Tricky’s 30DN Hoonigan Truck

[TrickyTris]

I figured I would start one of these build log threads so everything to do with my truck is in one place rather than scattered between threads

The Journey Begins
I purchased the RTR 30 Degree North Truck V2.0 29cc on January 10th from RCModelz UK and it arrived the next day. Nothing can prepare you for how big these trucks are if you’ve never owned a 5th Scale before!!

Like anyone would, I immediately began to put the body panels on the cage and get the wheels on so I could see it in all its glory.



I then spent the next 3 weeks buying parts & fitting some upgrades before even attempting to break-in the engine. I’ve always immediately jumped straight into firing new RC’s up to try them out, only for something to break or fail on the first few tanks. So I thought I’d make sure I got this one to a point where I knew every screw was thread locked & everything was oiled or greased properly from the get go.

First thing I bought was some ATOP alloy chassis braces, a pull start cover, air filter cover, a spoiler & some yellow beadlocks to go with my planned body wrap.





I then bought some diff & shock oils and changed those over. I ended up going with a 30k 100k 12k setup, which isn’t too far off my old 6s Hong Nor CRT X2-Pro Truggy which handled beautifully.

The shock oils I am yet to change as I couldn’t for the life of me get the shock caps off the shock body. They’ve been done up unholy tight. They appear to be oiled a nice amount & not too thin, so for now I’ve just adjusted the shock thread so the springs are a bit stiffer. I’ll attempt them again at a later date.

Then the body & chassis wrap arrived from Basher Skinz. I can’t recommend his wraps more, they’re pre-cut really nicely & excellent quality. I’ll definitely be buying more of them!





Along with the chassis wrap, I fitted some ATOP skid plates for additional protection.



I then fitted some shock socks, an ATOP fuel cap, Bonehead RC carbon cvd guards, Bonehead RC carbon number plates, tire painted the tire walls, some Monster and sponsor decals to the wing and some red bling throttle/brake collars.






The final thing to be added was a Dynamite Ignition Killswitch, which was a bit of a nightmare to get working. For some reason, the 30DN 29cc Ignition Coil uses a ring crimp on one of the wires instead of two spade connectors, which made trouble shooting the plug getting no spark a hassle. Turned out that while the coil came with the negative wire as a ring crimp, the killswitch requires the positive wire to fix where the ring crimp is attached. So I ended up having to re-wire the killswitch twice. I now officially hate ring crimps.



While wiring in the killswitch, I black heat shrinked all the wires as I hate seeing coloured wires around the radio tray and also fitted the LED light in the battery tray nicely.

After then setting up the wheel toe & camber properly (it was all over the place out the box) & checking end points, it was finally time to start the break-in process..

 

[TrickyTris]

Breaking In The Engine
Oh boy, having not seen or heard a 5th scale in the flesh in 10 years, nothing prepared me for how loud this thing is. Just while it was idling, I couldn’t stand next to it for long without my ears starting to ring!

The first few heat cycles at idle went smoothly, other than the pull start snapping on the third ever pull . Luckily it didn’t completely disappear into the pulley and I managed to re-tie it after getting the starter case off. She purred really nice and only needed a slight idle adjustment to bring the RPM’s down.

After finishing 4 heat cycles at idle for the break-in procedure, it was finally time to start driving it. The break-in instructions specified 3-4 runs at 1/4 to 1/2 throttle for 10-15mins.

Well, after 10 minutes of doing this the engine cut-out at 1/4 throttle and then refused to start again. Ended up giving up and taking it home to get the engine out and see what was wrong. Managed to at least get some pictures of it out in the wild.. Annoying it still got pretty dirty on the wet tarmac. Think I’ll have to look into some upgrades to keep the muck out better!





What was wrong with the engine had me stumped for a little while. No leaks. Bolts tight. Gaskets fine. Spark plug fine. Then while I was watching a YouTube video, the chap in it had a similar issue and looked at the top of his piston to find it was damaged. This made me take a look at mine, to find that the piston had damage on the top of the head. So the engine is now on its way back to RCModelz to be inspected and hopefully replaced.




Me being the impatient man I am though, decided to not wait and just buy the 30DN 38cc Engine instead. So that should now be with me tomorrow. I’ve also ordered a Rovan Easy Start & Flywheel kit to go with it.

Now just got to wait for the weekend so I can get it all setup & broken in!

