When you have the engine started make sure its not trying to drive at idle (wheels should not spin when you pick the r/c up) If they do you have clutch problems.

LOL , too much torque at low rpm. :lol: j/k

Just kidding, I agree its the clutch itself.

i adjusted the idle and the wheels were not turning and the truck was not pushing or trying to go, plus right now is so rich that even if i give it gas with the control it won't move. the last spur (3rd one) last it longer than the first 2. like i said i ordered all new clutch and cb, bearings etc. oh and 5 more spur gears just in case.

very very very strange. I really hope its just a bad bearing but to melt your spur is so wierd. I would like to see a vid of it running and melting the spur.
if its not a bearing I am stumped :weird: :weird: :weird:

NEW sts .28 here
 

I got my new sts.28 in today and installed it on my Savage. I had to modify a few things, but I have it working now. I put after run oil in before ever pulling crank rope, this really helped.The compression is unreal on this motor. Then I ran 6, two minute cycles with the engine. After this point I started driveing the truck around a little giving it 1/4 to 1/2 throttle. I find the motor to be reved a little high at idle. I am certain that this is due to how rich I am running the motor. Tomorrow I will lean down 1/16 turns at a time to get the idle right. I cant wait to see this bad boy RIP!! The motor sounds awesome.. I like the look to, It is really going to look good passing those T-Maxxes :sneaky: I am sure that it will make some of the fellas around kinda pissed. Oh well they should have purchased a sts...
Thanks for all of the help on here. I will keep you guys updated on the progress of the truck.

You might want to turn the idle screw down a bit. #210510 in the exploded parts diagram. (turn counterclockwise)

Also check the throttle idle position on the radio.

what did you have to modify on your savage? is a direct fit! I put mine in and i didn't have to modify anything, at least not yet.

modify
 

I had to modify the holes for the engine mounts.(where it bolts to the body) The engine had to move forward and left. I just drimmeled the holes longer and wider. However today the CRANKROPE spring broke :flaming: . I am so upset with that. I tested the string length and never exceded that length. I thought that for sure the rope was broken but after dissasembling the crank rope case, I discovered the spring had broken about 2 inches into the wind. I tried to repair but the spring just kept breaking. so guess what its time to contact my sts rep..And get a new one. The motor has only about 1 quart through it. The spring should have lasted longer than that. I am sure that it was just a bad spring. But never the less I am still impressed with the power of the motor. I hope to be up and running by saturday, mabey monday pending shipping of a new pullrope. I am ready to lean this motor down a little and start rippin it.

I normally only pull the pull-string a few inches out of the pull-start, just leave your arm stationary and normally a quick wrist flick. Going over half the length is overkill.

Were you pulling it almost all the way out?

Also its best to get 2 quarts through the motor before you start leaning it out. You can test if its ready when you take out the glow-plug (be sure the motor is always completely clean near the glow-plug when removing it or dirt can easily fall in or get stuck in threads and gasket) and turn the flywheel over by hand. Go to TDC and past , if there isnt any signifcant friction or just a little snug you can then start leaning in small incriments each half tank. Usually 1/12th a turn will do.

Be sure to keep the motor under 250F and smoking nicely. I usually tune for power and turn back 1/8th a turn richer to provide good power with ample fuel and cooling.

pull rope
 

Of coarse I did not yank and jank on the pull rope but I did use it to crank the motor. The compression is increadable on this beast. I am sure that is what broke the spring. The crank rope did not break just the recoil spring. The best thing to do is to replace it with a ROTO START :nod: I even tried to loosen the plug a bit to crank then tighten back up, that didnt work either. The only time the compression is any good is when the plugs out. I believe, according to looking at my gallon I have used about 3/8 of a gallon on the settings that the motor came with (out of the box settings). Also? What or when or even do I remove the shims? I run 20% nitro. Another problem with the savage I noticed tonight, The fuel tank is to close to the crank rope and it put a small hole in the tank due to friction. I had another tank to install on it, but this is a problem that I noticed. Roto start is the only way to go.. Keep the post comeing guys and thanks for the help.

Hi, This is my 1st posting here so I would like to say hello all.....

