my revo chugs a little before it starts to take off and go when you hit it wide open from a dead stop. what could be the problem?

It all depends on the smoke trail when you open the throttle, if there's smoke, then you're engine is rich, if there's no smoke, then you're engine is lean.

well should it chug slighty before taking off after punching the throttle or should it just take off when you punch the throttle?

im not very good with tuning at all. this is my first nitro rc.

No, it should take off without hesitation.

If the HSN is set correctly, you need to do a pinch test for the LSN and see which way (lean or rich) you're off - here's Traxxas' tuning guide - adjusting starts about 3/4 of the way down. Prob be best to reset both and follow their advice.

http://www.traxxas.com/support/kb_se...ghlight=tuning

These engines use small needle adjustments cause they're sensitive. If you're turning needle 1/2t, you'll never get it set right. I did mine in 1hr increments (think clockface). The other tip - wait til engine is at temp before doing any, adj one needle at a time and run long enough after adj to understand what it did or did not do.