 

[Dirty30J]

Nice truck! Just FYI, it’s a 2-stroke gas, not a nitro, best way to break in the engine is to just start driving it. You want that ring to seat quickly. Letting it idle like a nitro isn’t necessary, that’s just my 2 cents and everybody will do what they want to do anyway.
I think you will like your 38cc, smart move on the easy start. The 38cc loves breaking pull starts. Next upgrade would be a good filter, the stock 3 piece plastic one will start leaking eventually.

 

[TrickyTris]

Nice truck! Just FYI, it’s a 2-stroke gas, not a nitro, best way to break in the engine is to just start driving it. You want that ring to seat quickly. Letting it idle like a nitro isn’t necessary, that’s just my 2 cents and everybody will do what they want to do anyway.
I think you will like your 38cc, smart move on the easy start. The 38cc loves breaking pull starts. Next upgrade would be a good filter, the stock 3 piece plastic one will start leaking eventually.

Thank you bud!

Tbh, I feel like the break-in process they suggested on the 29cc is what aided to it destroying itself. It allowed a lot of oil to build up and the plug was on its way to being fouled after 4 15min heat cycles. There was a lot of burnt oil coming out the exhaust too! Think I may try your way, perhaps do a 10/15min idle & then just start driving it so I can get a good tune on it before it becomes an oily mess! 25:1 mix with such a rich factory tune & like 2hrs of breaking in does seem overkill. I beat the hell out of my 2-stroke gardening tools every day & they got a 5 min break-in at best

Any recommendations for filter upgrades that won’t interfere with the body/cage? I’d want one that can have an outerwear ideally, as I’ll be running in muddy & dusty areas.

 

[Dirty30J]

Thank you bud!

Tbh, I feel like the break-in process they suggested on the 29cc is what aided to it destroying itself. It allowed a lot of oil to build up and the plug was on its way to being fouled after 4 15min heat cycles. There was a lot of burnt oil coming out the exhaust too! Think I may try your way, perhaps do a 10/15min idle & then just start driving it so I can get a good tune on it before it becomes an oily mess! 25:1 mix with such a rich factory tune & like 2hrs of breaking in does seem overkill. I beat the hell out of my 2-stroke gardening tools every day & they got a 5 min break-in at best

Any recommendations for filter upgrades that won’t interfere with the body/cage? I’d want one that can have an outerwear ideally, as I’ll be running in muddy & dusty areas.

Let it idle till warm giving it some good revs to blow out some excess oil then just let her rip once it’s warmed up. Start on your factory needle settings, do some passes, and dial in the mix.
25:1 is heavy on oil but a lot of people run it. I like 50:1, 40:1 is also good too. Still plenty of oil.
I like this DT1 filter and you can get an outerwear for it.
https://www.rcmodelz.co.uk/dt1-dome-triple-stage-filter-for-losi-5ive.html

 

[Dirty30J]

Check out eastsiderc on YouTube, the guy is very good with his 2-stroke knowledge.
Beat it n seat it

 

[TrickyTris]

Let it idle till warm giving it some good revs to blow out some excess oil then just let her rip once it’s warmed up. Start on your factory needle settings, do some passes, and dial in the mix.
25:1 is heavy on oil but a lot of people run it. I like 50:1, 40:1 is also good too. Still plenty of oil.
I like this DT1 filter and you can get an outerwear for it.
https://www.rcmodelz.co.uk/dt1-dome-triple-stage-filter-for-losi-5ive.html

Legend! Thank you mate, that sounds like a plan! I’ll see how the tuning goes on 25:1 and go from there

I like the look of that filter, sounds like it’d be a good upgrade over the stock one so I’ll get one of those on order with an outerwear. The 38cc will be okay with the stock filter until arrives for now though yeah? I imagine a re-tune will be needed once fitted though due to the increased airflow..

Check out eastsiderc on YouTube, the guy is very good with his 2-stroke knowledge.
Beat it n seat it

I actually just came across him! Really positive guy and definitely seems to know his stuff. Saw he was using the 30DN 38cc and he had it shredding! I’ll definitely be adopting this beat it & seat it mentality from now on haha I saw he adds a couple extra copper crush washers to the spark plug too. Is that necessary?