I have recently installed a sts.28 in my savage.... I have broken it in with approximately 4ltrs of 20% nitro through it.... I managed to break 2 pull starters 1st was spring the 2nd one the plastic part the string wraps around split at the knott.... I switched to a Roto start back plate... but this also broke a gear inside.... I was able to use the gear out of my HPI roto start back plate.... Although these are no longer problems, I do have a problem that has been a issue since new.... that is a sticky throttle, Dino recommended pulling it down and cleaning it. Which I did..... although it seems better it remains to be sticky.... I have now removed the throttle return spring which has also helped but not completely fixed the problem.....

Has anyone else had a sticky carb throttle?? As I see I share starter problems... thanks for any pointers

u ran in ur engine for 4 litre of fuel???? wat are u crazy or sumthing????????????????????????

no hes not crazy. just cautiuos, it takes about 3/4 of a gallon before it really starts to come alive.

come alive
 

I will be glad when I get my new parts so that I can make my motor come alive.(roto start- pull start sucks!!) I leaned it down about 1/8 to 1/4 turn already and I have noticed an increadable amount of power gain. My friend did a temp reading yesterday and I was running around 260f after running 1 tank of fuel through it.( this is after the break in process) I did all that was reccomended by sts and you guys for break in. I am sure that I should use more 50-80 percent throttle before going full blast. There is no drag when I turn the motor over without a plug in it. I did notice that the motor , while running rich, likes glow plugs. I have replaced 3, #3 plugs already in less than 1/2 gallon of gas. This weekend should be the final break in process of the truck, after Sunday I should have 3/4 to 1 gallon through the motor. But I still dont see this sts28 pullin the wheels off of the ground on a heavy savage. Just my opinion. I am happy with the motor, However I guess the
OS 21 will be passin me up. Thats bad to let a Tmaxx pass you... :flaming:

the sts properly tuned and with a good clutch will flip the savage on its lid when it shifts to second gear. I have done it.

take it apart and clean it it may have something in it.. also make sure your
linkages and servo settings are correct as well

flip
 

We will see ryan. Seeing is believeing. I believe the motor is strong but not that strong. I hope you are correct.. Break in time = hp. Make me a believer. I have a 3 peice clutch and metal gears. If it does that in 2nd gear, first gear should be bad a**.. :sneaky:

Yeah I highly doubt a .21 os is faster. This motor is one of the top performing monster truck motors. From what Ive seen in dynos it beats out the S27S sirio motor which retails for $309. At half the cost I would say its a winner.

Also do you still think its running rich. Temping to 260F is pretty hot , how was the temperature outside? Have you given it 100% throttle?

I would richen the high-speed needle a little. Also after the motor sits for 15 seconds and you gun the throttle does it bog?

I thought that 3/4 of a Gallon was about the norm for breaking in a engine.... Well mine is ruuning great as far as engine goes.... my main issue now is trying to get third gear.... I am only getting one gear change... I have screwed third gear setting all the way in to confirm it was second that I could hear shifting.... it was... even with just hitting second my tyres ballon so I can't wait to hit third gear..... My 180degree extractor has a dent in it now aswell.... in your opinions would this create excessive heat in the exhaust? the rubber coupler between extractor and tuned exhaust is turning all soft from the heat.... is that normal? I never noticed it before now .... ohwell time to pull down for the millionth time :nod: lol

depends on how bad it is dented wether it will cause problems. also replace that manifold gasket and use two springs to hold the exhaust tighter it will help the gasket last longer

heat
 

I believe that the sts .28 will outrun the os. 21. I have been in the break in process but the crank rope is totally gone now. As far as the temp its always hot and humid here, the day I checked the temp it was 75degrees with 100% humidity. Mabey I need to richen it up a little. I have been using info that I obtained on here to set the motor with and emailed info. Later next week I am going to run the savage sts against the tmaxx os21. Hopefully I will finish the break in process on monday or tuesday and be ready for the weekend. I am going to try new settings on my tranny for better whole shots. I will keep you guys posted to my break in and future race. I lookforward to eating a tmaxx... Just my opinions though..

