visioneer_one

My Feedback: (506)

After swearing up and down that I'd never again mess with cars (had a bad experience with an RC10T2 that broke constantly) I spent a little time driving a clubmate's T-Maxx a week ago. I promptly ordered one.

Got some questions and observations regarding fuel.

The first person here that got a T-Maxx has had his for almost a year. He had all sorts of problems with the engine, as it would run hot and quit after a bit. He was running his on our 'standard' club fuel - Red Max 15% nitro / 20% synth oil airplane fuel, and never tried anything else.

When the second guy got his truck he also ran it on the club fuel - and had the same problems.

As an experiment he picked up a quart of O'Donnell 20% R2R fuel and tried that. The truck was transformed - it ran perfectly - no overheating, no flameouts, etc.

The first fellow tried that fuel in his truck and got great results. He was heard saying "This is the first time I've ever run a full tank of fuel without it quitting."

Anyway. We were out at the field last Sunday running the trucks again, and were running low on the O'Donnell fuel. I suggested they try my YS-blended fuel - 30% nitro, 21.5% oil. Lousy results! No amount of tweaking could keep the engines running.

We switched back to the O'Donnell fuel - the trucks again ran perfectly.

Two tanks later and we were out of the O'Donnell fuel. The store that sells it closed early on Sundays, so no resuply there.

Someone suggested that we try running some Cool Power 15% Heli fuel. We fueled the trucks up, fired up the engines -

and the trucks ran perfectly! Apart from leaning the low needle a bit no tuning was necessary - they ran great.

After doing a bit of research it appears that the Cool Power Heli fuel consists of 15% nitro and 17% synthetic oil. The O'Donnell fuel has either 14% or 16% oil.

It seems that these little engines prefer a fuel with less oil than we airplane guys are used to!

Issues:
- The store that sells the O'Donnell fuel locally charges $17 bucks for a quart and $40 for a gallon.
- He doesn't sell Cool Power fuel at all.
- There is no other place on-island that sells fuel - I place orders for 6+ cases to Red Max a couple of times a year and import it myself.
- Cool Power isn't sold direct - only to retailers - so I can't just order a bunch for the club.

I'm not about to pay $40bucksagallon for O'Donnell fuel. That's almost twice the cost of the stuff I import!

I'm about to place another fuel order. Red Max does offer a car blend - its got 12% oil - but I haven't read of anyone using it. Red Max can also blend me up anything I want, but I'd hate to get stuck with a case of something that doesn't work!

I'd really prefer to find an existing airplane or heli fuel blend that works as well as the Cool Power Heli stuff does. I've noticed that Wildcat "Premium" fuel has a listed oil content of 16% - is anyone using this fuel with any success?

scottm

I have used Cool power 20% nitro heli fuel before, which I think is 18% oil. It smoked like crazy compaired to my normal fuel, 20% Odonnel. I don't know why plane fuel has more oil, but it doesn't work as well in cars.

Homebrewer

My Feedback: (8)

I run airplane/heli (they are the same for most part) fuel in my nitro car and my engines run great. My current mix of fuels causes my fuel mix to have 22.5% nitro and 20% oil. Runs great, idles great, transition great-NO problem.

If I can run my .061 engines on 20-25% straight castor, there is no reason why I can't run my .25 Nitro Star engine on 20% oil. I think its all in the tuner's ability.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

I've tried Powermaster 15% nitro w/ 18% oil (1/3 of that castor) and it makes a little more smoke out the pipe, and the transition isn't quite as crisp. But at $14.99 a gal. it's cheaper, so it depends on what you want I guess. The Monster Horsepower 25% makes a little more power, and transition is crisper, but it only has 12% oil, and I don't feel comfortable w/ that low an oil content. I've been told that they use a better quality oil, so 12% is enough, but...I have noticed that the engines I've been running on it have less compression and sound looser after only about a quart ea. (and it's almost 10 bucks a gal. more) Seems to me that about 16% oil would be a good compromise, and personally, I think 20% nitro is about all that I need. I've used 20% Blue Thunder w/ 16% oil, and so far for me seems to be pretty good, but I don't particularly care for the blue residue inside the engine. BTW the engines involved are O.S. .15CV-RX, Force .12, TRX .15, TT.21PRO, and XTM .247...

visioneer_one

My Feedback: (506)

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Things are a bit clearer now. I've decided not to order Red Max fuel - I read their MSDS and realized that propylene oxide (a Lovely Carcinogen) is one of the components they use.

Going to order Wildcat fuel instead.

I'm still wondering if their "Premium" fuel will work OK. They also offer a car blend, but I'd really rather order just plane fuel...