Hotled

++UPDATE++ It charged both cells to 4.20 then started beeping so all is good!

NachoRTR

Today I finished painting my new body! The one that came with the truck is now completely destroyed :P This isn ot an HPI body so I am surprised that it fits, but it is a bit short. SORRY for giant images i dont know how to make them smaller :c

Hotled

Well I had a full day with my FS yesterday and now I can genuinely vouch for it's toughness.
I beat the living crap out of this thing banging off jumps,fences multiple cartwheels.......not 1 break! Lucky I guess!
My buddy's nitro rustler broke 4 parts and had to stop every 5 minutes for fuel while I was getting 40+ minutes on my batteries.
He is now buying a firestorm
A picture of the fun:

Hotled

Today I dropped in the 77-tooth spur gear and 35-tooth pinion...all I can say is HOLY CRAP! Almost not drivable it so fast.

tooth-less

Have you tried it on 3s yet ?

Hotled

Broke my first parts today. Stripped the 77-tooth spur gear-no big deal there it was my fault setting it.
The first break on parts- Front right Upright.
I am very surprised more hasn't broken I have really been mistreating this thing with multiple cartwheels and even a about a 40mph head-on with a concrete curb- Tbone bumpers saved me I think.
Ordered from Dollar Hobbyz- HPI 1/10 E-Firestorm 10T Flux Front Uprights, Rear Hub Carriers & 8 Bearings x 2.

Hotled

One thing I have noticed- the front end seems very light under power when racing on a oval, it is extremely hard to get the right front to bite in a turn. I have adjusted the shocks as far as they go and it helped but not by much
I think adding a different type of front tire maybe with a heavier rim to get more down force?
Anyone maybe think a shock upgrade would help? If so what type/brand- please add a link if you can.

eaterofdog

My Feedback: (1)

What a pain it was to fit this. Works great though, motor never gets hot even with fast gearing in the sun.

Hotled

Nice I know with the 77x35 setup my motor was getting pretty darn warm until I stripped that spur lol.
I think I'm gonna make the firestorm into a dedicated street hot rod and get a sc10 or something for the track since this firestorm suffers from severe understeer

tooth-less

Read the same thing about the Blitz..........not true.

Hotled

And this was helpful how? I know what I am seeing on the track...if you have the fix then fess up please.

tooth-less

It will be very helpful What beside spinning the shock collars have you done to lead to this conclusion ? Have you tried different shock oil, shock pistons, removed the 2mm spacer on the shock shaft (adds droop),different springs , roll center adjustments ? Not too mention Gear diff oil or toe blocks all of which effect handling.

I race off road in dirt and will be happy to share my setup with you if you like.

Hotled

Tooth-less please do share. I am very new to setting these things up and yes I am seeing a definite issue on our track. I cannot get any front end bite to help make the high speed bank left hand turn.
The only thing I have tried is shock adjustment. I have been looking for setups and parts online for say- shock replacements/springs...but it's a bit overwhelming because I don't know what fits this model or if shocks and springs are universal fit or proprietary.

Any expert advice you have is very much appreciated. Our track is a high speed banked oval dirt/clay.

Hotled

I was thinking about ditching the stock front tires to help with grip- think that may help ? If so what would be your suggestion?
An aftermarket shock change ?

RustyUs

90% of a good setup is tire choice, IMO, when at a track and want grip, you're gonna need some soft tires. Those stock tires are probably a medium compound; made to last longer. Don't throw in the towel yet Hotled.

tooth-less

Far from an expert but dont care to help at all. Sorry if I came across as an

I am not familiar with oval racing at all but the very first thing I do is find out what tires the "fast guys" are using. Then I would study this RC Tuning Guide Lots of good info to read on.

As a reference you can use Associated springs on the e-fire shocks
Rears: Higher the number stiffer the spring
6481 Black 1.740 lb.
6480 Green 1.900 lb.
6478 Silver 2.100 lb.
6482 Gray 2.330 lb.
7434 Blue 2.550 lb.
7435 Gold 2.750 lb.
7436 Red 3.030 lb.

Fronts:
7426 Black 2.765 lb.
7427 Green 2.990 lb.
7428 Silver 3.225 lb.
7429 Blue 3.450 lb.
7425 Gold 3.700 lb.
7430 Red 3.900 lb.