you need to remember that top speed and take off power is not just engine alone. you need to consider the power to weight ratio. the final drive train ratio. tire size, etc. I used race my mammoth against savages they would beat me off the line but my 2nd gear final drive ratio was so high that in a long straight i could pass them with ease. If you are just running short distances gear your truck low for greater power off the line. and the gear it high if you are doing long straights. If your racing him at a dirt track find a gearing combo that gives you plenty of grunt coming out of the corners but lets you run the straight with out running out of rpms. also do what you can to lighten up your truck as much as possible without sacrificing durability.

ok, so i replaced the cb for a vented 18 teeth cb, new bearings, new aluminum clutch shoes with stiff really stiff springs, started up and run another savaga tank of fuel, it did not melt the spur gear but the cb it still fills warm or a little hot, is this normal? or is not supposed to get hot at all?
when i put it together all the clutch the cb spins really good, no bearing getting stock or anything.

hey i didn't have to modify anything on my savage to make this engine fit? what are you people talking about? the only thing that will need to be change is to 4 spider gears, aluminum diff cases, heavy duty dog bones and everything else.

break-in my STS .28 today follow the instruction manuel. I had went through 6X2minute heat cycle and run 8 buggy tanks of fuel, I lean up my LSN for 1/2 turn and 1 turn on HSN, still feel rich on the top end(not much speed increasement between 1/3 and full throtal, my working temp on pavement is less then 150F, using 20% o'donnal fual with O.S hot plug . is my engine still too rich?

[QUOTE=tmaxxeater] My friend did a temp reading yesterday and I was running around 260f after running 1 tank of fuel through it.( this is after the break in process) QUOTE]

I think that is still too hot, I would reach it a little bit.

are you running the 4mm shims on the head? maybe you can removed the 1mm, that might help.
are you spilling a lot of fuel? i broke mine in with around 4 turns on the HSN and I leaned it to around 3.25 turns, I haven't touch the LSN yet.

hey all I need a bit of advice from someone in the know
i keep stripping the small gear on the roto start and after replacing it about 8 times (i wont go into it but its probably mostly my fault) i want to change it for a Sullivan Tiger Drive only thing is i dont know which one can anyone help me out see HERE

what one will fit my sts motor i use a drill start for a few other cars and i like it that way i feel the rotostart is a bit toyish

i checked and there isnt one listed specificly for the sts but i am sure one will fit and i dont mind having to madify it to make it work aslong as i can get the closes one for it to begin with

thanks
Doug

get rid of the os plug and use a mcoy mc59 the OS is too short. do that before doing any more tuning but it does sound like you will need to lean the HSN in some more.

check savage central I read post on there about someone getting a tigerdrive to work,

hey Dude, my roto start blew a gear aswell... lucky for me it was the small one and I was able to use the one that came with my LE with no further problems.... hope that you can also get away with this to save a few bucks... cheers

you guys want it so here it is
 

My opinion of the STS .28. I believe that the power is definetly great on the motor. I finally got mine set pretty good, and yes it does pull the wheels of a savage off of the ground in first and second gear. As far as the pull start it is better than the roto start. I put my roto start on today and NEVER got to crank my truck with it, before the little gear turned into ashes. That tells me that I wasted my money on the rotostart and that its a peice of SH**!!! I will never put on a sts roto start on my motor again (unless they upgrade it). I will keep on wasteing my time with the crank rope problems, At least the pull rope is cheap. I could not believe that this thing could not even crank my truck 1 time.. unreal... It looks like dino will have to work on this. Overall rateing of the motor is great, I would say 8 out of 10, It would be a 10 with a better starting system. I will race the os21 tmaxx this weekend with it, Lets see how she holds up. I will keep my opinions comeing, I do not work for sts so these opinions are from the regular guy that has to buy his parts and keep paying for repairs. Thanks for the sts, but it needs some work. However you get what you pay for. Remember that....

