Breaking in a Nitro Losi 8ight 2.0
 

Hey guys, I had a quick question in regards to breaking in my new Losi 8ight 2.0. First off, my 8ight has not arrived yet and it is not the first Nitro that I will have attempted to break in on my own. I have a 1/8 SCT in my Associated SC8 that was my first Nitro, and I needed help with that after (like a total idiot) I took the needles off of stock settings and didn't look at the manual and yeah.. I got in over my head there. According to the Hobbytown employee who helped me break it in, I shouldn't have to take the needles off of stock settings before breaking it is and I was wondering if that was true with the 8ight 2.0 as well? I haven't seen it and haven't been able to read the manual, and for whatever reason I struggle to find someone else who has asked the same question before, but I figured that I would try to find that out now because I didn't like the way he broke in my SC8 (he didn't let it cool down in-between tanks, even after I had asked him to). Anyway, I hope some of this makes sense to somebody and that I can get this answered.. UPS says the car should show up tomorrow (conveniently my only off day this week), and I'd like to get rolling with it as soon as I can.

1. Yes you should not take the needle settings off or out before the break-in. Everything is ready to go out of the box for break-in, If you have any trouble head over to the nitro off-road thread and into the engine section and there will be two threads on the top...check out the break-in one.
2. Per the instructions in the nitro break-in thread, he did not fully follow it. You are suppose to let the motor cool down in between cycles at BDC. After break-in, you then tune it for your area; starting with shrinking the idle gap and tuning the Low Speed Needle first!

My question is did he use a heat gun? or what did he do from what you recall?

Nope, I thought it was strange given what I know about Nitros. He cranked it on, and let it idle about 3/4 through the first tank, refueled it while on, drove it in circles at low speed for the next tank, then through the next two tanks he increased the throttle 1/4 until he did two WOT 3/4 tank runs, shut it off and said I'm good to go. I definitely know he didn't do it right, the engine lags and bogs like crazy. Every run gets worse, so I think I'm gonna run this engine to the ground then get a P5 or something that I can have fun with.

That motor was no where near broken-in after that. It usually takes about a gallon or more for a nitro motor to fully break-in and loose its pinch. What you are experiencing with that motor is completely normal. As you run it more and more the motor begins to loose its pinch. As it looses its pinch, the motor will turn very rich on you. You have to keep leaning the needles as it breaks in. I have had my motors perfectly tuned at 210, run a 5 minute heat and 2 minutes into it the buggy turns no rpm's, turns dog rich, and comes off track at 150! All while I go through the process of a motor dropping its "nuts" as everyone likes to say on here. The motor has just fattened up on you. You will have to lean it to keep it from bogging. For the break-in on new motor, follow the break-in bible in the nitro off-road section. You will "know" when a motor finally breaks in. You will not have to lean it every time you run it and you will fell it.