 

[Dirty30J]

Legend! Thank you mate, that sounds like a plan! I’ll see how the tuning goes on 25:1 and go from there

I like the look of that filter, sounds like it’d be a good upgrade over the stock one so I’ll get one of those on order with an outerwear. The 38cc will be okay with the stock filter until arrives for now though yeah? I imagine a re-tune will be needed once fitted though due to the increased airflow..


I actually just came across him! Really positive guy and definitely seems to know his stuff. Saw he was using the 30DN 38cc and he had it shredding! I’ll definitely be adopting this beat it & seat it mentality from now on haha I saw he adds a couple extra copper crush washers to the spark plug too. Is that necessary?

I use the washers sometimes and sometimes I don’t.
The stock filter will be fine just check it often when you run in fine dirt. I noticed after pulling mine off to clean the filter and reinstalling it so many times that it started to become a little loose on the fit up, allowing fine dirt to creep very close to places it could enter the engine (potentially).

 

[Rep732]

Best way to break in the engine is let it warm up good then set the tune and hammer down.

 

[TrickyTris]

I use the washers sometimes and sometimes I don’t.
The stock filter will be fine just check it often when you run in fine dirt. I noticed after pulling mine off to clean the filter and reinstalling it so many times that it started to become a little loose on the fit up, allowing fine dirt to creep very close to places it could enter the engine (potentially).

Will keep a close eye on that, thanks bud! I’ve ordered the DT1 filter & cover so will replace it soon anyway

Best way to break in the engine is let it warm up good then set the tune and hammer down.

Definitely doing this. Getting a good tune might take a fair bit of tweaking though as it’s about 5-10c degrees here at the moment.

 

[TrickyTris]

New engine and goodies have arrived!




Going to make a start on stripping the bits I need off the old engine and get them onto the new one. Getting the pinion off is going to be fun as it appears to have been put on by the freakin’ Hulk!

Annoyingly, they told me the carb comes fitted but it clearly doesn’t. So now I have a couple questions..



Do I use both the white Teflon & black gaskets & in what order? Or do I only use one? Is there anything I need to pay close attention to when fitting the carb?

Edit: Nevermind, just noticed the white one has holes in it for the fuel injectors while the black doesn’t

 

[Dirty30J]

Use a little lock tite on the screws that hold the carb and manifold to the engine. I like the purple 222 but the blue is ok. Just a little goes a long way.

 

[TrickyTris]

Use a little lock tite on the screws that hold the carb and manifold to the engine. I like the purple 222 but the blue is ok. Just a little goes a long way.

Thanks mate, have got the carb on and used a bit of loctite!

Just got the flywheel off but now having a nightmare trying to get the little half moon pin off the shaft. They smashed it in wonky at the factory so it’s completely stuck Looking at the flywheel I’ve taken off, it’s gouged the hell out of where it sits on it. Just my luck this is.. Every video shows you being able to just pick it off with your fingers. Not even a pair of pliers is making it budge. Bit stuck at the moment!



Edit: Managed to get it off! Gave it a good tap with a thin flat head & mallet and it nudged it back in the middle of the slot so I could then pull the key out with some pliers! Phew!



Next up is fitting the killswitch. Just waiting for the new one to be delivered today, as the one off my other engine has been cut so short now that it pushes the Stop button out of the case when put together.

The ring crimp on the new engine is fitted to the top bolt this time right next to the spade. On the old engine it was fitted to the bottom screw. I’m guessing it makes no difference which it’s fitted to then? I’ll just make sure the ring crimp is on the positive wire this time.

 

[Dirty30J]

Thanks mate, have got the carb on and used a bit of loctite!

Just got the flywheel off but now having a nightmare trying to get the little half moon pin off the shaft. They smashed it in wonky at the factory so it’s completely stuck Looking at the flywheel I’ve taken off, it’s gouged the hell out of where it sits on it. Just my luck this is.. Every video shows you being able to just pick it off with your fingers. Not even a pair of pliers is making it budge. Bit stuck at the moment!

View attachment 108142

Edit: Managed to get it off! Gave it a good tap with a thin flat head & mallet and it nudged it back in the middle of the slot so I could then pull the key out with some pliers! Phew!

View attachment 108143

Next up is fitting the killswitch. Just waiting for the new one to be delivered today, as the one off my other engine has been cut so short now that it pushes the Stop button out of the case when put together.

The ring crimp on the new engine is fitted to the top bolt this time right next to the spade. On the old engine it was fitted to the bottom screw. I’m guessing it makes no difference which it’s fitted to then? I’ll just make sure the ring crimp is on the positive wire this time.

