SJMILLER

Hello all,
Ok, here is a question that is impossible to answer, but I would like some feedback anyway :-) I bought my savage 2 full years ago. I have run probably 10-15 gallons of fuel through it with a lot of bashing and racing. Today I had a major engine failure. I haven't broke it down yet but I turn the flywheel and no compression, so I either broke the shaft or the CR. Is this a long or short motor life for these engines? I have the rtr 25. I have airplane motors that I have ran for 10 years. I know that this is a different environment so that is why I am curious what kind of life expectency these things have in our trucks. I will have to decide if i want to rebuild, replace, or get the new 4.6 kit. Any input? Thanks!

badd_maxx.25

sounds to have lasted a good amount of time. I normally get about 10-12 gal in mine

DaveG55

The normal average I read about is 12 - 15 gallons. You always hear about engines dieing at 2 gallons and 20 - 25. Personally, I'd be happy to get 10 gallons through one and happier to get 15. I do have one OS .10 in a car that is 19 years old that stills runs strong but it probably only has maybe 4 gallons total through it.
You could rebuild the .25 but you'll spend at least $75 on p/s & conrod. If you need bearings, which you probably do, you'll be up around $100.
HPI has their engine exchange program where you could get a brand new .25 for $99 or the 4.6 for $149. Also, if you look on e-bay you can usually pick up a Mach.26 for $120 - $130. That's a very nice motor in the Savage. I'm breaking one in and cannot keep the wheels on the ground even running break in rich. One thing though, with the 4.6 you'll have to get a new roto start system as the one for the .25 is not compatable. I think that it's because it rotates the wrong way so it may be possable to switch the motor wires to get it to work but I'm not sure. With the Mach, to get the rotostart to work, you'll have to tap new mounting holes into the engine backplate, which is not hard.

SJMILLER

Thanks for the replies! I am running the truck with some of my friends and we have kept them as stock as possible so that the racing is even so I will want to go with the original nitro star 25 back in. Where can I find some info about this HPI engine exchange, I didn't see anything on their webpage, am I missing it?

Thanks!

DaveG55

Darn, that thing is hard to find!!!! Took me longer to find it for ya than I thought.
It's under "Hop Up parts" under engines at the bottom of the page, and not prominate at all. Anyway, here...
http://www.hpiracing.com/index2.htm

SJMILLER

Wow, you weren't kidding.. They sure aren't pushing that offer very hard are they? Thanks for finding for me, that a pretty good deal I think I will give it a shot.