I am new to rc and went to my first race this past weekend. I was told to run my Novak 17.5 at 180 degrees by one and then 130 degrees by another. Can someone help here?

I have an xray T2 with a 1.7 internal ratio. I was running a 92 spur with a 40 pinion on a pretty small non-technical track with only three short corners. This made my FDR 3.91. I run 64 pitch.

After 27 laps, my motor was at 189 degrees. So, if that is too high, I should start with a lower number on the pinion, correct? Should I try a 38 or how extreme is one or two teeth?

Thanks for your help!

I generally like to run my motors at around 150-160 degrees. When I tested the Novak, it seemed to behave a lot like the Speed Passion V3 motor, and it seemed to run best at around that temp.

You should make the max temp you let your motor get to in a six minute run around 170-180 degrees. With you motor getting that hot that soon i would try going to like a 36 or 37 pinion and see how it goes from there, also check the timing on the endbell of the motor, on smaller track(sounds like a really small track) so much timing is not needed, that is like me taking my tekin rs and maxing the dynamic timing and running circles in my living room, do you have any pics or dimensions of the track, i could help alot more if i knew track size.

180 degrees is really pushing it, and if you keep pushing it to that temperature, than you'll end up with a toasted 80$ paper weight. 160 to 170 is where you want your motor to be when you pull it off. Make sure to gear to track size and ground/air temperature.

We recommend no more than 160-165 degrees temperature for our motors; it should be explained in our motor instructions. It is always better to follow product guidance provided by the manufacturer.

Overheating your motor robs you of performance, but can also weaken your rotor magnets. Worst case, you burn up your motor---and possibly your esc.

Thanks everyone for all of your help! I am going to try lowering the pinion gear to 35 and see where that puts me. Of course, I am going to a different track this weekend, but at least I will have some comparative notes to base next week off of..

Cold as Ice, I don't have any photos, but if I get some, I will send you some.

Thanks again for the much needed help!