Kev’s Bench: Top 5 Nitro Tips

Kev’s Bench: Top 5 Nitro Tips

Kev

There’s nothing cooler than running a nitro powered vehicle. They produce a lot of power and have the smell and sound of a real vehicle. With any vehicle there are always tips and tricks that you can use to make your experience a little bit better. Here the top give tips and tricks that I used on my nitro vehicles to extend their life and easier to run.

 

Use After Run Oil

When you’re done running your nitro vehicle you don’t want to just put it on the shelf and walk away. Moisture  in your engine can cause metal parts such as the crankshaft and bearings to rust over time and this can cause damage to your engine. When you’re done running for the day, make sure you empty the fuel tank and run the engine to get all of the fuel out of the fuel line and carburetor. Remove the glow plug and air filter (after removing any debris in the area with a toothbrush) and place a few drops of after run oil in each hole. Replace the air filter and glow plug and turn the engine  over a few times to coat the inside of the engine.

After run oil

Double Up On The Exhaust Springs

A lot of vehicles use a spring to keep the exhaust attached to the engine. Over time the spring can weaken and when your exhaust takes a hit it won’t always be able to keep the header where it needs to be and you’ll end up with an exhaust leak at the worst possible time. If you double up on the springs you’ll never have to worry about a loose header ever again. Most headers have two holes for the springs but if they don’t you can simply drill an extra set with a small drill bit.

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Seal The High Speed Needle Assembly

O-rings seal the carburetor, back plate, and needles on your engine and keep air from entering and messing up the air/fuel settings on your engine. There is one place however that isn’t sealed and can be the cause of an air leak. The fuel inlet on the high speed needle is designed to be rotated to the ideal position for the vehicle that the engine is mounted in and it’s sealed by compression. A variance in the two surfaces that it mates with can cause a small air leak and make tuning your engine a bit of a headache. Once you know where the inlet needs to be, remove the high speed needle assembly and place a small amount of O2 safe gasket sealanton the bottom and top of the inlet. You only need enough to coat the surface; any more can clog the fuel system.

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Put a hook on your throttle linkage

Sometimes you want to fire your engine to give it a quick tune or to see if it’s running correctly and to do that you have to make sure you’re receiver pack is installed and turned on and get your radio and power it up. If you put a small bend on the end of your throttle linkage you can hold the servo arm while pulling the carb open with your finger and run the engine without the need of a radio and so on.

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Buy Spray Air Filter Oil

In order to get the best performance out of your engine you need to clean and reoil the air filter after every run. If you don’t run your nitro vehicle that often you will be good with buying a bottle of air filter oil from your local hobby shop but if you run often or are racing (where you should clean your filter after every qualifier) you’ll be cleaning and oiling that filter more often and that is when buying air filter oil can get expensive. Head over to your local motorcycle dealership and pick up a can of spray air filter oil; You get a lot of oil for your money.

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Updated: July 19, 2016 — 11:02 AM
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