On my engine, the positive is a spade connector that is behind the coil, my ring terminal is on one of the coil mounting screws.
I don’t really think it matters as long as the relay in the killswitch can open the circuit.
I’m glad you got the thingy off. For the life of me I can’t even think of what it is called. If it was chewed up just put a new one on if you have one.
One more tip on that new easy start! I have seen people cut a small groove under the little arms of the pawl to allow dirt to get out. It was an ezzeetrade video.

 

[TrickyTris]

On my engine, the positive is a spade connector that is behind the coil, my ring terminal is on one of the coil mounting screws.
I don’t really think it matters as long as the relay in the killswitch can open the circuit.
I’m glad you got the thingy off. For the life of me I can’t even think of what it is called. If it was chewed up just put a new one on if you have one.
One more tip on that new easy start! I have seen people cut a small groove under the little arms of the pawl to allow dirt to get out. It was an ezzeetrade video.

Yeah the easy pull starter came with a new one, so wanted to make sure I used it. People seem to call them a ‘key’ on YouTube. Anyway, it’s all gone together nicely now & have the kill switch working & wired in, so happy days!

Interesting! I’ll try that mod out at some point I’m sure. I’ve literally just got it all back together & bolted down so I’ll wait until I next get the engine out or change something

One thing that was slightly annoying was the exhaust bolts need to be about 5-6mm shorter than on the 29cc engine. I had no suitable sized bolts so ended up having to stick a lock nut on each screw to shorten it for now. The throttle/brake needed setting up differently as well - the 38cc has a longer reach to close the butterfly against the idle screw.





Weather permitting, I’ll be taking it out tomorrow to “beat it & seat it”!

Any idea what the suggested starting carb settings are for the 38cc? The 29cc recommended settings were:

High 1 1/2 out from closed.
Low 1 1/4 out from closed.

 

[Dunc2504]

Settings should be nearly the same to start with.
I sanded the teflon gaskets on plate glass to ensure no air leaks and backed up the carb gasket with a paper gasket on each side

 

[TrickyTris]

Settings should be nearly the same to start with.
I sanded the teflon gaskets on plate glass to ensure no air leaks and backed up the carb gasket with a paper gasket on each side

Pukka, thanks!

Oh right, which paper gaskets did you use? I’ll keep an eye on the carb. Sounds like quite a lot isn’t perfect out the box with these engines.. gulp

I’m just praying this engine lasts and I get some actual use out of it this afternoon!

 

[TrickyTris]

Well, got a new problem.

Seems like the clutch is not engaging at all? Have I missed something I was supposed to do? I literally just bolted the clutch bell housing straight onto it.

The base settings for the carb were also well off. It was seriously bogging with 1/8 throttle. Ended up having to go with Low about 1 7/8 turns out and high 2 1/8 turns out. I could then set the idle better.

Also, is it normal to feel hot blowing around the top of the engine, near the exhaust/throttle servo. Exhaust is bolted on tight and there’s no signs of any leaking. Too high up to be a head gasket..

 

[Dunc2504]

Clutch won't engage till about 8000 rpm . you did put it on the right way round ? has arrows for direction of travel.
Engine sounds crisp enough.
Check exhaust gasket on port for leaks.
Just give it some beans on the ground , I just run them and let them cool to get a couple of heat cycles .
My Taylor cost over £600 and that is what it got.
Give it a run , you will soon know if anything is leaking coz of all the oily gunk on it.

 

[TrickyTris]

Thanks Dunc! As soon as I read that, I gave it some beans and the clutch kicked in. Man I feel stupid

The hot air I’m feeling appears to be coming from the exhaust pipe where the spring keeps it attached to the header. It’s not spewing oil or anything so I’m just going to assume it’s fine for now. I’ll try and get it sealed better at a later date as doesn’t seem to be effecting anything.

Managed to get a good tank of fuel through it this afternoon! Definitely advocate the ‘beat it & seat it’ method!

Only gave it a 1/4 turn or so leaner on the low & high so it didn’t completely bog out. Will get it dialled in when I’ve got the new air filter fitted & have more time. Think I’ll run it on the 25:1 mix until I run out and then I plan to go with a higher fuel ratio mix having watched EastsideRC’s videos.

Super happy that it’s finally running & actually usable! Big shoutout to all you guys who have helped me out!