I drove the savage today, one more tank of fuel, this should be my third one, im still breaking in so i got to take it easy but this motor is behaiving really well so far, it doesn't die or idle bad, temp are staying around 190* to 210*, my pull start is holding pretty good, i pull it around 2 to 3" max and my truck starts easy, a big factor on messing up your pull start is pulling it out too much and too hard, if you tune your engine right it should start no problem, but just incase i ordered a spare, i don't want to ruin a day of racing because i don't have a spare.
I want to run at least 2 more tanks taking it easy before i go full throtle.

Oscar.

just so you know the small gear is available seperate and the small gear out of a hpi roto will work in it as well.

right
 

Ryan, I am sure that you are correct. But sts should do research on the roto starts before selling them. You would be kind of aggrivated if you got yours in and it did not even crank your motor once. Thats 20bucks down the drain and 4 days of waiting. Its all good as you say, I may check into the hpi rotostart gear. Thanks for the info.

Thanks for any suggestion. We are always listening...

It is not because of the small gears,it is because our engine has too big compression. It may happen when your engine use not more than one gallon of fuel. When the first gallon,the compression is too big. Everytime you start the engine,you need to loosen the grow plug a little. About half turn is enough. Then try to start the engine. Once the engine is started,tighten the plug soon.

I'm sorry because we want to produce a race level pull start engine,so we give you the race level piston/sleeve set. We want your engine lasting longer under serious situation. But it do make the engine hard to start no matter pull-start or roto-start. Remember to loosen the plug would help. We just don't want to produce RTR level engine,it's not our style.

You can check your engine,when you remove the plug it is very smooth. Once the plug installed it is unbelievable tight! It is a standard of a race engine. Maybe we should give you more shims but a lot of people don't know they need to remove shims after break-in....that's why we don't give you extra shims lately...but the gears issue pop-out....

Best Regards,
Dino

I have a feeling the motor was stuck at TDC when youve been trying to start the motor. The motor must be un-stuck before trying to crank it any method or the weak point will break and the crank and rod arent going anywhere anytime soon.

I have to do the same with my STS motors on my starter box or the rubber wheel will wear quickly. Get it un-stuck then start it , otherwise you will break stuff.

On my old cv-r long time ago. I had to sometimes take the motor completely apart and tap down the piston with a wooden dowell on a paper towell. I would never try to unstick a motor with a pull-start or especially rotostart.

You cant even get them to barely move via the flywheel and a wrench. So I can only imagine what a small roto gear or pull-start is taking.

STS motor is tight , heat it up with hairdryer and loosen glow-plug for the first start of the day and make sure its completely not stuck. It should turn over fairly easy then without broken pull-start cords and rotostarts.

Its a new motor which is the hardest time on starting components. Afterwards it will be fine if you use the precautions.

problem
 

Hey Guys the motor turned over once or twice before the gears turned to dust. I do not believe that I am dumb whan it comes to rc. Yes I am a rookie but No dummie. I do apprechate all of the help from you guys. I did have the glowplug loose. If I loosen it anymore I will have to just remove it. I am not nocking the sts I believe that its an awesome motor I just think it has some bugs that needs to be worked out. Like the starting system. today I will try the hpi gear and let you know how that worked. Thanks again.

Dino, maybe you can explain on your instructions that you need to removed the shims AFTER breaking, I went to break mine in and I didn't know if i had to removed them before or after, I had to come here and ask. Most people might know but now newbies....like me!
just trying to help out.
Great engine i have to say!

Because he hasnt added on extra shims and therefore you wont need to do that. He is just explaining that he should add extra shims to allieviate the hard starting but then people wont know what to take out after break-in.

I don't get it. I have never had a pullstart break. Ever. My .28m was crazy tight when new, I could pick up my truck if not careful. And mine is HEAVY.
I rate this engine as a 10. My old rb was not this nice at $300.00.

Pullstarts are an item that is easily abused. That's why they don't last. As Dino said, this is a race-level engine. The compression when new is crazy. No pullstart will take hard yanks of the cord. I say way to go STS!! I wish my past engines were this nice, especially for what I spent on them.

Dino: Maybe a more serious caution should be added to the instructions.

ozpall: My instructions have shim recommendations. Do the new ones not have that?? (not sarcastic) The instructions do not say "after beak-in change to this" and maybe they should.