Does the Flash tuned come pre broken in from the factory?

I have a nova 353 '09 which i bought recently. i have run this engine in as per book + extra special treatment after i heard that the bearings in these engines are faulty.

i ran tornado 16% with an added 3% castor oil (total of 11.6%) i also ran the engine with Runnertime 16% once it was broken in. i always ran an oiled air filter, always after runed with the same after run i have used for the last 5 years (auto transmission fluid). I also inspected the engine every so often.

it's fair to say, nothing was spared, unfortunately the bearing in my engine died after about maybe 3.5 to 4 litres of fuel.

there is definately an isse with the current 353 09 bearings. all users of this engine at my track (that i know of) have suffered this issue.

what is the deal? i've had metal sheilded bearing engines in the past without this problem...so why now? (from memory the RB C12 had a metal sheild, same as some of the older novas back in the days)

is it because the balls are facing outwards? the nova based MAX engines from the SL3 series had the bearings facing towards the inside, and also had a rubber seal, yet the 353 '09 has the balls towards the outside and a metal sheild, is this the cause of the problem? or is it a dodgy batch of bearings?

what is the deal with this? i know it doesn't cost much to buy a good bearing rubber sealed, but that's not the point. If you buy a ferrari, do you expect that you will have to change a major engine part after only 1000km of use?

i was lucky to suffer no damage. the engine did run rich on the low end with the original bearing, yet when they new one was installed with the same tune and a new conrod it ran noticably leaner, just a weird thing i noticed. i run on a clean track by the way with a grass infeild, i don't hit the grass any more or less than your average joe (meaning i do go off, but i don't live on the grass either)

how do you know when the bearing is shot? is just that is not moving freely all the way?

trust me you will notice. it feels very notchy, and the engine just stops performing.

feel the bearing after every race day (the outside, and the inside individualy with your finger) it will feel notchy, or rough, or gritty if it is either dead, or about to die.

if the internal ceramic bearing feels rough or notchy (it should be totally smooth) then change it ASAP if the ceramic blows it will destroy the internals of the engine.

i think it is mainly the outside (small bearing) that dies though.

A bad mainbearing can cause several things:

- An extra scratching noise
- when tuned at best performance it will suddenly stalls
- when tuned at best performance it will blow glowplugs.

A bad frontbearing can cause:
- tuningsproblems
- leaking oil.

ok thanks for the heads up, as i thought it should feel notchy

Roelof, i instyalled a RB rubber sealed bearing and it seems to leak more than the original Nova bearing, any reason for this?

I do not know. A leaking frontbearing when standing still filled with afterrun is normal with every bearing. The sleeve in the crankshaft togeather with the smal hole in the crankcase at the frontbearing is creating some underpressure so fuel will not spit out, maybe the rubber seal is disturbing this system.

on what operating temp we're looking at to get the optimum speed and performance?

It varies on ambiant temp, clutch and stuff BUT just tune to smoke and use the temp gun as a referance, if its smoking at 280 and running strong than leave it, but to answer your q, mine is at or around 240 when running good

When i realize that the front bearing was failing, i started looking for an rb front bearing and i haven't found it. seams that rb doesn't have the exact meassure of the original's 353 front one, which meassure is if i'm not wrong 11.8 x 5.3, forgive me if i'm wrong with this, but from what i found from rb they only had 11.7 or 11.9 i hope this helps

oww ok? are you sure? i don't notice any up and down movement. i hope you are wrong

can anyone verify this?

353 bearing measurement:
Rear bearing measurement is 11.9 x 21.4 x 5.3mm
Front Bearing measurement is 7 x 18 x 5.3mm available in both metal shield and Rubber shield all bearings are OEM Nova Rossi bearings.
Rb uses Nova Rossi bearings.

Just got my 09 353! It came with an extra top end needle...can anybody tell me why?

i had a bad problem...

yesterday i've check my Flash .21 engine...open the back plate and found rust at my con rod and main bearing...can anybody advise me what should i do...???actually i've ran that engine every 2 week...

i'm using tornado fuel 25%...

is it not good to used that fuel...???