Shock upgrades ? Personally just put 22SCT shocks on my Blitz and the E-fire will be getting a set very,very soon

First change I would make besides tires is remove the 2mm limiter in the left front shock (more droop) and change the Gear diff oil to say 40wt shock oil. That will allow the rear end to free up and rotate better.

tooth-less

Blitz with 22SCT shocks. E-fire will be getting these in the near future. Please excuse the mess, day after race day and still trying to get things cleaned up

Hotled

This isnt competitive racing, this is a back yard oval with friends, just trying to get it to turn a bit better. I'm already faster than the other guys just a control issue now lol
Those shocks are like 54.99 a set if I saw the correct ones?

tooth-less

Yeah they are pricey...got mine on fleabay for 39.99 a pair. Worth every penny to me as we have some big jumps and they soak up everything so much better than the HPI stock or ESE shocks ever did. The Pro-line Pro-spec shocks look like good performers also.

Well the e-fire has all the adjustments you need to make it handle better or to your liking. No truck, buggy or otherwise is dialed out of the box regardless of what the internet says

wanna_be_racer

Heyya fellas. Long time, no speak.
I've finally finished my on-going rebuild of the Storm. I believe it's been over a year since I last posted here. After spending far too much in plastics, everything from the main chassis right down to the little shock spacers that go in the top and bottom eyes, She's back in action....almost. As of about an hour ago, the reconstruction is complete. Still need a replacement Rx/Tx, but that's all that's lacking. The Storm has spent the better part of nearly 18 months torn down completely, stored in an old tackle box I keep around. I have now learned that you should take the time to drive down to the hardware store that is literally 4 minutes away for proper M2 screws, rather than using whatever you have lying around. Doing so ruined roughly 60% of the main plastics on my poor Storm. As I was forced into my complete overhaul, I slimmed down my wishlist on TowerHobbies and AMain by getting a few of my long sought aluminum parts, (Pics further down) and eliminated a few I've decided are pointless. Without any more delay...
TA-DA!


She's back. And with the original body, which is admittedly all but dead... My hobby room is an absolute mess. This rebuild occupied most of the floor, as table space has been delegated to a computer I've been rebuilding for some side cash. The rest of the room is occupied by the tear downs of the rest of my fleet of RCs. I figure while I'm babying the Storm, might as well spread the love to my other long neglected nitros.



Figure I'll start with the tires I've opted for. These are the stock tires off of a Helion Dominus 10TR truggy. By comparison, they are not standard 2.2's, but neither are they 2.8's. They are somewhere in between. My measurements put the rims at 2.4 or there abouts. And when compared to a set of 2.2 Dirthawgs I had lying around, they are obviously bigger. I can't find much info on the net about them. Looking around at HobbyTown, where the Helion brand is based, they only sell pre-mounted tires as replacements for roughly 24$ a pair, which is fairly cheap for pre-mounts from a store judging by my price scouting. They are regular 12mm hex, just have to use 12mm hubs such as those the Blitz uses rather than the type to the Storm comes with. I like the size of these better than the 2.8 Desperado/Badlands combo I had. Wayyy less girth to them, and look more natural on the Storm. Those 2.8's went on the Dom when I saw how well the Dom's stock wheels looked on the Storm, so a simple swap was made. Here's another pic for some more perspective:


Like I mentioned, I did purchase some aluminum bits for this rebuild. Most for bling factor more than anything. An STRC front a-arm brace as well as the matching STRC light-weight motor mount. I also went to Integy for some things: the large aluminum front bumper, aluminum rear skid plate and aluminum motor guard. I find the other non-HPI bumpers ridiculous looking, such as RPM and T-Bone. I'm sure they work great, I just don't like how they look. Only reason I aluminumed the rear was more for protection of the motor during wheelies than anything. I really dinged up the can of the Castle 5700 I was utilizing (more on the motor swap in a minute), and wanted to eliminate a repeat scenario. As well as some of the mentioned bling.



Also, I caught a deal from RC Screwz for 50% off the E-Firestorm stainless kits they offer. So, as I wanted to make sure I had all the correct screws this time, I picked one up. Now, I have a bit to say about these kits: Firstly, they are very good kits in terms of what's included. Literally everything you could possibly need to completely replace all screws, washers, and nuts, and still have extras. Now for the but... But, these stainless screws, mainly the button heads and counter sunk, are very easy to strip out. I really only ran into this problem when trying to thread into fresh plastic on the new parts. After having to scrap 2 stainless button heads from trying to thread 1 hole, I grabbed a similar sized old cap head to thread the plastic and then put the stainless button head in place. After I found this worked, it was smooth sailing but slower.
I really like the look the stainless screws have with the black plastic the Storm has. Just my personal opinion.

