Originally Posted by
Jake C6R
I was running my OS Max .12TR turbo head yesterday. I finally got it tuned where it is running great! Good smoke, good throttle response, pinch test goes 4 seconds before it dies. I had leaned the HSN for max speed then richened it a little and the NTC3 was running great.
This engine always runs hot. After a couple of high speed runs I playing around doing some figure eights, spinning the wheels, not getting too much air over the head but not sitting still either.
Because it was running so well I thought I would check the temp and it was at 300. I drove it around a bit and it came back down to 270. But this engine runs like crap until 220 and really doesn't run well until about 240 or more. I tried richening it a bit to run cooler, and it did run cooler, but there was a big decrease in performance, so I had to lean it a little.
It seems I found the sweet spot as any richer and it does not run well. I am running a OS RP6 plug. The temp outside was about 78 so not hot at all. Do you think a RP7 turbo plug would make it run a little cooler, or just keep things as they are because it runs so well as it is?
Don't worry about the temperature too much; as long as you sees smoke when WOT/throttle, and the engine never 'coughs' (over-heat) after a few laps on a track, it's perfectly okay.
Use the temp gun only for reference like braking-in new engines to determine the engine is 'hot enough' for proper breaking-in.
RC glow engine is a 'mechanical' thing , break-in 5 same engines with the same nitro contents, plugs and same tunings, all will be in different temperatures.