Thanks Chainsaw, I'm leaning toward still running it too. I reached out to SMC and he said the cells in these can puff up to 1.8mm for a 6s pack and that if they still balance charge OK, the pack may not be too far gone to use. For now I'm taking the pinion down from 19T to 17T and I'll try a run with the puffed pack after work to see how it goes.

The setup when I puffed this pack if anyone is curious:

MT410 w/Tekin Gen 3 combo - 4038 1350kV motor
Proline 40 series Trenchers
SMC 4500mAh 6s True Spec Premium
19T pinion

I had been running a 17T pinion successfully for a few weeks and I only have the one run on the new 19T. That's probably what puffed the pack so I'm not looking for warranty replacement honestly. I was trying to make standing back flips a bit easier w/the 19T (it worked REALLY well haha). The 19T also made wheelies almost unavoidable at any throttle input level and top speed runs in the street in front of my house went from pretty wild on 17T to downright insane on 19T.

I ran the 19T setup yesterday with my other SMC pack, the 6700mAh 4s. Standing back flips were not happening at all on 4s, hell it wouldn't even self-right. It was still fun but with the 1350kV motor, 6s is a must. I'm hoping I didn't puff the 4s pack too, we'll see how it responds to being balance charged again today.

Tekno said 16T would be the one they would use, but they never tested that on 1950kv

bootbox, that blows about the battery. There's nothing strenuous about your setup, do you know what temperature they're hitting?

vettehigh, I'm not sure how anyone can recommend an exact tooth count for your setup like its the only thing you should run. Generally speaking it's good to start low obviously. Everyone will have a personal taste as to how much power they want. Changing just 1 tooth is a very small change.

I do have a temp probe in a Futaba telemetry setup, I use it for the motor. The motor used to hit 160deg before I put the Yeah Racing fan setup on it, now it barely hits 120deg after a hard run.

Maybe I should move the probe to the battery now that I've got the motor comfortable with that fan. I wonder though since the battery is in a hard case, can I really get an accurate temp reading off the outside of the plastic?

I've been thinking I need an infared temp probe for my diffs and battery, had planned on getting this one from Duratrax unless someone has a better one they prefer.

Yeah the plastic case will be much cooler than the actual cells but you'll still have an idea of what they're experiencing. I would imagine it's a good 20 degrees hotter inside.

Bootbox are you running your lipo's extra low? I typically cut off or stop running around 3.7v but running them a lot lower could also cause swelling even though your setup doesn't seem super demanding on the batteries. I've also had batts swell well above 3.7v so your batt could have just been having a bad day, etc

Vettehigh, were you running a EZRun Max8 combo or the Xerun ? Followed part of your build and i'm just curious on what your switching from and why!

Looks like I forgot to change the low voltage cutoff on my ESC after switching from 4s to 6s. That means I was running that 6s pack with the LVC set way, way low (2.13V/cell). That's an expensive mistake. Also, looking at the stock LVC option for the Tekin ESC, the 6s setting is 3.2V anyway, which I guess might not have been that much better if it's supposed to be 3.7V. You can set a custom LVC value but you need the Tekin Hotwire to do it. Looks like I'll have to get a Hotwire after all.

For what it's worth I do check what's left on my packs when I'm done running them, most of the time. It's never been lower than 3.8 the times I've checked, but, I had been only running 10 or 15 minutes before I had to stop for some reason (the shock shafts pulling out of the rod ends basically every run until I fixed that for good last week). So for the most part I don't think the LVC brainfart mattered. It only takes one run though. On the most recent run since I was putting it through it's paces with the new 19T pinion on there, I had it out there probably 35min or so. I bet I took it too low on that one.

May I use Mugen Seiki Shock Oil #700 Weight for the front/rear shocks on my MT410? If so, how many bottles do I need (they come in 1.7oz (50ml) plastic bottles)?

Ah shit well that can happen to the best of em! For some reason my max8 combo ran one of my 4s batt cells to 2.9v and the other cells were 3.3ish, first time thats ever happened to me! No idea what went wrong since it has been reliable at cutting out at proper 3.7ish. I don't trust the LVC on this max8 anymore like i do my castle's so I installed one of those little lvc alarms as a backup now, also nice and handy to see what the heck your batteries are even at!

You might be able to bring the cell/battery back to life. Balance it and then run it down (but not past 3.8 a few times, mine seems to be working fine again. Best of luck!

ESC's only measure the total voltage of a lipo. so it can't know which cell is actually too low.
i noticed lipo always have 1 cell that will drop lower than the others and soon they die. i have only nanotechs and recently orion lipo. i got too say that i was quiet disapointed with the expensive orion...

i hope lipo battery will continue to really improve soon because there is nothing new since a while actually !

oh and BTW, you should use a low cell detector instead of the ESC : they connect to the cell connector, not to the main connector

Yes sir! Next generation lipos estimate 3 times the capacity of today. So a 5000mAh pack would in theory shrink to 1/3 of its current size. Or you could run 15000mAh at no physical size differance! Weight's another matter as the new materials involve more mass. However lighter overall, it's at a different ratio.

Are the droop screws optional??? WhIf so, what limits the arms movement when they're not present, the shocks or something else?

I put the pack on the battery meter function on my charger today and all 6 cells were balanced closely (within .01). I balance charged and it charged fine, balanced just like it always has. Made sure my ESC was on the 6s LVC setting and ran it around the backyard for a half hour or so and it didn't ignite so far so good. It read 3.79-3.80 on all 6 cells when I put it back in the Bat-Safe after the run. It was still a bit puffy at all points though; after the charge, when I put it away etc. I'll try to run it through this cycle a few times like you said and see how it goes.

I did order a replacement 6s pack from SMC last night. When I noticed they were in stock I figured I'd better grab one. Also picked up the Hotwire 2.0 so I can set the LVC to 3.7 and a Venom low voltage buzzer for backup.

On a different topic, while I was in the ESC settings I turned the timing up from 0 to 40deg advance. I gotta say it's a LOT more powerful with the 17T pinion now that the timing is advanced . Standing backflips one after the other! Is this like the punch setting on other ESCs? Is it safe to run it like this?

On the timing. You might have to watch temps closer on the motor is all

40* timing is top end power and moves the power band higher in the rpms but the 17t gear and timing must have been the sweet spot

On my 17.5 tc cars I got 40-50 timing and can keep up with 8.5 motors now I wouldn’t run 40* on a 8.5 motor though it kinda gets crispy after 5 min runs

That does sound pretty promising on that Lipo, hope you're able to bring it back to life! Good call on the Venom lvc alarm since it will monitor individual cells as well as total voltage. With the big price tag on lipo's i don't mind having a backup alarm just in case!

Interesting about the timing, sounds like you definitely found the sweet spot!! I've never really played with the timing setting before, only punch. Do you have any vids by chance?