PULL THE AIR FILTER OFF AND OIL IT before you even try to start the engine, "Taiwan Timmy" hates filter oil, makes his hands slippery and he cant hold his chopsticks properly. I know this sounds racist a little, but I am so tired of these people that assemble these cars skipping a step to pump out more volume.
+1 on what Joe said, run the Lucas Semi-Synthetic. I run it in my KM car and like it. Mix it at 25:1 with 87 or better octane fuel. Try to stay away from "ethanol" as it can degrade the fuel lines faster.
Heat cycle the engine twice. 10 minutes at a time then let it cool fully back to ambient temp (outside temp, duh!). After that finish out the 1st tank with light use, don't go over half throttle, see how fast it will go, impress your friends. don't do it, you will regreet it fast.
Pull the filter off before you even start it, 99% chance it has NO oil on it, you will instantly suck dirt into your new engine, mess up the cylinder lining and kill the life. I trusted KM built them right and paid for it, I had to rebuild the top end on mine, but I wanted to go 29cc anyways, it was a wash for me, but cost me $60.
The shock assembly is wrong, they don't put the E-Clips in that stop down travel and allows the groove to enter the o-ring area (but the clips are in the spare parts bag, go figure), this will rip the o-ring quick and cause the shock to leak. DO NOT use silicon shock oil as you did in your 1/10th or 1/8th scale cars, use HPI Baja shock oil. It is similar to what they run in full size motorcycles. The shock pistons were designed for the oil weights, which are different than silicon oils. If you decide to take the shocks apart and add the clips (which you should) put the rounded edge of the clip facing up, this will keep it from dislodging when the shock is fully extended.
The dogbone boots are most likely dry. Take some time to remove them and grease the billows well or just chuck them in the garbage and put Hostile boots on from the start. Hostile boots are a pain to install, they are a thick rubber and are tight on the pins, but once they are on, they are going to last and last and last. Run the Hostile boots on the inner outdrives and the stock boots on the outer axles.
I tore my transmission down, the diff was filled with what seemed to be 3 in 1 machine oil. Refill it with Losi 3000wt if you are going to just use the car for bashing around your favorite dirt hole.
Check your needle settings, they WILL be wrong. lightly seat them (clockwise) and then turn the rear one (low speed) out 1.25-1.5 turns. Turn the front one (high speed) out 1.5-2 turns.
Thread lock! The only place I have found it so far from the factory was on the clutch bolts. Basically, ANY screw that goes into metal, you need thread lock on it!
I am not trying to disway you from these cars. Like I said, I have the same car you bought and love it greatly, I just want to try to point you towards the things that need corrected to make the car perform better and make you happy with your purchase. I hope some of this information will help you. Welcome to 1/5th scales, they are an awesome and fun new world. Make friends with EBay or your local hobby shop that sells Baja parts, say goodbye to your money, these things are expensive!
ok so i just read the hpi manual and it said u don't need to break it in. So i'm confused??
