fastharry™

iTrader: (4)

I agree..with all the cars I own,I always come back to teh tc3....It's sounds crazy,but the more I drive it,The better the car gets...It seems to reward practice..it shows me that the smoother I get with it,the faster the car wants to go.....I don get that feeling with my Impulse,reflex or HPI's.....



the whole trick to this car is braking points and corner set up....it rolls so well,you can overshoot everything.....but if there were a car where practice makes perfect,this is it....

this is the best car I own....

fastharry™

iTrader: (4)

heres more

tomato

Anyone ever try modifying their engine by yourselves, rather than buying expensive modified versions??

If so, what tools do you use and how you do the job??

stefan

after looking at all the pictures of Richey's and Smeltz's engines here, I broke out the dremel and did an old piston sleeve set.

It worked great. I have done all of my engines since then and they all rip.

I use dremel bits for grinding and polishing.
Be careful, the brass of the sleeve is very soft, it doesn't take much to remove material.

tomato

it might be too difficult for me to do that, as i havent got a milling machine kind of heavy tools at home, what I am considering to do is polishing the Carb. intake hole or polish other parts to increase the performance of a stock engine....

you try any of those and can you share some experience with me?? Will be great if you can show some photos of what you did

JPHRacer

There is no need for a milling machine. I use a dremil tool with diffent diamond and carbide cutters. You can use polishing stones to clean up any work, but I wouldn't recomend that for cutting. Stones tend to spark and that can cause excess heat. Which is bad for the sleeve. You can do cuts in the piston to act as an extra port but you need to be extremly careful to to screw up and put in any scores. It is all trial and error. I have a pile cheap os motors that I used to learn on befor I even thought of doing any for anyone else for money.

The biggest help that I can give you is build a timing wheel. That will make reproducing timing changes much easier. The biggest performance gains that you will ever see is from rotor timing. There is a lot more to do other than the crank but that is the biggest gain.

Once I figure out how to post pictures with my digital camera, I will post picture of some of my generic cuts.

JPHRacer

Here is a picture of one of my cranks.

Aeon Racer

Any chance you have a before and after pic on that crank?

Quick question about the dual chambered pipe, does it give more bottom end torque or power? I'm looking to gain a little more power on the bottom end, but I'm not exactly sure if the pipe is what I need. Would you guys recommend the pipe anyway? Thanks.

JPHRacer

Go to RB concepts website http://www.rbproducts.com/ and check out a pic of their x-12 non turbo crank. This came from one of my mt12 that I did.

The more volume the exhaust system can hold the more low-end you will gain. The less volume the more Hp you will get. If you add any exhaust port timing you need to add exhaust volume. This is done by adding header gap or bigger pipe. But the ntc3's biggest pipe is the stock one. Hope this helps.

InitialD

Well, the biggest pipe is also the smallest That's what Rody Roem complained that the NTC3 pipe cannot get smaller than the stock to create more RPMs. To offset this, bigger pinnions were used.

Corse-R

You can do a little thing: cutting the manifold. I have 2 manifolds: one with 5mm long removed, other with 3/8" (9mm) removed, you can gain high end doing this. If you wanted less high end and more low-end (rip) let the manifold in their stock lenght.

If anyone X12 user wants a turbo crank, have two possibilities: Talk with Smeltz or Dennis Ritchey (Dennis, where are thou?) or buy directly an RB item number: 1700-067/R (the crank that comes with the X12 5t 'modified by Rody').

Im2lazy

I think an aftermarket company should get into making different pipes for the TC3. I think that would be a good idea because so many people hav ethe TC3 and some don't really like them much. So there would be quite a niche for producing NTC3 pipes.

Corse-R

Uhm... this may be considered flaming but...

I have my NTC3 from more than 6 months. First of all I needed to change the single chamber to a dual chamber pipe and got disqualified on the first race I attended with them (bummer!) .

Changed to a dual chamber and got an improvement from the single chamber. Many people is whining about the NTC3 pipe. I find that is a very good pipe, unusual in their configuration but very good (have you seen the photos from the official drivers at the worlds?). The NTC3 pipe is quite good, is adjustable you can change their lenght and you modify their power curve. Shorten the manifold and see the increase on performance at high rpms. Need of low-end rip? left at their stock lenght (I blew a foam tyre from a dead stop start).

Improving the NTC3 exhaust is quite easy, first remove the lip of the manifold where connects with the engine and see a performance improvement. No need to fire bucks getting more power to your car, only a dremel.

Corse-R

Going to my LHS I found these part for the NTC3. Is a set of polished and hardened hinge pins.

Ever I blamed for the nasty quality of the hinge pins of the TC3 and the NTC3, now I've found a quality replacement of them, the only 'flaw' is the shortest of them (those who are located on the rear upper A-arm) who are a little shorter, but no hamper on performance.

If you need to replace them, see them and note the difference of quality...

They can be seen at yokomousa.com website and go to the new products section at the (09/2002 page).

Aeon Racer

I've never had any trouble with the hingepins in my TC3/NTC3. I've seen others have problems, but I seem to have strayed away from them. I still have the original hinge pins from my TC3 when I got it November of 98 or 99, I don't remember anymore. I know it was the 1st set of TC3 kits to ship. I still have the original ones in my NTC3 as well, which I've had since March of 2002. Though I did manage to finally bust a diff case last week with a HARD HARD smack to the wall after a little battle for 1st place on the front stretch (outpowered the guy coming onto the stretch, made it around him and then got taken out police car chase style, oops ).

Anyhoo, I've been playing around with the engine/muffler and have found some interesting stuff. With a few modifications (a few that are listed here) the car seems to have gained quite a bit more power. I can't wait to take it out to the Western World's in Tuscon on the 9th. Any of you guys by chance gonna make it out?

And I agree with you on the stock NTC3 pipe; it's an awesome pipe. I haven't really had any problems with it. It gives the engine great power; the thing sounds like a beast coming down the front stretch. Mmmm, nitro.