Breaking in a New Moter at Altitude

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Captain Crompton

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3
I just bought a HPI Trophy 3.5 and I can't get the engine to run long enough to break it in. Heck, I'll be lucky if I can get it to start at all. This is my first nitro buggy but I have owned electric cars for years. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. The altitude is about 4500 ft and the average temp this week was 55F.

I have a brand new Igniter and battery, new gallon of 20% fuel, Carburetor has been oiled and I preheat the engine with a blow dryer. I have not touched the carb needles and have been following various other forums methods to start a new engine. However, none of these forums discuss starting and breaking in the engine at higher altitudes.

I have sent a support ticket into HPI yet have not received any reply (it's only been two days). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I'm not a pro but, if its 55 out, I would get a heat gun and a temp gun and heat motor up to 150 if you can even,. 200. that will help emensly in starting, check glow plug make sure its brite red when in glow igniter,,,,,take glow plug out of motor, then put it in ignitor. ignitor may be dead also. I woiuld check these things first.
 
take your airfilter off and look down the throat of the carb you will se a ) as he carb closes. use a 1mm allen wrench here
----->) and snug the idle screw. that should get you close to a decent idle.you may need to close the gap a bit more after break-in. if i am confusing you,
check those other needle settings and make sure they are set to break-in settings.the settings should be in the manual
at 55 degrees to 60 degrees you should be ok to break it in if you plan on doing the figure8 type break in. you arent going to be going that fast in the beginning, anyway. just monitor your temps so you don't get it too warm. 250-270 are good temps
always store your engine with the piston at the bottom of the stroke so you don't squish out the cylinder pinch
http://rcvehicles.about.com/od/nitromaintenance/f/breakin.htm
 
one fall on 55-60 degree days i broke in a Picco P3 and a Novarossi 28-7rt. I think over the course of a week i ran a gallon through each motor in savages at the local swimming pool parkinglot. after the first few tanks, i could feel at what operating temp the motors "woke up"(lost their sluggishness) if mind serves me right the picco woke up at about 240 and the nova a tad higher. picco i think still needs a gallon or 2 more before its completely broke in. the nova i believe is broke in completely. for a cycling breakin, i always strived for a steady temp around 200.
picco is still real tight and the nova seems kinda loose in comparison.
 
take your airfilter off and look down the throat of the carb you will se a ) as he carb closes. use a 1mm allen wrench here
----->) and snug the idle screw. that should get you close to a decent idle.you may need to close the gap a bit more after break-in. if i am confusing you,
check those other needle settings and make sure they are set to break-in settings.the settings should be in the manual
at 55 degrees to 60 degrees you should be ok to break it in if you plan on doing the figure8 type break in. you arent going to be going that fast in the beginning, anyway. just monitor your temps so you don't get it too warm. 250-270 are good temps
always store your engine with the piston at the bottom of the stroke so you don't squish out the cylinder pinch
http://rcvehicles.about.com/od/nitromaintenance/f/breakin.htm


Okay... I followed these directions and the motor turned over. Yay! However, the engine began to pick up speed without me even touching the throttle. So I paniced and put my finger over the carb and killed it. Now it won't start again. What do I do about the racing engine after it starts? I didn't want to let it run because I am paranoid about doing damage to a brand new engine.
 
there are 2 trim knobs on your transmitter
one for throttle, one for steering
turn the throttle one with the engine running one way or another to slow it down
 
Do not use the trim to set your idle... set up the linkage as described in the manual and always sue the IDLE screw to set the idle to your needs......
 
My point was, his trim may have gotten mistakenly turned.


I use my trim to fatten my idle at startup.
Once my idle screw is set it never gets touched.
What a headache to be constantly adjusting the idle screw
 
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