votefordurden2008
01-09-2007, 06:32 PM
Hello all,
Introduction time! My name is Gabe, I've been into electric RC cars pretty much off and on my whole life. First real RC car was a monster beetle, ahhh how I loved that thing. Haven't been into RC for a few years now, so just to kill the RC temptation I bought a losi micro-T. EH, that thing broke so many times. I posted my trials and tribulations with that lil truck in great detail on one18th.com until finally I decided I needed a real RC vehicle. My friend has an associated RC gas car and I decided I wanted a gas vehicle. The search was on .......
I knew I wanted a monster truck, I just wasn't sure which one. All this talk at work inspired two co-workers to want gas monster trucks as well. One purchased a REVO 2.5 and the other purchased an MGT. Now the pressure was on for me. I never really liked traxxas. I have nothing against the REVO, I think its a fabulous truck. I just knew I wanted a lil something different... I searched and searched, read forum after forum.... then I saw a youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-4HGKCU3IU
If any of you savage folk haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Its the old savage skate park video HPI made. After viewing that and doing a ton of research I was 130% sure what I wanted. I started looking on ebay for a while then found a deal on another savage site in the classified section. X-SS for 315 that included shipping. Came with a JR radio, hitech high torque servo, cheap glow plug igniter, temp gun, cheap DC peak receiver pack charger, orion 1600 marathon pack, ofna failsafe and a nova cooling head. Transaction went smoothly and it arrived at my door shortly after.
The truck was pretty beat and very messy when I opened the box, plus it didn't have a body. I know he beat it pretty bad and looked like he didn't really try to service the truck frequently. So first thing I did was mix up some simple green/denatured alcohol 1 to 1 mix with a cap of wd-40 in it. Sprayed the hell out of it scrubbed it and had myself a decently clean truck. Found 1 bent dog bone, a broken A arm that was replaced with an old style upper A arm. All four tires had rips or holes in them, the exhaust was ready to fall off, the receiver wire was mangled, all 6 shocks (yes 6) were either empty or falling apart and the antenna top on the JR radio was broken off.
Took apart all the shocks, soaked them in simple green, rebuilt them and filled them properly with associated 40 weight (he threw that in as well). Soaked the springs which were chipping badly in aircraft paint stripper which left them a nice bare bronze color. Soldered myself a new JR replacement receiver wire and was ready to go. Got the truck started but it never ran at its best. It was running way too cold and was dripping fuel out of the mid needle. I started coming here to look for info and found the people in the shout box to be very helpful.
After a few more frustrating days with the engine and carb, not knowing how he broke it in or if he killed one or more of the needles. I decided to completely take apart the engine and carb. I cleaned everything with a healthy dose of wd40, put a light coat of white lithium on the o-rings and RTV'd the backplate to the engine. Also during disassembly I realized he didn't have any shims under the nova cooling head. I put the stock head back on with shims, slapped the engine back together and let her rip. Now I have a x-ss that cost me about 360 bucks that pops wheelies on command, hits second no problem and has a very nice top speed.
It was a much longer process tuning wise to get it there, but this introduction has already gone long enough. I think JT, hop, geo, RO and darkside are pretty much done hearing about my tuning problems anyway. I picked up a pair of X rims and tires, a old 25 body and a new unbuilt shock set all on the cheap. The truck is now at a status of where I'm happy with it and am ready to start slowly hoping it up. Wheelie bar is already incoming :) I painted the body today and I'm very happy with how it came out. I look forward to posting here and helping out where I can. I also just wanna go ahead and thank JT, Hop, Darkside, RO, Geo and anyone else I may have forgotten for all the help. Could not of gotten the truck where it is without you guys. AWWE group hug!! :p
Gabe
Introduction time! My name is Gabe, I've been into electric RC cars pretty much off and on my whole life. First real RC car was a monster beetle, ahhh how I loved that thing. Haven't been into RC for a few years now, so just to kill the RC temptation I bought a losi micro-T. EH, that thing broke so many times. I posted my trials and tribulations with that lil truck in great detail on one18th.com until finally I decided I needed a real RC vehicle. My friend has an associated RC gas car and I decided I wanted a gas vehicle. The search was on .......
I knew I wanted a monster truck, I just wasn't sure which one. All this talk at work inspired two co-workers to want gas monster trucks as well. One purchased a REVO 2.5 and the other purchased an MGT. Now the pressure was on for me. I never really liked traxxas. I have nothing against the REVO, I think its a fabulous truck. I just knew I wanted a lil something different... I searched and searched, read forum after forum.... then I saw a youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-4HGKCU3IU
If any of you savage folk haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Its the old savage skate park video HPI made. After viewing that and doing a ton of research I was 130% sure what I wanted. I started looking on ebay for a while then found a deal on another savage site in the classified section. X-SS for 315 that included shipping. Came with a JR radio, hitech high torque servo, cheap glow plug igniter, temp gun, cheap DC peak receiver pack charger, orion 1600 marathon pack, ofna failsafe and a nova cooling head. Transaction went smoothly and it arrived at my door shortly after.
The truck was pretty beat and very messy when I opened the box, plus it didn't have a body. I know he beat it pretty bad and looked like he didn't really try to service the truck frequently. So first thing I did was mix up some simple green/denatured alcohol 1 to 1 mix with a cap of wd-40 in it. Sprayed the hell out of it scrubbed it and had myself a decently clean truck. Found 1 bent dog bone, a broken A arm that was replaced with an old style upper A arm. All four tires had rips or holes in them, the exhaust was ready to fall off, the receiver wire was mangled, all 6 shocks (yes 6) were either empty or falling apart and the antenna top on the JR radio was broken off.
Took apart all the shocks, soaked them in simple green, rebuilt them and filled them properly with associated 40 weight (he threw that in as well). Soaked the springs which were chipping badly in aircraft paint stripper which left them a nice bare bronze color. Soldered myself a new JR replacement receiver wire and was ready to go. Got the truck started but it never ran at its best. It was running way too cold and was dripping fuel out of the mid needle. I started coming here to look for info and found the people in the shout box to be very helpful.
After a few more frustrating days with the engine and carb, not knowing how he broke it in or if he killed one or more of the needles. I decided to completely take apart the engine and carb. I cleaned everything with a healthy dose of wd40, put a light coat of white lithium on the o-rings and RTV'd the backplate to the engine. Also during disassembly I realized he didn't have any shims under the nova cooling head. I put the stock head back on with shims, slapped the engine back together and let her rip. Now I have a x-ss that cost me about 360 bucks that pops wheelies on command, hits second no problem and has a very nice top speed.
It was a much longer process tuning wise to get it there, but this introduction has already gone long enough. I think JT, hop, geo, RO and darkside are pretty much done hearing about my tuning problems anyway. I picked up a pair of X rims and tires, a old 25 body and a new unbuilt shock set all on the cheap. The truck is now at a status of where I'm happy with it and am ready to start slowly hoping it up. Wheelie bar is already incoming :) I painted the body today and I'm very happy with how it came out. I look forward to posting here and helping out where I can. I also just wanna go ahead and thank JT, Hop, Darkside, RO, Geo and anyone else I may have forgotten for all the help. Could not of gotten the truck where it is without you guys. AWWE group hug!! :p
Gabe