Ripskip

I recently inherited a hot bodies lightning2 RR as a project. It came from R/C Car Magazine (a shootout car when it first came out) and then made it's way to our office for us to mess around with. For 2 years it disappeared to the confines of my bosses house, and recently it came back. It was in a plastic bin, covered in sticky exhaust and spilled fuel, along with the starter, radio, and everything needed to make it work dumped on top of it. "If you can get it to run it's yours" was his only comment, so here I am.

I have flown airplanes for a good part of my life, so I do understand how glow engines work. I spent the last 2 days completely disassembling the car, making a list of items that should be replaced, and now have it reassembled. I enjoy the maintenance part just of RC just as much as actually using them and was disgusted with what I was given (I should have taken a before/after!!)

I reset the mixture screws to factory post break-in setting, put in a new glow plug, filled it with fuel (what was left of Byron 30% nitro..could be part of my problem) picked up a new glow ignitor, and got it to fire up. It ran really really rough and was super rich. Fuel was coming out of the exhaust so I shut it down to make some more changes. This morning I went back out to start it, and it wouldn't turn over. I made sure the line was primed, but no luck. I pulled the glow plug and tested it in the driver, and sure enough my driver was dead!! So back to the charger I went, and here i sit.

Sorry for the long winded introduction, but my question is does anyone have advice for getting these cars tuned in? I want to switch to a 20% fuel for ease of tuning, but besides that what else should I do? Any tips, tricks, or comments would be much appreciated. Thanks!

kcpipeliner

iTrader: (29)

lean it out on the top end

wingracer

iTrader: (24)

Get some fresh fuel. It absorbs moisture and will not run very well.

jbrow1

iTrader: (28)

Get rid of that old fuel before even trying to run it again.
Pull the air filter off and make sure when you hit brakes the carb closes but still leaves a .5 or little bigger opening. That will be your idle gap.\
When you tune the engine.. First warm it up for a couple minutes or more so it is up to running temperature. Then lean out (clockwise) the high speed needle a bit at a time until you get the high speed run you desire. If it starts to bog out on the high speed run then you need to richen (counter-clockwise) the needle up a bit.
Then fine tune the low speed needle to get the take off that you want. It should be able to sit and idle for a little bit, then take off without coughing or hesitating. Then you can fine adjust the idle screw to get the idle to maintain the your desired setting.

And remember your engine will run much much longer if you run it rich compared to if you run it lean.

I think you'll be fine if you've been around small engines already in planes. Have fun and happy motoring : )

Gliptal

Remove or loosen up the glow plug, put a rag over the head and turn it over for a min. You probably have a bunch of fuel in there from running it so rich the day before.

Ripskip

Thanks for all of the advice!! My starter officially died this weekend, so I put together a parts order for round 2. The shocks are pretty clapped out, so I ordered new front/rear ones. I will pick up new fuel, as I know that stuff goes bad in a hurry when it sits. I am making some progress though...at least it's clean now!

Duster_360

iTrader: (21)

Anytime I do something like you're doing (Ebay, used) one of the first things I replace is all fuel tubing. Its just too easy not too and gets rid of gunked up or residue filled lines that contribute to carb probs. I add a fuel filter if ones not there and take a close look at the one if it has one. I use fresh fuel to flush the tank good and make sure any gunk is cleaned out before trying to start it.

Sounds like you're about to have a runner though, largely for the cost of just your time.