im doing it as precaution my mill was perfect also i had no dirt in my mill after i broke it down this week. Neil told me to do it i trust him he knows best

What other Novas besides the Bonito and Roma is having this same issue?

P5's and most likely the BTT also.. I don't think it's as common in the stockers as Neil's modifieds with case vacuum pressure. If you run a quality fuel with castor your also less likely to have issues with the front bearing leaking.

I recently had to get my P5 rebuilt sucking in dirt do to a bad front bearing. I wonder if this may have been the cause. I bought the motor used with 2 gals on it and I only put a gal on it so I dont know what kind of fuel the previous owner used. I use byrons 30/11.

Is the sleeve stock, or has it been modified?

In other words, is the engine "stock?" Apart from a modified crank or improved bearings?

When you guys do the nitro cleaner test behind the flywheel of the motor do you take the flywheel off and clean all the dirt and debris off of the front bearing and then put the flywheel back on and do the nitro cleaner test. Seems like if you didnt then your motor would suck alot of that debris in. I have a Nova 4btt stock with almost 5 gallons on it still has good compression but when I get it up to temps and let it sit on the box to idle it will only stay idling for about 10 to 12 seconds and then shutoff. Put all new fuel lines in, fairly new tank, sealed up with lucky 7, checked clutch shoes and springs so everything looks good. When I am out on the track there are no problems does not flame out but if I let it sit for more than about 12 seconds it will shut off. Does it sound like I could have a bad front bearing I know there are alot of variables but I have been racing for a while now and it is not the tune plenty of smoke bottom to top and temps are in the 230-240 range. Any help would be appreciated. Oh yeah this is on a losi buggy with nova 2096/41021.

So the bottom isn't to rich and a slightly higher idle? My Nova's will idle the whole tank. Not sure about anyone else.

No bottom is not too rich I had it a little lean cause it was lean bogging on the bottom slightly. I am about half a turn in from flush. I did try to lean it more on the top and when I did that, doing runs down the straight it was staying reved up for a little too long so I backed the top end down until that went away. I could just need to turn the idle up more but when I did that and it was on the box it would stay at the high rev after I gave it full throttle for about 4 seconds. I dont know I am at a loss this is not first Nova either have had all the plus 4's. I am thinking about doing the nitro cleaner test and want to know do I need to clean the dirt off the front bearing before I do the test dont want to suck more dirt in and cause any damage.

The motor is stock. I had ceramics brgs put in during the rebuild.

In comparison to the 17011 the bearing that comes in the p5xlt is subpar , thats the real issue , nova installed these bearings on many of the higher end engines in between the time that they were switching brng manufacturers and were supposed to have the 17011 ,this has caused some issues as the bearing just has a bad sealing capability , it would be a good bearing for a gallon or two at most but would blow oil out and suck dirt in as crankcase pressures ebb and flow in the block . Solution : put 17011 front bearing in your engine , its the best front bearing on the market , no question

Castor oil is good for your engine ;)

Yeah Im aware of this bearing issue. I have ceramics installed in it now but to have piece of mind I'm going to get that intake hole sealed on my P5 and Bonito. BTW whats your thoughts on this hole possibly causing air leaks?

Just hit it with a blast with the flywheel attached if you have a lot of build up on the front bearing then its leaking .

This sounds more like a tuning issue problem to me and not a leaky bearing. Your bearing would have to be completely shot to effect the idle, not just a bad seal. However, the problems would become astronomical while actually running on the track. I have never in 11 years heard of issues that only manifest at idle speed and then go away while running at race temps and RPM's. It sounds to me like you have a slight blockage somewhere which would be more noticeable at low rpm because there is less pressure. Once your pipe starts creating good pressure its enough to push the fuel through the blockage. Take your carb apart and flush it and clean it well with small toothpick or similar and then re-assemble and try again. first check your tune, it may be as simple as your idle gap being too small. It could also be your pipe has a oil clog.

pipe
 

Just as a general rule, with a high rpm motor would you use a high rpm pipe? Just like a torque motor would use a low end pipe. Just generally speaking. I know there are a lot of variables that come into play.

1airborne

Has anyone ever tried the P5 P/S/R in the +4 with the +4 crank and case? I have good usable parts from both engines that can be combined if it works.