull those times today, what are Nitro RC Cars in comparison putting out to pull 3.8 seconds down the 40 metres !
How Do RC Car Parts Wear Out Prematurely ?
The RC parts on your car take an immense amount of load to function properly. When everything is dirty, in particular with moving parts, friction and wear begin to occur. The friction creates more heat and the dirt which is like sandpaper creates faster wear.
The friction alone from dirty parts increases loads everywhere, in particular with your engine. Everything works harder therefore reducing the life of your RC Car. This is why I can’t stress enough why through cleaning of your RC Car in vital after every run or event.
Thorough cleaning of the chassis and all moving parts must be carried out to remove all dirt and debris from these parts so as to not further wear parts more than average run times
Call On 0418 118 998 For Help
After Care Servicing
After Race RC Car Cleaning
If you are into off road bashing like I am, you know that your car comes back with loads of crap all over its running gear, from dust, to dirt, to dried up mud from hitting the occasional water patch and dried up oil all over the car which just helps dirt and debris stick to everything.
Also included is weeds or twigs or grass that also binds up all moving or rotating parts. All this crap must be remove
The Firs Thing I do When I come back from a day’s racing or bashing around the local bush is the following
- Remove wheels off vehicle
- spray vehicle with simple green or degreaser to break any synthetic or caster oils from exhaust fumes with stuck dirt
- Agitate liberally all moving parts from control arms, gears, motor ( not electric motors or electronic controllers ) wheels, wings, bulkheads, steering components.
- Rinse down all washed areas from simple green. Watch the car come out like new and looking like it is ready to roll.
- Blast all water away with compressed air
- Liberally spray car again with spirits which helps evaporate any remaining stagnant water from any parts that can not be dried quickly using air, like steering servos or around radio boxes or receiver gear. You. MUST NOT WET DOWN electric motors or electronic controllers. This only applies to Nitro cars.
- Dry all spirits with compressed air again which evaporates all left over water from tight places
- Spray all vital components like steering servos, electronic connector clips from battery wiring, switches and so forth with WD40 to protect them from any possible corrosion.
- Dress vehicle for model presentation and ready to race again
Nitro Engine Maintenance And Repair
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Nitro Engine Care
I can not stress enough how vital it is that these engines be kept clean immediately after use.
Having worked as a mechanic in my life, you quickly come to understand the differences between engines, and Nitro engines are basically two stroke engines that run on nitro mixed with oil.
That is a lof of OOMPH for a little engine. Nitro methanol for fuel and oil for lubrication.
It is this oil that if not cleaned after every run that will stick all your parts together over a long period of time and any Nitro remaining in your engine will corrode the life out of it until it evaporates.
Rust and glugginess don’t fare well for a Nitro engine.
In my hey day of racing RC’S I use to run 30% Nitro which back then was considered….” SUPER NITRO ” The average running Nitro if you wanted your engine to last a long time was 5-10% If you wanted to scale up on the grunt and still have engine life, as long as you knew your tuning, you could stretch it to 15%
20% onward would normally see less life of an engine, especially in racing under hard throttle.
The higher you went on the %tage scale, the more you had to richen your mixtures whih just meant less running time and a lot more fuel expense.
Nowadays, I stroll into Hobby shops and when I ask where their fuel is kept, the first question I get asked is…” are you after 30% fuel “
Why Not 20% or 15 or 10%? because hobby shops want to sell you 30% Nitro because it wears out Gas engines much quicker.
More power, more wear, more sooner parts sales, and if you don’t know how to tune your gas engine, here come the broken rods and expensive Hobby shop labor charges and parts.
You Don't Need Big Nitro For Street
Most times for street use or general offload performance, all you really need is 10-15 tops for having fun. If you know how to tune your engine, you’d be surprised what huge power gains you can get out of one piston and liner. Not only this, your engine will always be safe from premature wear, and will last an exceptionally long time
Nitro Engine Has Uneven Idle And Won't Respond To Mixtures
If your engine is suffering from uneven idle, or won’t respond to needle mixtures, you will more than likely have vacuum leaks somewhere along your system or very likely your engine as well. DO NOT RUN 30% Nitro in an engine that needs air leak repairs.You will never be able to tune this engine or see a response from needle mixtures until all leaks are fixed
Nitro Engine Will Not Idle At Low RPM
When a Nitro Engine Does Not Idle at low RPM or you have to keep opening up the idle screw to the point where the car now wants to go, provided your mixtures are set correctly, it is more than likely a worn piston cylinder which has done its time. A piston and sleeve replacement will be in order when this happens which means an engine overhaul.
After Run Care
It is imperative that you service the engine with every run completed.
The engine needs to be internally cleaned from all fuel and remaining oil in the crank case.
The glow plug must also be cleaned including the carburetor.
When an RC Nitro engine is kept clean, it continues to perform for a very long time.
Proper after run care together with a good knowledge of tuning and running safe fuels will see you have many years of hassle free performance and enjoyment from your Nitro engine.
I honestly can not remember the last time I replaced a piston and liner in a Nitro engine just purely applying these sensible rules when it comes to engine care after every run. Low Nitro, Good mixtures with plenty of lubrication, decent after care and you should see a long life from your Nitro engine. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask on the below number
Call On 0418 118 998 For Help
Nitro RC Tuning
Tuning For Best Performance And Longevity
RC Gas Engine Idle Problems
Is your RC Gas engine not running right ?
