how hard are they to tune ?

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jerryf

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altavista VA
hello i've been looking around here. I'm not sure what i want either the fg monster truck or hpi truck. The thing i'm most worried about is how hard they are to tune. I have had nitros for the last 10 years. Is it as eazy or harder to tune. I have read the how to tune post and i see checking your plug color is the best way.
 
the 2 you mention use good motors. which is a plus to start out wiht.

they have a low and high needle, and an idle adjust screw.

they are usually tuned to start, but tend to be a bit on the rich side.
tuning is pretty simple. the process is almost identical to nitro, but does have its differances, which are key.

1 is the needles flow opposite than a nitro. on a nitro motor, in most cases, gas flows into the carb thru the H needle, and you adjust the low needle to take what it needs from the flow thru the high, for low rpms and idle. on a gasser, the fuel comes into the carb and goes to the low needle first, then once the motor is around 1/3rd of throtle, the high needle then starts to flow as well, but not from the low, but via a 2nd path in the carb. this way one is not dependant on the other like a nitro is

2. the needles are much more sensitive to adjustments. on a nitro, sometimes it seems you have to give the screws large turns to see a differance in performance, where on a gasser, a small adjustment can be immediatly noticed. so when tuning, you want to tweek the needles by very small margins. 1/32nds to 1/18ths adjustments is what i recommend using when turning the screws. lil tweek, quick run to check out, lil tweek and quick run to check out. once i have it where i think im starting to lose performance from being to lean, i reset to where its good, then give it just a small (1/32) tweek rich. i prefer to stay a bit on the rich side for tuning personally.

4 once the needles are set, you can pretty much not worry about them. thats not to say a lil tweek here n there isnt called for and needed, but they are no where near as finicky as a nitro motor is.

as temps change, your motor will benefit from a tweek here and there.

5 same as nitro, maintenance is key.
clean airfilter system, properly oiled with greased ends to seal to the housings. outerwares airfilter bag is a must, even for onroad. good fuel and quality 2 stroke oil for fuel and lubrication, but much cheaper. abound $4 to mix a gallon of gas with 2stroke oil, compared to 35ish for nitro fuel

other than that, they are much more reliable motor wise. keep it clean breathing, and don't let things get loose bolts (carb manifold cylinder, plug, and exaust) can all become loose from time to time letting in, not oly air which leans out the fuel ratio, but could alllow dirt or other crap to get in causing failure.
 
thank you for your reply.I was worried about tuning. It sounds like i will be ok because the way i tune nitro is always small adjustments. what is a good quality oil. Should i be able to get it local or will i have to order it?
 
any motor sports shop should carry good 2 stroke oil. anyplace that sells quads and dirtbikes.

Maxima, Bel Rey, Klotz, Amsoil, Yamalube, are all good 2 stroke oils that are usually availale off the shelf.
 
jerryf said:
hello i've been looking around here. I'm not sure what i want either the fg monster truck or hpi truck. The thing i'm most worried about is how hard they are to tune. I have had nitros for the last 10 years. Is it as eazy or harder to tune. I have read the how to tune post and i see checking your plug color is the best way.
Click to expand...
They are not so critical as nitro to tune. I love it after more than 20 years of nitro racing.
 
Once you go gasser you'll never go back to nitro. Keep the 1/8 scales though for electric conversions. Those are way fun!



Chris
 
yea nitros are no fun, hard to tune somtimes won,t hold a tune, fuel that is very very exspensive, i could go on all day:clown::clown: it felt mad when i first got my baja not putting fuel in every 5 mins , and not really touched my carb settings in 5months,
 
Put it this way, I had never tuned a nitro until I got one. It took me ages to get it started first time, I had to tweak the needles on every run because of the temperature changes, and I killed it within a month due to running too lean in the cold.

I got fed up with having to re-tune, so got a gasser. It started first time (OK, was a bit smokey and rich, but dead easy). I've tuned it once in a whole year (which took less than 10 mins) and it still runs sweet. I only tweaked the needles once for the super cold winter we are having in the UK.

If I can keep a gasser running for a year when I can kill a nitro in a month then it must be easy!
 
I agree with all thats been said above mate. Me and Pablo ran Nitros for years and we look back now at all the time spent faffing , and NOT JUST PLAYING , and it was stupid !! We would never go back to nitros!
GASSERS RULE !! Dead easy to tune and just hours of un-interupted fun !:clown:
 
I have had my 5-t for a year now and have only tuned it one time after break in, when I switched to a different oil, I use Maxima 927, It always starts on the third or fourth pull and the plug color is a nice med brown.
 
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