SC 18 over heated
 

Anyone having overheating problem w/there sc18 brushed or brushless

How tight are your belts? Too tight can cause overheating and premature wear.

Else, purchase a heatsink.

Belt&gear feel good

My motor would get very hot...probably 200f. It burnt the crap out of my finger. I switched to brushless right away. My buddies SC18 motor also gets smok'n hot.

Check the gear mesh...maybe they set it too tight at the factory?

Switch to brushless as soon as you can!

The guy that runs the local RC shop brought an SC18 to our 18r carpet races this weekend, and the thing overheated really fast. He took everything apart and tried to loosen it all up, but it still got hot and fried the stock motor.

My SC18 was hitting about 240F degrees (stock motor, pinion 1 tooth smaller than stock) after 4-5 minutes. Here's what I did to fix it:
Take it apart far enough to remove the diffs
Blow everything out with compressed air
Oil every bearing
Drop the belt tensioner all the way down
Put it back together and make sure the pinion/spur gear mesh is perfect (I actually drilled a hole on the opposite side of the motor so I could see the gear mesh, I call this the "rosario hole" as it was his idea.. I won't run it in dirt so I don't need a sealed drivetrain)
Put on a heatsink with fan

The temp maxed out at 139F after I did all this.

Dangit!:mad: You and Rosy couldn't wait til next week to come up with this fix? Taking The Spec SC title would've been a bit easier if all the AEs were blowin up at the 4 minute mark.:D

I know right LOL:weird::lol::tire:

The Dettas are bigger and faster anyways... you guys should pwn us...

Thanks Tom . This is what I did just need to test it out

mine hit 200 after about 10 minutes. i have checked and rechecked the gear mesh. you could smell the motor when i picked it up. i may have 25-30 minutes of run time total and i think this motor is toast. very dissapointing!!

heat sink
 

Motor: I'm about to buy an SC18. Looks like the overheating issue is best resolved by using a heat sink, setting proper gear mesh, and oiling the bearings. Any other suggestions?

BTW - is the stock motor useless then?

Brushless: Would this be too much speed for a small track? I'm not looking for the fastest demon on the track.

Shocks: I understand the 18T shocks work fine and help to increase the ground clearance. Any other options?

Thanks all for the feedback and posting your experience. I hate finding things out the hard way.

i don't think heatsink and fiddling is really the issue. i hate to say, but i think they are just junk straight out of the box. i have two trucks and they both performed the exact same. 10 minutes of run time, and they started to slow down. we thought the batteries were beginning to drop off so we brought them into pit. both of them were literally smoking!!

i wrote to castle about the sidewinder micro. they basically said the 5400kv would be the best option. here is the email exchange:

my original email-

"I WANT TO PURCHASE THE SIDEWINDER 1/18TH MICRO MOTOR/ESC COMBO FOR MY NEW TEAM ASSOCIATED SC18. DO YOU HAVE A RECOMMENDATION FOR THE KV SIZE? I WILL BE USING 6 CELL 1100 MAH NIMH AND 2S 2000MAH LIPO BATTERIES. I WAS THINKNG THE 5400 SO I COULD MAKE USE OF THE TIMING FEATURES AND TRY DIFFERENT PINIONS. CAN YOU GIVE ME AN IDEA OF THE DIFFERENCE IN PERFORMANCE WITH EACH DIFFERENT MOTOR GIVEN THE SAME TRUCK/BATTERIES BEING USED"?

Castle Creations reply-

"The real question here is “How fast do you want to go.” The 5400 on 2s lipo gives high 20s low 30s mph. If you want to go faster you can go to 3s and get mid 40s, way faster than an 18th scale vehicle can go under any kind of control. The 6800 give high 30s, low 40s with the same proportional increase on 3s. Timing has no affect on motor speed and a very small affect on torque. Pinions affect motor temperature more than performance. These are very high power systems and will not run will on 1100 mah NiMh batteries. They need either lipos or high discharge NiMh.

My recommendation is always for the 5400 over all of the other motors as it gives a wide, with different batteries, but not too over the top, performance range. Our higher Kv motors simply break cars".

i believe i am going to take his advice!! the micro sidewinder combo can be had for $85 shipped.

any other motor/esc combo suggestions? my ego always says if 5400kv is good, then 9000kv is better, but i think the statement about getting beyond what can be controlled in a 1/18th scale car is a pretty good one.

what are you guys using, or what are your thoughts?

AE Warranty?
 

Have you contacted AE about the motor? Will they cover it under warranty? Do they offer a solution?

i haven't yet, but i contacted them the day after i bought it and broke the bellcrank steering assembly. nobody has parts in stock yet, so i had to order them direct. they were less than helpful in that situation, so i presume i will get more of the same.

besides, if it were one truck, and not both, i could chock it up to bad luck or a bad motor. but with all the talk about this being a common problem, and having it happen to both of them, i think it's just a sign of the type of low quality motor used for this truck.