New 32cc Reed Case engine from China

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I installed a 32cc type on Rovan's T5 truck (MCD W5 SCT clone). It feels very good, but I think you should be careful when assembling the clutch and flywheel.

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Bolted the engine back together with the hybrid crankshaft ( DDM Zenoah stuffed crank cheeks , Original slotted and drilled con rod), lightly ported the cylinder and cleaned all casting flash out of ports : fitted new Akill lightned piston with port window .
Pasted all gaskets with Yamabond on build up.
Bolted to mt test stand and it fired right up on fourth pull .
Seems very smoothe and responsive.
Running a few tanks of fuel through it at the moment and tuning the carb.
Initial impressions are very good.
 
Awesome posts! I'm glad you took the leap on 1. I've been eyeing that engine as an eventual replacement for my 36cc. How do you think it would've done if you just ran it in the condition you received it? 11hp lol or reliable replacement anyway?
 
Had the engine running on my test bed again today , seems very very nice runner and great starter. I think it is very well made out of the box , big bearings and slotted con rod , carbon reeds and so on : I only changed the crank and piston as I wanted stuffed crank for less crankcase volume , and piston because I wanted a port window in it . Ports just need a bit of clean up and knife edge , removed quite a bit for casting flash out of ports , but absolutely worth the price .
I know loads of people on here will hat it as it is not made in the USA , but I don`t care.

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Not sure about 11 HP , but seems very clean running and crisp on take up . I have a 36 rovan , and it feels much more lively.
going to run it on my SC truck this spring , so will see how it goes.
 
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Dunc2504 said:
Made the stand from a bit of 3mm stainless and some anti vibration feet at work . I just start them and leave them running , give them a bit of a rev every now and then.
Makes break in and initial adjustments so easy.
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I could easily do that. Plenty of " scrap " material at work. Might need to get some feet.
Easy enough. Thanks for the idea.
 
To me this is sort of like the predator engines from Harbor Fright.
There is no way on earth that there is an engine that is produced in the USA for anywhere close to this price wise same goes for the RC stuff.

Granted the quality is also probably not as good but as far as bang for the buck we really don't have any other options unless you want to pony up for the top shelf stuff.
 
smokinwheel said:
To me this is sort of like the predator engines from Harbor Fright.
There is no way on earth that there is an engine that is produced in the USA for anywhere close to this price wise same goes for the RC stuff.

Granted the quality is also probably not as good but as far as bang for the buck we really don't have any other options unless you want to pony up for the top shelf stuff.
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I feel about these like I do about counterfeit chainsaws. Farmertech, NeoTech ect. If I can purchase a higher quality unit, I will. Stihl, Echo, Dolmar and Husqvarna. For RC cars its going to be either Husqvarna owned /Japanese made Zenoah or Taylor made in the UK. I don't look down on someone for going the clone route, it's their money, their toy. For me, especially with saws, I'll buy a used genuine unit and fix it before going clone.
 
smokinwheel said:
Would you consider Zenoa a clone or does this sit on top shelf with something like Taylor?
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Im pretty confident that Zenoah IS the original. Way way back in the 1/4 scale Raco Jac-rabbit days those cars ran Zenoah engines. The Traxxas monster buggy came with 23cc Zenoah engines. At least the two I bought did. Taylor is pretty recent in comparison. But not a clone. CY (Chung Yang) is the first Zenoah clone I remember seeing way back. I believe the Original fuelie HPI Baja engine was CY.
 
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smokinwheel said:
Would you consider Zenoa a clone or does this sit on top shelf with something like Taylor?
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Zenoah was it's own company for many years, husqvarna bought them out for their stratto tech back around 2007. Fourtabtly husqy has mostly let them alone to their own device with rc engines. 100% Japanese engineering. In saw land we got then as redmax, some of the smaller husqy saws are carbon copies just in orange. The 543xp for example is a gz4350 which is the updated gz400, which is the updated g3800. All good designed saws. Not much changed in rc land till the g320 came out. It was agame changer for production engines.
 
smokinwheel said:
Even Zenoah is reasonably priced.
Thanks for schooling me.
Didn't know they have been around for so long.
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They were Kamatsu Zenoah way back when I got into the hobby.
Seandonato73 said:
Zenoah was it's own company for many years, husqvarna bought them out for their stratto tech back around 2007. Fourtabtly husqy has mostly let them alone to their own device with rc engines. 100% Japanese engineering. In saw land we got then as redmax, some of the smaller husqy saws are carbon copies just in orange. The 543xp for example is a gz4350 which is the updated gz400, which is the updated g3800. All good designed saws. Not much changed in rc land till the g320 came out. It was agame changer for production engines.
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Funny you mention that. Towards the end of last year I bought a new Husqvarna 543xp and the RedMax GZ4350. I never even put a bar on the RedMax. A porter out of Wisconsin purchased it. I just sold the XP to my nephew last week. It was supposed to get some extra sausage in April but now I'm taking him my second MS241 to be done. I did some minor mods to the 543xp before I sold it. Muffler mod, velocity stack and Spyder filter form DDM. It ran pretty good like this.
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jeepfreak1972 said:
They were Kamatsu Zenoah way back when I got into the hobby.

Funny you mention that. Towards the end of last year I bought a new Husqvarna 543xp and the RedMax GZ4350. I never even put a bar on the RedMax. A porter out of Wisconsin purchased it. I just sold the XP to my nephew last week. It was supposed to get some extra sausage in April but now I'm taking him my second MS241 to be done. I did some minor mods to the 543xp before I sold it. Muffler mod, velocity stack and Spyder filter form DDM. It ran pretty good like this.
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I just finished a light mod, on an oe husqy cylinder for an neojunk 843 this weekend. Had a heck of a time getting the intake to seal. Ended up pulling the cylinder and fount the intake flange wasn't machined flat. (Yes on the husqy/ zenoah cylinder!) Did some hand filing on it, got it to seal up. Runs pretty well for what it is. If I can grab a 4350 for a decent price I'd like to compare the two. It ran like total crap with the neojunk cylinder. I still think my gz4000 will smoke it in the wood. It's a little screamer.

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