I mentioned I'm no longer using the Castle Creations 5700kv 1410 motor and Mamba Max Pro system. Since the Storm was in a million and one pieces, I took the stock system out of the Dom after a while, and tried to the CC set up in there on 3s. It's much more mello than the same set up on 3s was in the Storm. I attribute this largely due to the added weight, the larger stance, and it's 4wd. It still achieves what I'd eyeball as 65+ mph, but it's actually controllable...sorta. The Dom came with a Radient Reaktor 3500kv system; a 3s capable ESC. Pictured, you can see my ESC with a fan on it. This did not come on my version of the Reaktor, as the new models to. That fan is actually from the Castle Creations motor cooler. I had one on the Storm for a while when it was running, but one bad jump cracked the case. Upon recent inspection, I found the fan was still good, but the plastic shroud that clips around the motor was junk. I looked up the specs on the new model Reaktor ESC, and found they mount the fan by simply running M2 cap heads between the cooling fins on the ESC. So that's exactly what I did with my fan. The ESC already had a 2-pin plug for a fan to be installed. I just snipped that off and hardwired right to the ESC so it's always running. You can see a reasonably good picture of the ESC in one of the above.

I remember posting a while back about using hub extensions to widen the stance of the Storm. Well today, I found exactly what I've been looking for in a random eBay search.



These are technically for an Axial Wraith crawler. But, they should thread right on to the Storm axles. These particular ones widen the stance at each wheel by 17mm. (34mm total added width front and rear) I caught them used for less than 10$ shipped, so even if they turn out to not work how I hoped, it wasn't much money wasted. I figure it'll just give the storm a more aggressive stance. Couple that with a wee bit of ride height lowering with fuel tubing, and I believe I'll have achieved the look I've been going for. I saw a previous post about someone using Dynamite Robber's on their storm. I really really like the way those look, but feel the offset of the wheels aren't quite right. For doing insane speed runs on 3s with street tires, I feel these will help and would allow the use of some of the zero offset foam tires out there.

I know I typed a lot. Gotta make up for all the time I've missed out on. Anywho. Hopefully I can be on here more. We shall see.
Happy Storms, people.

P.S. Hey Nitro-Rob.

NachoRTR

That's a nice looking storm! Has many upgrades i want .-. The body turned out very good looking. All you have to do now is remove that dirty tamiya plug from your esc!! haha

wanna_be_racer

Thank you. I didn't paint that body. It was the original that came with it, which is why its all but falling apart. I actually have the Storm with me here at work so I can put deans on the ESC. So it is scheduled lol

wanna_be_racer

Update: I still have not mastered putting deans on. My soldering skills are very much lacking...but after a second pair of hands, I finally got it hooked up right. I stoke the 2.4ghz rx/tx out of my Dom since its getting a new slipper, and used it for the time being. The 3500kv Reaktor is very Mello on 87/19 gearing with 2s. Very controllable. I don't have a good 3s lipo at the moment, but that's planned on. From dead stop, the front wheels barely pick up on launch. On dirt or short grass, I think this will be a very good set up for just some bashing fun. The tires absorb 90% of bumps on the pavement around work. All in all, I'm very happy with how this current build and set up is working. Maybe I get get a good video and post a link here sometime.
Cheers.

orangutanklaus

hey guys - after 15 years i'm trying to get back into rc cars again and today i will buy an used hpi e-firestorm with 2 x 2s lipos and a brushed motor 17t.

after reading and watching about this model for the last days it came out pretty clear that i want to switch to a brushless system and replace some hpi parts for more reliability.
i will get the RPM bearings and arms but im more then confused about the motor setup ... on what will work with my car and what should i look for! for example - would this setup work for me? or should i go with a smaller one like this? do i need to change the gears as well?

i would be more then thankful if somebody could help me out!

thanks

Hotled

My firestorm has been removed from the track and is now a dedicated basher. It just takes such a beating and keeps going.
I joined a club and they race SCT oval and modified oval. Since it was to hard to convert the storm to a SCT I decided to grab a Losi that was on sale paired with a Neu Castle V3 5700