- Rough Idle
- Sounds Fat
- Sounds Really Crackly At Idle
- Sluggish Rev On Throttle From Idle
- Engine Stalls On Take Off From Stand Still
- Starts But Won’t Idle
- Takes Off Fine And Then Cuts Out
- Blows Too Much Smoke On Take Off
- Blows Too Much Smoke On Top End
- Sluggish Top End Power
Nitro Engine Tuning Influences Performance And Longevity
This is where a Nitro RC Car will test your patience and skill level. High performance, and lubricity at the same time which determines longevity all balances on your idle mixture and high end mixture.
Get these wrong with too lean and you prematurely wear out an engine or in worse case, blow a motor. Tune it too rich and your motor drowns in oil and lacks performance. There is a fine balance between too much performance and not enough oil or too much oil and not enough performance. Nitro engine tuning takes time and practice to master when you do not understand why a nitro gas car will not start It is not a one day event. Tuning is one thing, understanding why it will not tune and fixing it is a nother
If you are having issues tuning your Nitro RC and can not seem to get it together, we can tune it for you. If you know how to tune but for some reason your motor will not idle at low RPM with a nice responsive throttle or fluctuates at idle to the point where it is beginning to roll even though the throttle is closed, chances are you have air leaks between carby seals or crank case seals which need to be looked at.
We have fixed these problems time and time again and if you are experiencing these issues, please call on our number provided.
Blown RC Nitro Engine
A Thrown Rod Equals " THE FUN STOPS HERE " Seized Engine Situation
You know it is bad news when you are going down the straight and your engine goes from a scream to a sudden quiet with a sound that sounded like something just suddenly locked up. When this happens, it is usually a thrown rod from lack of lubrication while chasing Max Performance. If you have been running your car and noticing it is going to a high pitch scream and then suddenly dies off and comes back on, this is a clear sign of your engine running way too lean up top.
If there is no evident smoke what soever at high speed, this is another sign of very lean mixtures. This will over time destroy an engine. Richen it up or suffer the consequences
RC Engine Will Not Idle At Low RPM
If you are convinced your mixtures are set correctly but your RC Engine does not have the ability idle at a low RPM and you keep having to raise the idle to the point where your clutch begins to contact, you now have a worn out piston liner and sleeve.
A total rebuild will be in order when this happens or replace the engine with a new unit. We can help rebuild your existing Nitro engine with a new piston and liner and get your compression back up to normal that helps it idle at low RPMS
When the new unit or piston and liner is fitted, we will run in the piston and liner for you. If You have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me for further assistance.
Steps To Nitro Engine Rebuilds
Obviously we have to determine the engine has reached the end of its life span from wear and tear or it has thrown a rod from abuse before we dismantle it.
Following are some of the steps we take to rebuilding your engine
- Externally Clean Engine From All Dirt And Grime
- Remove Glow Plug
- Remove Carburetor
- Fully Clean Carburetor And Check For Cracked Seals
- Remove Head Or Heat Sink
- Remove Piston Liner
- Remove Piston And Rod Assembly
- Remove Crank Case Bearings
- Internally Clean Entire Engine From Old Oil
- Fit New Bearings
- Fit New Piston Liner
- Fit New Piston And Rod Assembly
- Assemble Engine Completely
- Fit New Plug
- Start Engine And Check For Consistency in Idle and response To Tuning
- Run In Engine Fully
- Ready To Race
Common RC Nitro Questions
How Long Does RC Car Fuel Last ?
Nitro fuel generally lasts about ten minutes give or take per tank or run. Fuel consumption on a nitro engine and at the rate it burns will largely be determined by the tune applied to the engine. If the tune is on point and efficient, you will see fairly long runs from one tank. If the tune is poor, you will see pool performance and generally very rapid fuel consumption from each tank of fuel. Another influencing factor is also the percentage of fuel used that plays a role in run time per tank
Can You Run A Nitro RC Car On Gasoline?
No you can not, Nitro engines are fired by compression using a glow plug to ignite Nitro fuel, similar to diesel engines. Incoming fuel into the cylinder is compressed on average around 8:1 which the compressed heat glows the plug filament which then fires the mixture. The continuing incoming compressed mixtures maintain the glow plug glowing. They do not run spark plugs. Only conventional fuel engines can run with spark plugs
How Many CC’S Is A .15 Nitro Engine ?
.15 RC ntro engines are 2.5 CC’S
How Many CC’S Is A .21 Nitro Engine ?
0.21 Nitro RC Engines are 3.5 CC
Can You Put Diesel In A Nitro RC Car ?
No you can not run diesel in a nitro RC Engine. Typically, diesel engines run over 20:1 compression to fire diesel fuel which Nitro engines only produce on average around 8:1. Although they both have glow plugs, the high compression in Diesels fires its fuel. Compression from a Nitro engine is not high enough to fire diesel fuel with compression ratios over 20:1 compression
Do RC Cars Need Oil ?
Yes they do. RC Car engines require oil for lubrication. The oil is mixed together with the nitro methane at around 10-12 percent. With responsible mixtures you should see good performance and an increased life span from good tuning
What size engine is in a RC car?
Generally speaking, 1/10 scale RC Cars normally run anywhere from .12 to .18 Nitro engines. 1/8 scale cars usually run .21 CI and up.