fathead

I use the standard pipe that comes with the car but modified into a superduper short 2 chamber pipe on my LRP Z12

AndyT ©

The Werks Racing pipes seem to be getting good reviews from people using them- www.werksracing.com
Combine one of these pipes with something like a Rody RB V12 and you`ll have some serious power on hand

loosenut

Sorry another question...it's about centax clutch? Worth the upgrade on ntc3?

G

Rody

I have tried a few pipes and found the RD Logics pipe seem to work best with my RB V12. It's probably the shortest pipe set you can get for the NTC3. All my otherpipes were OK down low but suffered top end. The RD Logics pipe is great all through the rev range.

Part number for the pipe is 61255

SNACKPACK

Hi Loosenut, a centax clutch is a great advantage when you start running high powered motors on high traction surfaces. I found that my two shoe clutch would slip a little when I ran my Rody. A centax clutch gave me much better acceleration and enabled me to run more gearing combinations. However I found that a lot more stress is placed on the drivetrain when using this type of clutch.
Hope this helps.

Solara

iTrader: (17)

I played with almost all the centax clutch that is available in the market, especially serpent mugne type centax, then cetnax 2 and 3 from Serpent......and I have never heard or seen ppl cut or drill the brown/black centax used clutch shoe (it serve no purposes at all except slipping, less contacting surface, less traction).........however, there are ppl DRILL or CUT the clutch shoes into 3 or 4 pieces, install them in reverse, to replace the original white flyweigh...........again, the flyweigh and the clutch spring are the only 2 items that I can think of ppl will drill or cut on CENTAX style clutch...

Beside, PORTER is refering on the OEM NTC3 2 shoes or 3 shoes clutch, since he is new to nitro, I doubt he is equipped with centax on his NTC3 now.

porter

iTrader: (47)

Yes I was refering to the stock 2 shoe clutch, that comes with the FTNTC3. So as far as I can tell, the biggest advantage to cutting, is to loose wieght, and have higher rpm at contact. Wich in my mind will also change the shift point, for running on a small track, wich is what I am running on, and the track is also fairly slippery. I had trouble getting the car to shift into 2nd, but I also had the stock gearing, wich could have been a little high, for my track.

Thanks everyone for your input, it helped alot

BigDogRacing

iTrader: (12)

Porter, changing the engaement of the motor clutch RPM's ( by lightening the shoes) will have no effect on the shift point of the 2nd gear. You must use the second gear adjusting screws to change that.

The bottom line is Rookie is correct- lightening the inside of the clutch shoes will increase the RPM of first gear engagement- putting the motor higher in it's torque curve which gives more punch and quicker acceleration on a high bite track. However, if you do this on a low bite track you can expect increased wheel spin and the car will want to "step out" getting back on power in low speed turns and transitions. This is why he pointed out that cluthc shoe tuning is done from track-to-track and not always the same; even when running the same motor. Fact is, if you are getting very close to a good tune for your track, the clutch shoe tunning may even change with track conditions. Here's an example- Last race I was working on tuning my car. The bite was coning up right before the A main so I put some shoes on that had already been cut more than I normally cut them. I was expecting plenty of bite... But at the same time I decided to run smaller diameter tires since the main would only be 15 minutes long. Sounds good, right? Well, it wasn't so good. Two reasons- first I didn't realize I was getting so close to being TOO light on the clutch shoes. The ones I had been running engaged right before the motor was starting to get high on the torque curve. Also, the smaller tires not only gave me more effective gearing (meaing a lower rollout) but the shorter sidewalls actually give less traction (which normally is good until they get excessively small). So I ended up having a car that was hard to drive in the main because the combination of higher gearing, less traction and more torque on clutch lockup caused my car to want to step out getting back on power. It's a perfect example of how your TOTAL combination needs to be just right and tuning one thing or the other can often affect other aspects of the car's tune.

Lesson I learned- when considering tuning my clutch engagement, I must also take the other factors that affect forward traction into consideration.

Hope this helped you and others...

Rookie- you are a trooper! I appreciate your time and efforts given to help the guys on these threads including myself. Thank you!

Rich Panganiban

iTrader: (72)

porter, if you run on a loose track a later engaging clutch will make your car a handful. You actually want the opposite, a clutch that engages a little sooner (it will make the "bottom" more driveable)

Cutting the clutch shoes lightens them effectively making the clutch spring heavier. This will cause the clutch to engage the bell at higher rpms. You can also use a heavier spring. The optional copper springs are heavier than the stock black clutch springs.

Hope that helps.

Solara

iTrader: (17)

Gee....Big dog, I am only sharing my experience, no where near to act as a GURU and teach others, every single day on the track, I am still learning, thats why I keep using "ROOKIE" Solara as my user name....20 years in RC, I am FAR from being a expert, not on the driving skill, nor on the RC tech skill....everyday is a good learning day.....

My thought about Racing RC car....jsut GET enough, and do not GET BEYOND, or MORE then enough.....when you gather all the ppls' best setup and dumps it all on your car, I garantee you, you will have a one F__K up car on the track........sometime, and most of the time, I slow car with perfect control and handling, will beat a pocket rocket with $400 mod motor in every single race........I know, cause I've been thru all those setup and things, and still, someone will a RTR NTC3 will drive almost as good as mine...........and that, made me mad, cause all the tech, options, and opinions are rubbish afterall.........

Solara

iTrader: (17)

I thought so too..........running Centax on NTc3 is STILL not the best option, unless you are like me, have plenty of time, care the less about DNS or DNF, quite a lot of money to waste........then try it.
I have several good tips that works for small track (around 100 by 120 or smaller)........
(1) use FRONT BALL DIFF, forget about the stock 1-way.
(2) try 20/24 instead of 21/25....or try 21/27 with 54/48 (I forgot what is the stock gearing for FTNTC3..? 21/27 with 54/48?)
(3) No need to use sway bar, remove them all...

The rest, you can follow the stock foam setup from your manuel.....

About setting the 2-speed, stock setting is 3-1/2 turns out, forget it, on small track, it will never shift. (150 or shorter).........I have a close to 200 foot straight and 3-1/2 turns out of setting, will shift almost at the 3/4 end of the staight, I ended up using 4-1/4 turns to 4-1/2 turns in order to shift at the point that I like....so you should set it up to 4-1/2 turns AT LEAST, test it an keep loosen it untill the point that you like.

AndyT ©

Yep thats the stock FT gearing

frank13

ok so i installed my centax, as per instructions, the kawahara one. And the gear mesh is not right!.. the gears on the centax, only seem to hit half of the spur gear!I wish my camera worked! It looks like i need about 4 mil longer to make it mesh perfect, can i add a spacer BEFORE the flywheel, to basically lengthen it? I AM using the factory team motor mounts, and a mugen MT-12 engine,,, it is the wierdest thing to see only one side of a spur wearing out!!!!


Thanks in advance
Frank

frank13

One more thing, I race on a very large track, will using the centax help or hurt me, or should i run the three shoe factory team clutch instead?

wangcc61

You can install washers before you install collet/flywheel so the 2nd Pinion gear and 2nd spur gear will have maximum contacting. But be careful, don't let the 2nd pinion gear touch the the 1st spur gear.

Running centax clutch is really good for high bite track, especially for the tracks that use VHT. That's my personal opinion....